J. Phil Thien's Projects

An alternate solution, which I have, is to have lines, pipes, whatever, running from each machine TO the DC, and swap them out at the DC, rather than dragging hose around. All depends on your shop layout.

My shop vac filter is pretty well caked too.... I use it primarily for cleaning the shop floor, and for my palm and RO sanders, so LOTS of fines get sucked up. I'm thinking a smaller diameter separator could help.

Quote from: phil (admin) on September 05, 2009, 07:01:09 PM
Nice work.

We need a source for clear bins for these.  I've found a few, but they are intended for food service and they are soooo expensive.

Agreed! I'm considering re-doing my Cyclopvac, to make it a smaller diameter, and I was going to just see how tight I could bend plexi....

That's a great deal. I know of guys who've gotten it at that price simply for the parts to make a cyclone!

Side entry also means less corners and hoses that can cut down on efficiency.

Ok, I see, so like if I tossed a big handfull in there at once or something. Which I suppose I may do sometimes... Right now, my DC sucks from the back of the cabinet. I may re-work it into the floor of the cabinet with more of a funnel effect, so it'll get a steady feed of dust, rather than allowing build up in the corners which needs to be cleaned out later.

I think it was beyond a cake.... This felt bag I got is great, and a LOT bigger than stock, at least a foot taller if not more. In fact, I clamp it to a floor joist, the metal hook thing won't fit. That being said, it was the amount of dust and some shavings that were dropping out of the upper bag that concerned me. Tells me it was past the cake stage, ya know? So I took the bag outside and gave it a good whacking to clean it up. I think I'll do a proper ring with center tube. Good call. How big a hole should I use? 4"? I might have some 4" PVC scraps I could use...

How bout the fines in my shop vac filter? Do you think a smaller diameter separator would help with that?

Or you could build a whole top unit cylinder kinda thing, like the metal one someone else built, so you have a side inlet.

I'm wondering if that may be part of my problem (see my recent post). I occasionally clean out the cabinet of my table saw by turning on the DC and blasting out the cab with the compressor. Might overload it?

Hey guys, I could use some advice. Here's my situation...
I have the small Jet 650 DC. It's an older model, and the "funnel" was below the blower discharge. So I inverted it, and put in a baffle (see below). Recently, I emptied it, decided to check the felt upper bag. There was a TON of debri around the (now upside down) funnel and in the bag too! Looked like some planer shavings, and a lot of fine dust.  One thing I have also done is put a plastic bag IN the lower bag to make emptying easier. I think it may have been interfering with the dust settling down into the lower bag, causing scrub. So I removed the outer bag, and just have the plastic bag now.

So these are my questions....

Is the position of my baffle relative to the discharge correct?

Should I make the "gap" bigger than the 1-1/8"?

And should I add a proper upper "ring" with a smaller center hole? Rather than the upside down funnel that's in there?

Also, my shopvac/cyclon, I call it a shopclone, is working well, but the filter had a LOT of fine dust on it the other day when I went to clean it.... the diameter of the separator is 20", do you think I should make it smaller to encourage the dust to drop out more?

take a look at the pics and let me know what you think. Thanks!!


Here's the DC baffle.



Here's the shop vac.

Hook a ratchet strap to the ceiling to lift it :D

Defintiely add a baffle to the DC itself. It's the simplest, cheapest solution, with zero negative side effects, so you can kinda just put it in and forget about it, ya know? Got nothin to lose! Then, like phil said, you can do a pre-separator for the big dogs, and then NOT have that there for the saws or whatever, to maximize airflow.

Nice!! I take it the entire top cylinder part comes off in one piece? Very slick.

They will, however make awesome air cleaners! Build a plywood box, insert furnace filters into one end, outlet the blower on the other, and you're good. I'm always keeping an eye out for them on CL just in case.

MY random orbit may not produce a high volume of dust compared to other machines (router for instance), but until I started using my shop vac on it, it kicked a TON of dust into the air, which is the problem. So it solved that!  As for the size, others have more experience, but I think it's more about priorities. Capacity vs portability.