J. Phil Thien's Projects

I'm probably missing something in the blogs but I have not seen anything definitive on the relationship of the start of the baffle slot to the inlet port; e.g. "the slot should start X degrees past the mouth of the inlet and continue around for 240 degrees". It's the X here that I wonder about. Thanks for any light which you can shed on this.

I recently saw that Jamestown Distributors offers a number of high performance adhesives in their catalog. I've used West system, System Three and 3M 5200, all with great success on various projects. They have a new one, Plexus 310, which is supposed to adhere plastics. Possibly useful for those of you forming the walls of your 'top hats' with plexiglass or lexan. With this adhesive you may not need screws.
John

I have a 1980's four bag, 3hp DC similar to the 1030 model now being offered. I upgraded it with felt dust bags on the top and plastic collection bags on the bottom. Now I'd like to add Wynn filters and thien baffles as described in a 2012 article in FWW.  However the 19.5" diameter rings which hold the bags don't seem to lend themselves to the modifications described in the article. Mine each have a 5x5 inch inlet from the fan which open just above a downward sloping cone in each ring. These cones have about a 12" hole in the middle. If I install baffles just below the inlets and above the cones there would only be about a 1/2" clearance between the baffle slot and cones. Not good. I could drill out the spot welds holding these cones which would give me two nice clean 10" or so deep rings to convert to thien separators. Has anyone ever done this? Will it ruin the function of my DC (can't afford a new one and the SWMBO wouldn't let me buy one anyway)? What is the purpose of these cones? Thanks for any advice you can give.
John