J. Phil Thien's Projects

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.

sorry I didn't get back with you. There is a nice guy within the forum that recently duct his entier setup with 6" and says it works great. I can tell you from personal experience that with a 10'-5" section of flex house hooked up to my 50-760 the dust movement in the collection bag was just okay. Now after I upgraded to a 6" opening and put a 10'-6" piece of flex the bag ressembles a freakin snow globe. It's amazing how much more air it seems to be pulling.

The answer to your question isn't super easy. Sure your setup will work with 6" ducting if you design it right. A poor duct design can kill CFM quicker then a underpowered collector will. Keep blast gates as close to the main trunk as possible and keep hoses as large as possible until you have to reduce them and your collector will be fine.

Any design is only as good as the weakest part. The 5" run will be the deciding factor. I would say if possible change the 5" inlet to a 6" inlet. It's easily done with a jigsaw.dremel tool and a HVAC fitting.

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.

Thanks pitbull. I guess I'll just have to try and find some S&D pipe and see if it fits.

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.

we don't have Menard's down in Texas but I'm sure I can find the fittings. Someone is bound to have the type you've bought.

Bag

For sure I'll start with as narrow as I can get. I'll probably make a mock up out of some scrap 1/4" ply to see what I can get away with.

yesterday I also ran by the orange box store to look over the HVAC ducting and S&D pipe. They didn't have any s&D pipe but they had all kinds of HVAC fittings in 5" and 6". Were you able to find a fitting to reduce the 6" s&D down to a 4" that could be used on 4" flex or the like?

Last night I FINALLY got a chance to get into the shop and take some measurements. Originally I was concerned that the lip at the top of the blue plastic 55 gallon barrel I was hoping to use would be to much to slide the lower baffle through. I really didn't want to cut the barrel down because the lid locked securely to the barrel and sealed with a gasket(wanted this as the top of the system).

So after measuring the inner most circumfrence of the barrel(the inner lip) and subtracting it's diameter from the outer most circumfrence of the barrel(measured from the inside) I came up with a difference of 1.75" or roughly 7/8" difference in the radi of the two circles. Check out the pics below

If I create the baffle dropzone with a offset of say 2" that will give me some wiggle room to get the baffle by the inner circle. Once past the circle it would be a simple matter of insuring i push the baffle back against the barrel wall on the part of the baffle that wasn't offset. Locking the lid down would accomplish this as well. What do you guys think. Anything I should be concerned with or haven't thought of?

Also whats everyones thoughts on the lid being used as the top of the baffle. It's not flat like plywood but this will be the top so the chips should be falling down and the ridges shouldn't effect the flow. Heck if anything it will help to keep the airflow spinning..maybe?



(pardon the odd placement of text. It was all done through my iphone)

Bag I would have never thought to have used my circle cutting jig like that. Great idea

Regarding the fitting between the DC and seperator. I was thinking of picking up a 6" PVC flange fitting and enlarging the inlet on the bottom of the 50-760 from the 5" to a 6" opening. This would allow me to buy some 6" flex hose for the upper connection.

On the fit of the 6" inlet. do you mind describing the process you took to get such a good fit? My thoughts were to create some sort of templete to create the cutout. Interested in your process as Like you said it's a very good fit.

I also like using the west maine epoxy system. It's very good quality epoxy. and the pump system can't be beat.

Another question for you Bag. How have you felt the epoxy has held up on the inlet connection to your barrel? I was going to use epoxy and fiberglass and possibly make a simple support box either out of sheet metal or some 1/2" ply.

Now that my friend is a great setup. I'm really not wanting to cut the lid off my blue barrel but seeing that setup really makes me think it would be easier then trying retrofit the existing lid. Have you been able to locate any 6"-5" reducing fitting that would allow a hookup to 5" flex hose? I've found websites that state that 5" pvc pipe and fittings are made but none that sell or have a link to somewhere that sells 5" pvc. I've thought about going the way of 5" HVAC ducting but the sheetmetal used in the fittings isn't the strongest. Any ideas.

And again great job man.

I'll try and get a picture tonight but the ridges are in the same direction as airflow would be. Also I wouldn't be attaching any fitting to the lid. It would act as my lower baffle. Top hat design per say.

Phil what about the use of the lid from a 55 gallon barrel? It's thin (thinner then 1/8" ply) but ridgid. My only concern is the lid I have has ridges in the the top. They might work to an advantage but needless to say the lid isn't flat like ply would be.