J. Phil Thien's Projects

Well it took me long enough but I finally finished my top hat design built on a 55gal drum. The drum had a locking lid ring and I made sure to use that ring to secure the top hat on the drum. all pipe was 6" and material was a mix of ply and hardboard and 1/8" clear lexan. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
First I modified my Delta 50-760 to have a 6" inlet
I then created a template  for the drum so that the lip of hardboard would slide under the locking ring. From there I built up the circles for the bottom, dry and test if everything and then put it all together.
The result works great for keeping the tophat centered.
I have found that it doesn't do a good job with fine dust but I think that might be a result of the following items
1. not a tight seal on the system
2. drop slot location and width(measured to be 1.5" wide)
3. Thickness of baffle  even though I tapered it back.

Finished mine over the weekend and wasn't impressed with the amount of fines that got through. I did mess up and made my drop slot larger more like 1.5" and also kept the drop slot the entire radius up until the incoming air flow hits it again. I had originally stopped it about 4" shy of the vertical wall the inlet is at but I noticed that the dust was collecting there and then being sucked up.

How crucial is the 240 degree opening? Has it been tried with a longer slot?

I was going to start my build this week and had a few questions.
I did search and the answers seem to be all over the place.

1. I'm getting the poly cut and not sure of the height i need to specify. I will be using a 6" inlet and outlet on a top hat design. Rectangle shoot for the inlet. I was thinking that 8" tall piece of polycarbonate will be work fine. I know it's not crucial but still

2. Where has everyone had luck finding the hvac duct piece for the outlet? Also anyone had luck at the big box stores getting poly cut? if so which one.

3. I was also thinking about putting a main 6" opening on the inlet manifold to use for most instances but also put a 4" port to use for a shop cleanup port and such. The 4" port would have a gate valve but obviously the distance from the manifold to the gate valve would be at least a couple inches. Bad idea? To much turbulance?

I was going to begin construction of a top hat design on a plastic 55gal drum this weekend. the inlet and outlet will be 6" and I was planning on making the inlet rectangular.
Can anyone pass along any build threads that show the process of creating the bottom plate with using plastic for the sides. More importantly I was intersted in how to build the rectangular inlet box and how the plastic interacts with it.

I know that people have had success with using HVAC flanges on the tops of their separators. My question is how tight was the fit in regard to it's connection to flex tubing? I'll be using 6" flex hose and two HVAC quick flanges between the top of my separator and the bottom of my 50-760.

Guys I'm looking to pick up either some 5" or 6" flex hose for connecting to various tools(mobile connections). what have you guys used to connect a 5" flex hose to a 6" S&D pipe. Or better yet going between the 6" flex to 6" s&D pipe or 6" flex down to 4" flex. Just curious as I can't find the fittings but figured it would be a s&D fitting or something.

currently I've only got some 4" flex hose for my 50-760. I'd like to pick up about 25' of the 5" flex hose. Several manufactures carry it but all of them use different specs to describe their product. Of those of you who have bought 5" flex hose where did you get it from and how happy are you with the performance. Has the hose held up well? Does the hose seem to have a relatively smooth interior surface. All that jazz!!

Thanks guys.

Also my two front runners right now are penn state and wynn
They both have about the same pricing on their 25'-5" sections of flex hose.

I've got access to several blue plastic industrial 55 gallon drums with lids that have lock rings. I was thinkin this would be perfect for a canister instead of a metal trash can. I know people have tried the plastic trashcans and said the sides collapse but was thinking the heavier nature of these drums would work better.

So sound off has anyone used the blue industrial 55 gallon plastic drums for the collector canister?