My version of Phil Thein's seperator w/6" duct

[Carl Babel]

Greg,
Hope you're feeling well and making more saw dust soon!
Thanks for the detailed reply! Your project has inspired me to upgrade my 2 stage (I have a crude baffle that chokes down the airflow). Mine needs to be portable and I have some height concerns... I better start sketching this out...

[Greg McCallister]

Thanks Carl,
Woke up this morning feeling like I was kicked by a mule - this is really kickin my butt.

I see no reason my version could not be made portable.
I was going to do that in the beginning but with duct layouts, overall room and such, I realized that a stationary setup was better. You should be able to adapt it to the the current cart but will need something of a pretty good structure to hold the fan assembly.
Good luck and post some pics when completed...

[Greg McCallister]

Hope these pics explain more.
Note that I have emptied the can 4 times now and the filter is quite clean.

[Greg McCallister]

Heres more...Also note the fines in my hand pic from the can.

[Greg McCallister]

two more...

[Greg McCallister]

for some reason my pics do not come up regularly.

[Scott Myers]

Greg,

I've been watching your thread here as I considering trying one myself. This is a similar concept of what I had come up with in another thread, which I posted sketches of. The main difference between yours and mine is I was going to use an inverted 30 gallon trashcan as my upper chamber. Good to see the basic concept seems to be working well.

Here's that thread. http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=97503

I had not thought about the round to rectangular inlet transition. I like that idea.

So have you done any kind of air flow/pressure drop analysis on your unit?

[Greg McCallister]

Scott,

The only analysis I have done is hand over the inlet and it keeping the 6" duct clean .
I do not have a way to measure pressures and such. If you listen to the pitch of the motor when the ports are open it seems as though there is little to no restriction compaired to how it sounds without anything attached to the blower.
I looked at your post but you really do not need any more height then as in my verson is 12". You could probably get away with 10". What I do know is it works real good after looking at the fines.
If someone wants to come over with some measuring equiptment I would have no problem checking it out but I do not want to spend the money to do so...

[Scott Myers]

Another one of the main reasons I started with the inverted 30 gallon can is it is already fabricated and made of fairly heavy galvanized steel. All I have to do is introduce the inlet and outlet ports. I'm all for reducing work, where possible. You guessed it; I'm basically lazy.

[Greg McCallister]

How about using a metal wash tub around 8 gallons or so?

[Scott Myers]

Hmm. There's a thought. I have a farm supply place pretty close to my house that should have all kinds of washtubs and the like. I'll have to have a look. Good idea Greg!

How about using a metal wash tub around 8 gallons or so?

[Darren Vass]

Great work Greg.

What size trash can did you use: 20 or 30 gallon? It makes a difference in the lid size and efficacy, I think?

[Greg McCallister]

Darren I used a 30 Gal can.

[Darren Vass]

Greg,

Did you have to solder the galvanized steel middle drum section? Is there anyway to fabricate the intake and middle section without soldering? If not, are there any you tube instructions on how to solder galvanized steel.


Thanks,

Darren

[Greg McCallister]

Darren,

I guess you could use a glue, pop rivets or something and caulk. I used a 100 watt soldering iron (used for stained glass). A Solder joint is quite strong.
You can use a torch but I have not tried with galvanized steal in over 20 years (used to work in a radiator shop) and if I remember correctly the fumes are pretty nasty (do in a well ventilated area). Galvanized steal is actually pretty easy to solder as solder is a mixture of lead and tin and galvanization is actually a zinc coating. Zinc is sometimes a partial alloy of solder. Most solders now days are lead free and contain, tin, copper, silver, bismuth, indium, zinc and antimony... and I am not sure how that will flow on galvanized as I used a lead/tin solder. I think there are some go-bys on Bill Pentz site or links there on how to solder.
Scott Myers who also posted here was looking into maybe using a washtub and fabricating that. If you have an heating-a/c contractor who does custom ductwork in your area you can have them actually make you one. Sorry I do not have any written plans.