Woodturning or Woodworking - Improve your Dust Collection 

Thanks for the comment.

Glad you liked it. Thanks for the comment.

Barnekkid, Wouldn't go that far but thanks anyway.

Miguel Econar , Not really an expert. I just watch a lot of RU-vid videos and then have a go myself. Thanks for the comment.

Hi Alain, Thank you for your kind comments and for the subscription. Glad you enjoyed the project.

As you say, lots of these videos out there, so I'm pleased that you enjoyed mine. I received several negative comments on my design, but it seems to work, so I'm quite happy with it. Thanks for the comment.

Hope it goes well once you are up and running in your shop. Thanks for the comment.

E Caff, So pleased that you enjoyed the video and the project. Your comments are much appreciated. (PS - Kitty was not harmed)

thorlo6, Glad you liked the project and it wasn't the video that sent you to sleep. Thanks for the comment.

Thanks for the tip and the comment.

Thank you so much 😀

MiBobALou, Thank you for your comments. I also thank you for your tips on working with plastics and will remember them for future projects.

Drilling plastic with a cone-shaped step drill bit works very well. Makes a clean hole and unlikely to crack plastic.

Siva Beharry, Thanks for the comment. You can get the adhesive from Amazon and several other sources.

Thanks for the tip!

Thanks for the comment

Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for the comment.

Abdulla Nurmohamed, Thank you for the comment.

Andy McKenzie, Good to see viewers still watching and enjoying this video. It was fun to make even though it took some time. Thanks for the comment.

Hi Phil, Good to see you're still watching and enjoying the content. Hope to upload more soon. Thanks again for your kind comments.

centaurus777 Thanks for the comment - glad you enjoyed the video.

Michele Benini , Thank you for your comment.

Douglas Pedrosa, obrigado. feliz por você ter encontrado o vídeo útil.

Alex M, Thank you for your comment.

Hi Barry, Thanks for the comment. More videos on the way hopefully.

Peter Woodbine i have some woodwork to do on my house. I need to replace an outside window sill thats rotten. I have bought a jigsaw but may need your sanding belt to put a curve on it. Would that be ok.. ?

No problem Mr C.

E Caff, Glad you liked the project. Thank you for your comment.

Hi Joy, Glad you liked the video and the bit of fun at the end.

Hi Micky from Italy, Glad you enjoyed the project and thank you for your kind comments.

Valentino Zangobbo, Your comments are much appreciated.

Rich William, Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed the project.

Khalil Al-Jeaan, Glad you liked the project and the video. Thanks for the comment.

Nothing! That's the point.

JenTronics, Hi, Yes I will definitely use polycarbonate next time I try something like this. Thanks for the comment.

Geof, Darn it - I wish I had thought of that one. Anyway, good job it turned out ok or it could have been a catastrophe. Thanks for the comment.

gracias por tu comentario

Thanks for watching and for your kind comment. Hope you keep watching and enjoy future videos.

Christian Skywatcher, I really appreciate your comment. Thank you.

Goran Marinic Thanks for the comment. Sorry you didn't appreciate the bit of humour at the end.

Saeed, I wouldn't say fascinated, just keen to avoid emptying bags and cleaning filters. Best of all not having to buy new filters. This project achieved my goal and was fun to make so I hope you enjoyed the video. Thanks for the comment.

Peter Woodbine ofcourse I enjoyed the video. Good stuff.

Hope you have a go. Thanks for the comment.

@@PeterWoodbineWoodturning OK... I went and modified our regular wet & dry house vac.. WORKS like a charm albeit not perfect... but will get there with more modifications. SWEET SIMPLE TECH!

There is one problem with just modifying a regular vac: The intake port protrudes inside the can such that, it disrupts the circular/centrifugal motion of the debris. And this in turn causes some of the dust to jump into the center filter. I need to modify the intake port...

Certainly never seen this before but if it works, why not. several people told me I wasn't doing it right but it works for me.

Hi Simon, Glad you liked the project and thank you for your comments.

Thanks Martin, Glad you liked it.

Ian B, Thanks for the comment. Hope you have a go yourself.

Hi Andy, As I say in the description, this was my version taken from a lot of various ideas I have seen on RU-vid, all of which have their own merits. It was really a bit of an experiment. Also the other reason for the cone was to reduce the Thein Baffle diameter down to fit the diameter of the collection barrel. Anyway I'm pleased that you enjoyed the video and the techniques used. Thank you for the comment.

TPA Machinery, Yes the acrylic is a real pain so next time I will source some polycarbonate. Thank you for your interest and your comments.

I thought that my unit did both already, albeit not perfectly. Not too sure what you mean by your suggestion but thanks for the comment anyway.

Ok…A cyclone has no baffle. Debris migrates to the small cone outlet and falls. The difference is a cyclone spins the air faster as the diameter reduces down the cone….You virtually have this in your design👍, but your baffle is up high. I am thinking maybe fine dust separation would be better by lowering the baffle to the bottom of the perspex. Only a test would tell. Anyhow..nice work! Maybe I’ll get a re-mortgage for a big sheet of acrylic and ply.

bWsRcAzk, Yes it was a real pain. I would definitely use Polycarbonate if I did it again. Thanks for your comment.

Hi Mark, Glad you enjoyed the video. The only thing that I would definitely change would be to use polycarbonate instead of acrylic. This should resolve any cracking issues that I experienced. The only other thing that I would suggest is to make sure the baffle slot is sanded really smooth and to round the ends of the slots, to reduce any chance of a build up of chips in the baffle. You should also be aware that the unit does reduce the suction of your extractor a certain amount but I have not found this to be a problem. If you look at some of the other comments to this video you will see that there are various different views on this subject with one particular comment saying that my design was totally incorrect. However it works for me. Good luck with your build at the weekend.

​@@PeterWoodbineWoodturning Thank you for getting back to me. All too often you post comments and no one gets back to you. I appreciate that! So this will be on a 1.5hp Delta 50-780. I read that the height of the cylinder should be greater than the diameter of the dust collection infeed. In my case, that would be 5" so I would make the height of the cylinder 6". In your experience, do you have any recommendations on the height of the cylinder in relation to the diameter of the dust collection infeed.? As an extension to the question, I have seen additional comments about how far into the cylinder the dust collection infeed tube should be placed. One said the depth of the tube should be 1/2" the height of the cylinder. Another said to keep it at the top whereas a third said to place it 1 inch off the baffle. Have you played with this distance in your testing? Finally Peter, the cone between the Thien and the collector - is that just used as a size reduction, or does it help with additional separation? Thanks for your feedback!!!

Hi Mark, I'm not sure that I can help too much with your queries. I just watched loads of videos and read various articles on Thein baffles and Cyclones and then just took a stab at the sizes to make it. My baffle is 14'' diameter and 10'' high and the infeed and outfeed are both 4''. I haven't played with the distance of the tube into the cylinder and mine is less than 1'' down from the top. The cone was really just a reducer to fit the barrel but is also useful to see when the barrel is getting full. I'm not sure if it helps with the separation but would like to think that it does and it's fun watching the cyclone action whizzing the chips around. This probably doesn't help you at all but I wish you luck with your build.

@@PeterWoodbineWoodturning Thanks for the reply, answers a bunch of questions for me.

@@PeterWoodbineWoodturning Hi Peter, yes I would agree with the choice of polycarbonate. We used to make glasses for pubs with it and they were more or less indestructible. Also I don't really understand why people seem to think the "wrapping" material has to be butt joined. A glued lap join of an inch or so is much easier and one can just cut the plywood discs to fit this. The direction of the join can be made to suit the flow. Marius Hornberger has made a video "A small cyclone dust collector with a cheap vacuum" in which he splits a shop vacuum and puts a Thien baffle in between. Very economical in terms of floor space

Cheers Mike - Glad you liked the video and thank you for the comment.

MrBAchompBAchomp, The making is all part of the fun. I really enjoyed the challenge of this project and also making the video. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of views and the diverse comments received. It was really interesting to see all the different opinions on the way you are supposed to make these things. Hope you have a go yourself and thanks for your interest. By the way, if you do make one, use polycarbonate and not acrylic.

thetrick4fun, I'm not too sure what you mean but if you read the comments between myself and Олег Дьяконов below, you will note that I am not trying to achieve perfect design or ultra efficiency, just making something that works for me. If it achieves the result I was looking for (which it does) then the design is fit for purpose. Thanks for your interest.

gbwildlife uk, Several people have made this suggestion and I have explained that I could not find any polycarbonate at the time in my local area. If I were to try it again I would definitely use polycarbonate. Thanks for your comment.

Cheers Paul - glad you enjoyed. Thanks for the comment.

Joe, Thanks for the comment. I assume you mean the guard over the blade. This is simply the guard that came with the saw, with a flexible hose attached to the shop vac. Otherwise I also have a ceiling mounted Jet air cleaner above the saw but I don't think the video shows this clearly.

Thank-for your response. Yes, it was the dust port on the blade guard that caught my eye. Did not know it was included. Dewalt has something similar on some of their larger job site saws. Does it help? Is it effective? Are there any issues with it? I have been thinking about making something similar. I have heard that overhead, or above-table, dust collection can make a significant difference. Of course, implementations vary.

Hi Joe, Yes the dust collection on the blade does make a difference. Without it I find that the blade throws a certain amount of dust up in the air and also back towards the user. This prevents all that but it does have it's restrictions. The guard mounts on to the riving knife (splitter) and thus reduces the thickness of material you can run under it. This probably reduces the capacity of the blade to about half. This is the only negative to this type of dust collection. To avoid this you would have to come up with a design that does not rely on actually fixing to the riving knife and can be adjusted up and down. I have seen some designs of this type on RU-vid but these are more complicated to build.

Hi Robert, I did think about this but my hose is long enough to reach both extractors from the same position. Thanks for your interest in the project and for your comment.

Mr C - Pleased that you like the video and that you are still watching.

Not sure which measurement you mean but none of it was very scientific. Just did what I thought after watching other people on RU-vid.

OK all clear.

Thanks for the comment.

Michael Milliken, Glad you liked the project. The barrel came from Amazon and you can get different sizes. Mine was a 30 litre barrel. Thanks for the comment.

Bonsii SpaceGirl, In theory, you don't need the cone at the base as a Thein baffle should work on it's own, but you would then need a big enough barrel to fit the size of the baffle. In my case I did not want a huge barrel so I needed to reduce the size from the baffle to the 30 litre barrel and the cone was a way to do this. This design also allows you to easily see when the barrel is full. Thanks for your interest and your comments.

Music was all from online Royalty Free provider I was subscribed to at the time. Only available with a subscription. Thanks for your interest.

Thank you - much appreciated.

Hi Bill, Glad you like the project and the video. Hope you get your man shed soon. The hose from the extractor goes to the side outlet and the top hose goes to the machine making the dust/chips. Hope this helps.

Hi Bill, Not such a stupid question after all - just s stupid answer. I suddenly had a thought that I had told you wrong so to clarify - the extractor hose goes in the top and the hose from the machine / dust source, goes to the side outlet.

Yo Soy, Espero que les haya gustado el resto del video

Ruben Baldacci, Thank you for the comment.

Hi Iginio, Yes I did try to find polycarbonate sheet but couldn't find any locally. I will definitely use it if I do anything similar in the future. Thanks for the interest.

Agree 100%

BERGEVIN Frederic, Glad you liked the video. The product I used is called Lazerbond which only cures under UV light. You apply the glue and then shine the built in light on it to cure. This allows you to get the joint in the correct position before the glue cures. Much easier than superglue. You can get this product from Amazon.

Dewi Evans, I think 2mm polycarbonate would be just fine. Mine was 2mm Acrylic glass but this cracks too easily. Polycarbonate should be better. Thanks for your interest.

@@PeterWoodbineWoodturning when you have a large enough oven temper the sheets for bending, and the finished assembly at 70-80C and let it cool very slowly. This removes all tension, and avoids cracking.

Fabrimaker, I sort of get your point but I was working with the machines I already had in the shop. Whichever machine it connects to obviously provides the suction power and the barrel collects the heavier material before it gets to the machine collection. The extractor with the bag is more of a "chip extractor" for machines like a planer thicknesser which produces a lot of heavy chips rather than dust. With this the barrel is much easier to empty than the bag and it's only the fine dust that gets through which goes into the filter bag and not the collection bag. This however is not an actual fine dust extractor and really fine dust can escape from the filter bag. With the actual dust extractor, it again collects the heavier particles of dust and only the finer particles go through into the extractor. This saves the filter from clogging up therefore you don't need to clean or replace so often. There are numerous videos out there on this subject and you will note from the comments on this video that several people think I was totally wrong with my effort. Therefore I suppose it all depends on your intended use and what type of machine you are connecting to. Sounds to me like you need a basic shop vac rather than a chip extractor. Good luck.

Yeah I figured that was the case. Which is why I wanted to clarify that I wasn't trying to be "that guy" and pick apart every little choice you made from the safety of my keyboard. I was asking because I don't have either and am hoping to get myself a nice dust collection system for as cheaply as I possibly can

Will Clements , This is just a guard / hood that came with the table saw and fits directly to the riving knife with a locking bolt. I link this to my shop vac with the flexible hose you can see on the video. Thanks for your interest.

Thamrong SitTan, The cyclonic action allows the dust to fall into the drum which prevents it passing through into the vacuum bag and clogging up the filter. Thank you for your interest.

Hi Mark, Fair point but I just felt that I needed to fix it to the rings first before cutting it. Thanks for the comment.

It's all about the build. Go for it.

Hi Lambert, Glad you liked the humorous part but I hope your cat wasn't freaked out too much. Thanks for the comment.

Hi Kevin, I have had several comments regarding the use of polycarbonate and have explained that I could not source any locally at the time. If I did it again, I would definitely use it. Thanks for your interest.

Валерий Смирнов, Yes and it took ages to train him to this level.

@@PeterWoodbineWoodturning Was Grissom the first instructor?

Alex Ortner, Unfortunately I could not source any polycarbonate at the time so I had to make do with acrylic. Hope you enjoyed the project and thanks for the comment.

Альберт Минязов, thanks for the thumbs up.

also sorry but what are those buckets marketed for? would like to know where to get one.

Hi Mike, I have recently upgraded my chip extractor to a CX3000 and my dust extractor is an RSDE2-A. You can view the specifications of both these on the Record Power web site. The buckets you refer to in your other comment are from Amazon. I f you search for "airtight storage containers" they will show up in various capacities. I used the 30 litre size. Thanks for your interest in this project.

Nicola Gazzaneo, Grazie per il commento.

Hi Helen, It starts with the storage bucket and depends what size you get. I got a 30 litre bucket from Amazon and the ring to fit this lid is approx 250mm diameter. Therefore the size for the bottom of the cone is 250mm to match this ring. Height of cone I made 150mm and the diameter increases to approx 350mm, to match the drum on top which I made 250mm high. I don't believe any of these dimensions are critical (except the bucket lid) and I would probably reduce the height of the top drum slightly if I did it again. I would also try to use polycarbonate sheet if possible as the Acrylic glass I used cracks very easily which is quite frustrating. Anyway, good luck with your build and I hope you have fun making your own cyclone.

AJ 7, You know what they say - can't please all of the people all of the time. Thanks for the comment.

I agree. This is a very nice project!

There is actually a great deal of controversy about different aspects of the design--should the inlet be at the top or at the bottom of the chamber? Should the outlet be a pipe that extends down near the bottom of the chamber or near or at the top? Should the outlet pipe be straight or fluted? Should the opening in the baffle be 1 1/8 inch or 1 1/4 inch wide, or even something else? Should the opening in the baffle start just below the inlet or some distance ahead of it? How tall should the chamber be---just slightly bigger than the inlet diameter, or exactly a multiple of the diameter, or just something random? Should the inlet be on the side like Peter did it (the Thein adherents call at "top-hat" design, or should it come in from the top with a 90 degree fitting inside to direct the air-flow? You can see many of the arguments for and against each of these at www.jpthien.com/smf/index.php. Many of the people there are very smart, and some of them have built and tested (some with sophisticated engineering instruments) many different designs. My conclusion? They all work quite well. Most of the differences in design result in only small differenced in performance. I think that this is a very nice design, and I will borrow many different aspects of it for my next separator. Oh, I started out to explain why some people might click "thumbs down". Some people feel so passionately about some of the different aspects of the design that I'm sure some of them would think Peter was all wrong.

Donnie, I can assure you no harm came to kitty, in fact he seemed to enjoy it. He got a bit dusty though.

Julio C.P. Don't fully understand the comment but thanks anyway.

Michael Dudley Welch, I note your comments. A couple of other viewers have suggested the use of polycarbonate, but in a more positive manner. Having used both types of materials throughout my working life in the construction industry, I am fully aware of the pros & cons of both. This is why I made reference in the video to the possibility of cracking of the acrylic and had you read some of the other comments, I stated that the only reason I used acrylic, is that I could not source any polycarbonate in my local area at the time. Thank you for your interest.

Peter Woodbine , My sincerest apologies for offending. I wasn’t very diplomatic. I assumed, and I shouldn’t have, that you weren’t familiar with the differences between acrylic and polycarbonate. You built a damn fine Thein separator! (And the video was excellent too)

Michael Dudley Welch, Apology not necessary. I'm just pleased that you liked the project and enjoyed the video.

Let's Make it, Not sure I understand what you believe I did not show. If you mean how to connect the hoses, the top outlet hose goes to the extractor and the side inlet takes the collection hose which I believe the video shows.

Олег Дьяконов, Your comments are duly noted. If I was trying to make a perfect version, I might be worried. However, if you read the video description, this is my version of a mixture of various methods/designs I have seen before on RU-vid. It's not even trying to be a true cyclone but more of a Thein-baffle with a reducing cone on the base. At the end of the day it reduces the amount of waste going into the actual extractor and if the smaller particles get past it into the extractor, that's where they were going anyway and depending on the extractor, that's where they stay. Sorry you didn't like my version but plenty of other people seem to, so it works for me.

@@PeterWoodbineWoodturning Your work is beautiful, BUT no more than that, but there is little benefit from it - if in an industrial (scientifically developed) cyclone filter efficiency is about 95-97%, then in your case more than half is lost, in fact it is for large and medium particles, and dust the whole will fly out through the bag, during painting it will interfere, especially during varnishing ...

Олег Дьяконов, Efficiency depends on what the design was intended for. Mine was made to collect the bulk of the waste created and prevent constant changing of the bag which it did very successfully. As you will see from the video, there was nothing in the bag after the test. As you will also see from the video, I have 2 extractors. One is the bag type chip collector which I use for the planer-thicknesser and the lathe which create chips and large shavings. The other is a fine filter extractor which is used when sanding and with the table saw and band saw which create fine dust particles. This also works well with the larger waste but obviously the finer particles that get through, finish up in the extractor filter so technically this is not so efficient. Getting back to the bag extractor, if you look at the end of the video, this is completely covered in a sound deadening enclosure, (including the bag) and any fine dust which may escape the baffle/cyclone, then the bag and then the enclosure, will be collected by my ceiling mounted air cleaner, so I guess I'm reasonably protected from airborne particles. Thanks for your interest.

Peter Woodbine Peter, Great video. I really enjoy your posts! Have you researched enough to suggest a setup that will catch drywall dust? Thank You, Petra

@@petratreemer3140, Thank you for your comment. I am pleased that you enjoyed the video. Unfortunately I have not carried out any further research and therefore feel unable to offer any suggestions.