Phil Thien separator for DC??

[Steven McLeavin]

So...has anyone found out a way to use the Thien separator with DC instead of a shop vac? I'm very intrigued by his design. Thanks!

[Mike Gager]

sure just use bigger inlets and outlets on the lid

[Rob Cunningham]

I used his idea with 2- 35 gal drums stacked( kinda like a cyclone) and my dust collector- PSI DC-4. It works great. A few chips have gotten through to the DC bags but it's very little. I finished mine in mid Feb and have filled up 4 drums and there is maybe a handful of debris in the DC bags.

[Steven McLeavin]

so thats all you gotta do? just put 4" inlet/outlets instead of the 2.5" ones and use a bigger garbage can?? awesome!...i'm excited about getting dust collection in our shop so my lungs can stop acting as a dust filter

[David Hostetler]

You don't necessarily need a larger garbage can, but it wouldn't make sense to hook up your 2HP dust collector for example to a Thien separator on a 5 gallon bucket...

The Thien Cyclone Separator for my shop vac is on a 20 gallon galvanized steel trash can, the one for the dust collector is on a 30 gallon. If a 30 gallon was available at the time I built the one for the shop vac, I would have used that instead...

[Bruce Wrenn]

Google "Phil Thein" and look at my post "Another Vote for Phil Thein's Baffle" over at NC Woodworker. Shows how I made mine as a "top hat" as I didn't want to lose can capacity. Pictures also show results when using it.

[Steven McLeavin]

cool, thanks Bruce!