Progress finally!

[bbain]

A year and a half of having a 2HP DC sitting in pieces in the corner of my shop and I finally have some progress on my new collector.  This will be my 3rd Thien setup, I have an "in the can" shopvac setup, and a tophat "push" collector connected to my dewalt 735 planer that have both seen lots of use and still working fantastic.

Looking forward to having dust collection for the tablesaw and the jointer with the addition of this setup.

[retired2]

Hmmm....I think most 2x high separators have been built with the inlet set high rather than low.  I suspect it will work down low, but I wonder if it will work as well? 

[bbain]

We will see what happens.  The picture is a little deceiving, the inlet is more centered than it looks, but it is a bit closer to the bottom than the top.  Unfortunately due to placement of the collector, it has to be oriented this way otherwise I would have to add a piece of flex or additional elbows for the tophat to connect to the piping on the wall.  I am trying to keep the amount of flex and the number of elbows to a minimum to reduce losses.

I will try it this way and see what happens, it has an arcrylic window on the top so I can see what the dust is doing inside, hopefully this lets me see if I need to make any changes.

[bbain]

So I managed to get most of the day today in the shop.  I go the frame built to hold the blower above the tophat, and I built a cam mechanism to raise/lower the barrel into place under the tophat.  I managed to get some piping in place to my tablesaw last weekend, so I am actually up and running and collecting dust.

I don't have a proper filter yet, and when things warm up from the rather chilly -12C it has been here lately I will be venting outside.

As retired2 mentioned above, this is essentially a "double high" tophat, but my inlet is in a less than optimum place, it is 1" below the center, when it would be best to be entering close to the top.

Having a clear top lets me see what is going on inside, and I can see that some of the dust is getting caught up high in the airstream and just keeps going around and around.  From the look of the bags I have on the outlet, not much is making it past the separator, but time will tell, as I have only run it for a few cuts.

[phil (admin)]

Having a clear top lets me see what is going on inside, and I can see that some of the dust is getting caught up high in the airstream and just keeps going around and around.

That seems to be a problem no matter what.  I think there is a perfect size to weight ratio for sawdust that likes to stay animated.  The same thing happens with cyclones.  As long as it doesn't sneak out the exit tube, it doesn't matter.

[bbain]

That seems to be a problem no matter what.  I think there is a perfect size to weight ratio for sawdust that likes to stay animated.  The same thing happens with cyclones.  As long as it doesn't sneak out the exit tube, it doesn't matter.

Good to know. 

I have a clear top on the "push" separator for my planer and the big chips from the planer usually don't even get a full rotation before dropping below the baffle, I guess I was expecting to see the same thing.  Makes sense that the lighter dust from the table saw might not drop below the baffle right away.

[phil (admin)]

Good to know. 

I have a clear top on the "push" separator for my planer and the big chips from the planer usually don't even get a full rotation before dropping below the baffle, I guess I was expecting to see the same thing.  Makes sense that the lighter dust from the table saw might not drop below the baffle right away.

Yep, another kinda surprising aspect for most people is just how quickly chips settle-out.  From our perspective the chips don't look that much different than the dust, but from the separator's perspective it is like mountains and atoms.