I finished up my Thien Cyclone last night, and after a couple of bumps and bruises with incorrect measurements along the way (I cut that board three times and it's still too short!). The fit to the can is snug, and it seals well. HOWEVER I am going to take the vac hose fittings off to remove the screws, and securing them with hot glue. I want to eliminate the snagging point of the screw tips (1" screws in 3/4" ply).
I am VERY impressed with the function of it so far, after vacuming up 3 gallons + of junk from my shop floor, stuff that was previously in the vac, and stuff that was in a 3 gallon shop vac. I ran a test job, unfortunately this also included quite a bit of dog hair, and old cigar stubs (The old shop vac gets used to clean my deck after poker parties. A substantial amount of fine sawdust and ash was in the mix. From the heap of stuff that got sucked up, I can surely say that I was well into 3 9s (99.9+%). It left approximately 1 tbsp of material in the tub of the vac. That might have been stuff that was caught up in the webbing on the lid of the vac...
If you don't have a cyclone, and it doesn't matter if you have a vac based system, or a DC based system, I can HIGHLY recommend a Thien Cyclone separator. Phil Thien's web site. Thanks Phil! Your separator will go a long way to making my shop safer!
My cyclone separator was made with 3/4" sanded Baltic Birch Ply for the lid, 1/2" sanded white oak for the separator, 1/4 -20 6" All Thread (12" cut in half and smoothed with my rotary tool), secured with nylon insert nuts and washers for the spacers, I wanted to keep the size down. The elbow was a 2" PVC street elbow, tucked as close as I could get it to the side of the can, and the center nipple was a 2" coupler that was longer than typical, so I cut it in half as well. The elbow and coupler were hot glued to the wood. The vac hose fittings were Peachtree Woodworking pieces. I made the mistake of attaching them with tapered head wood screws and messed up the mounting tabs. Yet another reason, that and eliminating any possible leaks are more reasons I am going to hot glue them on and remove the screws...
Asidd from the hardware and vac fittings, I used what was in the shop. I had intended on grabbing some cheaper pine ply, but ended up using the BB. I am not upset I did that. The BB I think will hold up better in the long run... My hot glue job isn't ultra clean, which is a pity. But it is functional.
I am VERY impressed with the function of it so far, after vacuming up 3 gallons + of junk from my shop floor, stuff that was previously in the vac, and stuff that was in a 3 gallon shop vac. I ran a test job, unfortunately this also included quite a bit of dog hair, and old cigar stubs (The old shop vac gets used to clean my deck after poker parties. A substantial amount of fine sawdust and ash was in the mix. From the heap of stuff that got sucked up, I can surely say that I was well into 3 9s (99.9+%). It left approximately 1 tbsp of material in the tub of the vac. That might have been stuff that was caught up in the webbing on the lid of the vac...
If you don't have a cyclone, and it doesn't matter if you have a vac based system, or a DC based system, I can HIGHLY recommend a Thien Cyclone separator. Phil Thien's web site. Thanks Phil! Your separator will go a long way to making my shop safer!
My cyclone separator was made with 3/4" sanded Baltic Birch Ply for the lid, 1/2" sanded white oak for the separator, 1/4 -20 6" All Thread (12" cut in half and smoothed with my rotary tool), secured with nylon insert nuts and washers for the spacers, I wanted to keep the size down. The elbow was a 2" PVC street elbow, tucked as close as I could get it to the side of the can, and the center nipple was a 2" coupler that was longer than typical, so I cut it in half as well. The elbow and coupler were hot glued to the wood. The vac hose fittings were Peachtree Woodworking pieces. I made the mistake of attaching them with tapered head wood screws and messed up the mounting tabs. Yet another reason, that and eliminating any possible leaks are more reasons I am going to hot glue them on and remove the screws...
Asidd from the hardware and vac fittings, I used what was in the shop. I had intended on grabbing some cheaper pine ply, but ended up using the BB. I am not upset I did that. The BB I think will hold up better in the long run... My hot glue job isn't ultra clean, which is a pity. But it is functional.
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