J. Phil Thien's Projects

So far it is working well. I am having some hiccups with my dust collection on the tool side so I have not gotten as deep into tweaking the system yet, but the container is working. It is not as clear as I hoped it would be, but clear enough to see the dust level so long as there is adequate light.  Container is pretty stiff and durable. Has not shown any signs that it would collapse on itself if there was a blockage or all gates closed.

Messing around with my blast gates and limit switches to turn my DC on and off as they open last night. Made a mistake and turned on the DC with all the gates closed. Should have been no big deal because I have a vac relief setup. Well it stuck closed, need to redesign that a bit, and my tophat imploded. I was kind of shocked that it broke before the thinwall hvac ducting deformed or before the trashbin collapsed. I did use cheaper laminate, but I do not think I will be replacing it with a thicker brand. I know lots of people have used laminate successfully, but I wanted to share my experience with it as well.

Now to decide if I rebuild with sheetmetal or plastic.

Not sure if this is a problem or even a sign of something else that could be wrong, but trying my top hat out hooked up to a real tool and I noticed that the bulk of the dust stayed spinning at the top of the chamber for a long time. When the DC was turned off everything fell and mostly went past the slot into the bin and I am not noticing anything significant in the filter. Something I should worry about?

Several folks have tried 300+ degree slots and had poor results due to turbulence in the lower chamber bringing finer chips back up.

Glad you posted that as I now see what I was doing wrong with my searches. The quick search in the upper right corner must only show recent results. If I search "rotation" there I get 5 results, 4 of them are this thread. If I use the advanced search I get many results.

Quote from: retired2 on May 16, 2018, 03:03:57 PM

Quote from: psilun on May 15, 2018, 05:01:51 PM
I have been reading posts on this site for the last couple of days and don't see anywhere that anyone has looked into the orientation of the inlet in relation to the DC inlet. This design as well as retired2's show the inlet on the right side. That would seem to match the rotation of the DC impeller. There are many examples of the inlet to the separator on the left. Am I making something out of nothing?

This subject has been discussed countless times.  I have posted Cincinnati Fans information on air rotation and the effect on blower performance several times. Use the search function and you will find what you need.

The search function has seemed a little off the past couple days. Or my memory of what terms were used in threads I wanted to go back to.

psilun you should check out this thread: http://www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php?topic=550

Short answer is any air rotation going into the impeller is a negative effect on performance. A longer straight pipe between the chamber and the impeller or a straightener is the best way to deal with those losses.

I may have to try that if I run into a clogging problem.

I am having a hard time envisioning this. I originally thought you meant and enlarged end of the slot so it would be harder for material buildup, but now I'm not so sure.

Quote from: Sthutch on April 26, 2018, 02:22:58 PM
Steamngn,
So if this were placed in a Top Hat, it would be inverted?  If so, wouldn't the fines be likely to settle in inverted bellmouth area?

How would one use this on the exhaust side of the impeller, in relation to a pleated filter?

I don't have an easily accessible source for the honeycomb that you mentions, but the custodians where I work had some of the plastic tubes that Retired2 used.  So I picked up 6 of them for future incorporation into my system.

This is really intriguing stuff.  Its almost more fun than working with wood!  LOL!

I don't think there is any reason to put a bellmouth on the exhaust side of the impeller.

I dont think the intention of that ring is to act as a seperator/cyclone so much as to be an easy way to mount the filter ont he exhuast side without having to fabricate anything. Many of the cartridge filters for dust collectors are sized to attach to those rings so it is pretty simple just to leave that part. You certainly do not need to do it that way. I have mine with an elbow coming off the exhaust straight into the filter.

Yeah, you will need something to hold it in place. Something like this would probably work https://www.walmart.com/ip/Lawson-Products-Easy-Bagger-Lawn-Yard-Bag-Holder/44104928 or could be easily made if you had access to some flexible plastic.

The bellmouth will make the outlet more likely to pickup small particles. Adding height to the seperator and putting the inlet further down should mitigate that, providing I am understanding all of Retired2's experiments correctly.

I would also consider an air straightener. Couple of different designs on here. I went with the protective tubes that go over flroescent lightbulbs. If I had to do it over again I would still use them, but I would use a silicone caulk to adhere them rather than CA glue. The CA made them very brittle.

I am also using the same 3 1/4" x 10" duct transition, but my setup has a very tall chamber so the height was not a concern for that design. It seems to be working well for me, but I am also still in the test and tweak phase of this project.

Got a picture? The Clearvue setups I have seen appear to have a solid drum that sits on the floor. It sounds convienent, but I don't understand what is preventing an empty bag from sucking into the chamber.

Got it yesterday. Need to make some modifications to my tophat because it is slightly smaller than the bin I had originally planned on using. Material seems good. Stiff but not brittle feeling. I is certainly not transparent but is translucent enough to easily see dust level in it. Will post some pics once it is attached.

Not a bad idea. I normally clean duct with an acetone rag before using mastic anyway. I will try that with the first set of fittings going into the tophat and see how much time it adds.