# Advice on Delta AP400



## Theobroma

I've been reading up in this forum about all the different aspects of dust collection from PVC vs Metal duct to micron size of the bags to adding a separator. I'm getting ready to get back home after being on assignment for a while and I decided one of the things I was going to do was to finally set up an in-place dust collection system.

Years ago, I bought a Delta AP400 1 HP dust collector. At the time, it served me well. Reading the articles here about the micron rating of bags and looking up my model, I noticed it has 30 micron bags. This obviously must be changed. My plan is to buy plastic bags for the bottom and a 1 micron bag for the top.

I fabricated a dust hook-up for my contractor's table saw and was amazed by the reduction in sawdust. But, when I used it on my 12" planer, the shavings clogged it. Because of that, I had planned on building a separator. I was thrilled when I read all of the threads on the Thien separator and am planning on building one in a trash can.

I've also read several threads here and articles elsewhere and I'm starting to get the feeling that a 1 HP unit pulling 650 CFM is not good for more than being a wheel around, one machine direct hook-up collector. My final goal is to have the dust collector sitting in a corner, hooked up to a Thien-style separator and the separator hooked up to an network of 4" PVC. The network will have a few blast gates located around the shop and I'm planning on only having one gate open at a time for the machine that will be running. My shop is about 15' x 20' and I envision that the distance from the separator/collector to the furthest gate should be no more than 25-30 lineal feet of run with 3 fittings (wye or elbow) in the run.

So, here's my questions... From a practical standpoint, will this work? Will the separator add to much burden to the system or will it help in the long run?

Any thoughts from people with experience on this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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## woodnthings

*you have done your research well*

All the points you made are correct. The Delta is too small, the planer makes lots more larger chips and will clog a small line, the separator works great and don't sap power/suction, the filters stay cleaner longer, 30 microns is too large, ...etc. :thumbsup: bill


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## thegrgyle

The separator will actually make any DC work more efficiently, and if you were to get a canister filter, with more square footage of filter space, that would help too. Unforturnately, your delta (650 cfm) is a one use, drag around unit. If you really want to get an overwhelming amount of info regarding dust collection, and the minimums needed to do what you envision, you might want to check Bill Pentz's site. He has done a great deal of research regarding this. He advocates his cyclone, which in essence would the best set up, but it takes up alot of room, and could be costly to build. His cyclone is just a separator, but a very good one at that. The Thein basically uses the same cyclonic action, but in a more compact space. There is a chart of the basic minimum requirements in his research too. That is if your DC is running at peak performance, and is hooked up directly to whatever your are using, with a clean filter.

Hope this helps....

Fabian


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## Theobroma

thegrgyle said:


> The separator will actually make any DC work more efficiently, and if you were to get a canister filter, with more square footage of filter space, that would help too. Unforturnately, your delta (650 cfm) is a one use, drag around unit. If you really want to get an overwhelming amount of info regarding dust collection, and the minimums needed to do what you envision, you might want to check Bill Pentz's site. He has done a great deal of research regarding this. He advocates his cyclone, which in essence would the best set up, but it takes up alot of room, and could be costly to build. His cyclone is just a separator, but a very good one at that. The Thein basically uses the same cyclonic action, but in a more compact space. There is a chart of the basic minimum requirements in his research too. That is if your DC is running at peak performance, and is hooked up directly to whatever your are using, with a clean filter.
> 
> Hope this helps....
> 
> Fabian


Thank you for the link. Overwhelming is an apt description of the site. 

I spent the good portion of Sunday night's shift reading through Thein's website and researching his top hat type separator. I'm thinking that's the way to go. Right now, my plan is to upgrade the bag, remove the main body of my dust collector and mount it higher up on a larger cart with room for a separator on a garbage can under the inlet. Then, I'll just wheel it around my shop. 

I only use one machine at a time anyway so it's no big deal to have to set it up. Quick disconnects on the machines should minimize the hassle. On the brighter side, I was still in the process of figuring out how the run the duct and what to do with pick-up points and this will remove that bit of work. I'm very dissapointed in Berland's House of Tools. I went in and showed a layout of my shop to them and they told me deffinatively that the AP400 would handle any shop I could build in that space with the caveat that only one machine runs at a time. I'm guessing they wanted to make a sale right then.

You live and learn.


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