DC and the Phil Thein Baffle

[Anthony Whitesell]

I've built myself a trashcan seperator with the Thein Baffle. I used a 4" universal port for the outlet and a 90 degree elbow for the inlet. I have acquired a 35 gallon plastic drum with a gasketed lid and metal clamp (I'm darn sure there's no leak there).

I ran some wood through the planer tonight with the seperator inline. The CFM seems to be down (no duh!) but the SP seems to be up (or is it down). It feels like I have more vacuum with the seperator than without. Based on the amount of chips that were flying out the front and back of the planer, it seems like the chip collection is down overall. The planer was spitting a lot of stuff out the bottom. Afterwards to further test the theory, I swept the chips using the seperator to pick them up. It did a fantastic job, better than it has ever done. On the upside, the bag is empty and the can is almost half full (to the baffle).

For those that have built this seperator, has that been your experience?

I thinking a modification to the DC hood on th planer may be in order, to try to up the CFMs. I'm thinking that the hood and/or machine design maybe choking off the airflow.

P.S. One other thing I did, since I was using the black ABS plastic elbow from Woodcraft/Rockler/or the like, was to use a oval shaped carbide cutter to clean up the inside of the elbow. I found that there was a lot of flashing and extra plastic at the apex of the bend from the molding process. I ground away all the flashing and thinned out the inside of the inside of the turn. If you have one and your hand is small enough, take a peak at the inside of the elbow. My guess would be that this 4" elbow, is really a 3" elbow with 4" couplings on either end. The way it is molded really chokes down the inner diameter at the center of the bend.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I have used my "Phil Thein" baffle on both my 12" Delta bench top, and my Delta 15" planer. Results were outstanding with either. Google "Phil Thein" and you can link to my post over at NC Woodworker. Post is titled "Another Vote for Phil Thein's Baffle."

[Phil Thien]

The separator will absolutely reduce CFM. However, I'm a little concerned about the elbow you used. Having seen those, I imagine that even after cleaning up all that extra plastic that you may still have quite a bottleneck in there. Any chance of replacing it with a white PVC fitting?

Also, minimize flexible hose that you're using, and let us know what kind of DC you're using the drive everything.

[Stephen Edwards]

I've built myself a trashcan seperator with the Thein Baffle. I used a 4" universal port for the outlet and a 90 degree elbow for the inlet. I have acquired a 35 gallon plastic drum with a gasketed lid and metal clamp (I'm darn sure there's no leak there).

I ran some wood through the planer tonight with the seperator inline. The CFM seems to be down (no duh!) but the SP seems to be up (or is it down). It feels like I have more vacuum with the seperator than without. Based on the amount of chips that were flying out the front and back of the planer, it seems like the chip collection is down overall. The planer was spitting a lot of stuff out the bottom. Afterwards to further test the theory, I swept the chips using the seperator to pick them up. It did a fantastic job, better than it has ever done. On the upside, the bag is empty and the can is almost half full (to the baffle).

For those that have built this seperator, has that been your experience?

I thinking a modification to the DC hood on th planer may be in order, to try to up the CFMs. I'm thinking that the hood and/or machine design maybe choking off the airflow.

P.S. One other thing I did, since I was using the black ABS plastic elbow from Woodcraft/Rockler/or the like, was to use a oval shaped carbide cutter to clean up the inside of the elbow. I found that there was a lot of flashing and extra plastic at the apex of the bend from the molding process. I ground away all the flashing and thinned out the inside of the inside of the turn. If you have one and your hand is small enough, take a peak at the inside of the elbow. My guess would be that this 4" elbow, is really a 3" elbow with 4" couplings on either end. The way it is molded really chokes down the inner diameter at the center of the bend.

I used a 50 gallon plastic barrel with the gasketed lid and metal clamp as you describe yours. I have a 4" thin wall S&D 90 for the intake and 4" thin wall S&D straight pipe for the out take. My DC is the HF 2HP unit.

My intention was to make the baffle later. However, and no disrespect intended at all, I simply don't see the need to add the baffle. The only thing that goes into the DC bag are the fines from sanders and some of the TS dust. All the chips from the planer, jointer and router tables, and some of the fines, stays in the barrel. I put a window about 3/4 up way on the barrel. When the chips get near the bottom of the window i empty the barrel. During normal shop machine use using all the machines I empty the barrel 3-4 times before I empty the bag. I empty the bag when it gets about half full.

I wonder if my experience is because I'm using a larger barrel. I don't know.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I have a Rigid 1 1/2HP DC with a 4" inlet. I haven't found a more secure way to attach the flex hose to the seperator inlet. I have tried all the methods that others have done, but none were as secure.

Based on the layout for my other DC ductwork, I have ~5' of flex hose to from the planer to the seperator, 5' from the seperator to the wye in the DC main. The wye is short coupled to the 90 degree bend into the DC with its built in 90. I can't get the runs any shorter.

I still find the high suction and low CFM a novel outcome. I built the baffle with one fixed 60 degree section instead of 120 and then added 3 adjustable 60 sections to allow be to test various size openings. I have tried a few angles with no real difference, but I suspect the difference will not become apparent until the can is fuller. I did notice that the chips were piled to one side. The side the inlet is on, and directly under the elbow.

[Stephen Edwards]

Pardon my ignorance but what is CFM?

As stated in a previous post I have no experience with Phil Thien's Baffle so I can't comment on that. With the system that I do use, the flex hose works just fine. I have no problems with it at all.

One of these days I'm going to build a baffle just for the heck of it to see if it makes any difference in my 50 gallon separator barrel. I've read so many positive comments about Phil's design that do I want to try it.

I HAVE noticed that as my separator fills to the point where the chips are near the bottom of the "window" that efficiency decreases. In fact, I'm going out to the shop this afternoon to take care of that chore!

One of the best side effect benefits of the separator for me, since I heat both my house and my shop with wood heaters, is that the chips and shavings from the separator barrel make excellent kindling for building fires in the heaters.

Photos on this page show how I built my separator.

http://stephenedisonedwards.com/dust...seperator.html

I made this page right after installing the DC separator. Nearly a year later, I can tell you that I'd hate to go back to using a DC system that doesn't have a separator. It does everything I had hoped for and then some!

Good luck with your system, Anthony.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Cubic Feet per Minute. The measure of airflow, a or the most critical parameter in maximizing the performance of you dust collection.

[Stephen Edwards]

Cubic Feet per Minute. The measure of airflow, a or the most critical parameter in maximizing the performance of you dust collection.

Thank you Anthony. I appreciate the answer. I'm more of a trial and error kind of person and still have so much to learn in regards to the technical end of DC.

I'll tell you one thing I've learned here at the Creek about DC that has been a BIG help to me: the concept of "airflow" in a DC system. Before I had one I always thought of a DC system as a giant vacuum cleaner. Shows my ignorance!

For example, I built an enclosure for the motor on my contractors table saw. Originally, I didn't allow for enough airflow and the dust piled up in the box. I had drilled just a few holes in the box for the air flow. Once it was explained to me what I was doing wrong I cut a round hole in the side of the box the same size as the dust port outlet. What a difference!!

Someone in a recent post described that principle using a river as an analogy. The air flow literally washes the dust out of the enclosure and out the dust port.