Modding your 1-stage DC for cleaner filters (Workshops)

[James White]

Thank's guys. I did the Google thing yesterday morning. Of coarse there are hundreds of posts to read that only lead to more questions. Though I have to admit I hadn't thought of using the images option.

The good news is that there is a forum for the Thien separator. I guess I will have to join. I really thought that there where more Creekers that have been through this already. Seems there are some issues with using the Thien separator with larger than 4" piping. I would like to keep mine at 5". That and I see that some that have done this have increases the width of the "drop slot". This is one of the things I was not sure on in regards to using the separator for larger CFM than shop vacs produce.

I was kind of hoping Phil would pop in here. I saw some post that he was going to be offering separators. I was curious if that ever got off the ground.

James

[Ryan Mooney]

The good news is that there is a forum for the Thien separator. I guess I will have to join. I really thought that there where more Creekers that have been through this already. Seems there are some issues with using the Thien separator with larger than 4" piping. I would like to keep mine at 5". That and I see that some that have done this have increases the width of the "drop slot". This is one of the things I was not sure on in regards to using the separator for larger CFM than shop vacs produce.

James

James, my personal experience is that a 5" inlet is generally fine for any reasonable size of separator. I believe that size of the inlet can matter depending on the diameter of the separator, bigger inlet == bigger separator. Mine at 18" inside diameter had some issues with a 6" inlet disrupting the swirl, but at 5" it was fine (actually it was "fine" at 6" as well until I opened up the slot wider to address other issues..).

The width of the drop slot is more relative to the size and type of shavings than the size of the inlet. I ended up with a 2" slot because - in worst case conditions - my planer generates gobs of rather long (6"+) tissue paper thin shavings and with the normal sized slot they gobbed up the works something awful. I would start with the narrower slot as recommended by Phil - narrower will separate better - and then widen it only if you have clogging problems.