# Thien Top Hat with 6" inlet/outlet



## onesojourner (Sep 13, 2013)

I picked up a Grizzly G0548 from the outlet center the other day. I was strongly considering going with the HF collector, but I got the grizzly for $325. Anyways this will allow me to go with 6" ducting. I am building my top hat out of junk I have laying around. The diameter is 20 inches and the height is 12 inches. The slot is 1/8th and the top and bottom are both 1/2". The sides are 2 layers of glued up aluminum flashing. I am not sure if this is to tall or not. The inlet is a 6" metal hvac duct that I have made a rectangle to get more of the air flow in contact with the sides of the separator. Here are a few pics: 














































The inlet is in. It still needs to be cleaned up and sealed. 



















This is just an experiment. So far I have spent only time on this, so if it does not work I am not out any money. I may have the height to tall so I am not sure if this will work.


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## PhilBa (Jun 30, 2014)

This is more like a vortex than thien's design. I've thought about building something similar. Very interested in your results. In theory, this should produce less resistance than a true Thien separator.

The other thing I've been thinking about is how to make the outlet more gradual so as to not present a sharp corner to the wind stream.

What is the purpose of over-sizing the top and bottom plates? Looks like about 4" larger radius.


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## onesojourner (Sep 13, 2013)

I oversized it to add strength to the setup. I think I will end up trimming it down once the setup is finalized. I want to make sure it is going to work properly before I spend any more time on that aspect though.


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## onesojourner (Sep 13, 2013)

Alright I have things nearly set up now. I have done some testing and the Thien top hat is performing. I have the outlet set at 3 inches from the baffle. I have it set to be adjustable so I may play with it a bit. 



















The bag had no significant increase from what was in it. I did see some very fine just coming from an uncapped hole in the collector, so I am not sure how it is doing with the fine stuff.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

onesojourner said:


> I picked up a Grizzly G0548 from the outlet center the other day. I was strongly considering going with the HF collector, but I got the grizzly for $325.


Nice price for the Grizzly!!! Filter canister and all! Wow!



onesojourner said:


> Anyways this will allow me to go with 6" ducting. I am building my top hat out of junk I have laying around. The diameter is 20 inches and the height is 12 inches. The slot is 1/8th and the top and bottom are both 1/2". The sides are 2 layers of glued up aluminum flashing. I am not sure if this is to tall or not. The inlet is a 6" metal hvac duct that I have made a rectangle to get more of the air flow in contact with the sides of the separator.


Nice build! I recently finished my Top Hat with 6" inlet/outlet. It is not as tall as yours, only 8", but it sure works better than my previous "in-the-barrel" type. The 6" ports make a big difference with my 20" planer and 12" jointer. No more clogs.....


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## onesojourner (Sep 13, 2013)

ORBlackFZ1 said:


> Nice price for the Grizzly!!! Filter canister and all! Wow!
> 
> 
> 
> Nice build! I recently finished my Top Hat with 6" inlet/outlet. It is not as tall as yours, only 8", but it sure works better than my previous "in-the-barrel" type. The 6" ports make a big difference with my 20" planer and 12" jointer. No more clogs.....



Thanks. I have been working on getting my ducting ran for this system. I have not decided what I am going to do about blast gates yet. I will probably build my own. I did suck everything out of the bottom of my cabinet saw and virtually nothing made it past the separator. My only other test now is going to to be if it can swallow the chips from the jointer and planer.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

Onesojourner:

Now that is some real iron!!! 

Eric


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## onesojourner (Sep 13, 2013)

Indeed. They don't make it like that anymore.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

onesojourner said:


> Thanks. I have been working on getting my ducting ran for this system.


Ducting....I have avoided ducting by including two (2) important requirements when I designed the woodshop:

1. I designed two (2) work stations in the middle of my 500 sqft woodshop. Equipment such as the table saw, planer, jointer, bandsaw, compound miter saw are moved in and out of these stations depending on what process I am preforming. 
->Milling rough cut lumber - 12" jointer + 20" planer
->Cutting straight parts - Table saw + compound miter saw
->Cutting irregular parts - Band saw + table saw
etc. You get the idea...
Smaller equipment (bench sander, oscillating sander, scroll saw, etc) can be used on the work benches that are not part of the work stations.

2. Designing my dust collector to be moved in between the two (2) work stations and to any other location in the shop.



onesojourner said:


> I have not decided what I am going to do about blast gates yet. I will probably build my own.


I have seen quite a few discussions, photos, plans, etc from people that have made their own blast gates. I would guess that a search by Google would give you some ideas.



onesojourner said:


> I did suck everything out of the bottom of my cabinet saw and virtually nothing made it past the separator.


That is great! Welcome to the world of cleaner air, courtesy of the Thien pre-separator. My table saw cabinet stays clean now. Prior to adding the Thien Top Hat, the bottom of my cabinet would fill up.



onesojourner said:


> My only other test now is going to to be if it can swallow the chips from the jointer and planer.


*Jet JJ-12 Jointer* - I struggled with the Jointer chips. The chips were always getting clogged at the jointer's output port. I redesigned the port (See the attached photo) and changed the port size to a 6". I switched to a 10' long 5" flex hose from the pre-separator to the jointer and the jointer doesn't clog any more.

Now the clog is in the pre-separator. When I am jointing wide boards (8"+), the curls are too long and get straddled between the pre-separator and the barrel at the end of the pre-separator slot. I recently added a 2" diameter cutout to the end of the slot, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet with the jointer. I may never know if that cutout helped, because I went ahead and purchased a Byrd-Shelix spiral head for the jointer. (Maybe, I will just test the cutout before I switch to the spiral head.)

The configured maple that I have being jointing was tearing with new & sharp Jointer blades. I took the boards over to an 18" spiral head planer at a friend's house and the surface turned out beautiful. Since I still have about 600 bdft of the configured maple, I decided to switch the jointer to a spiral head.

*Grizzly 20" (G5850Z) Planer* - The Grizzly planer has worked great with the pre-separator. I have had NO clogs at all, even planing 20" wide boards.

I did recently add an air straightener to the Thien Top Hat. It feels like it improved the air flow a little bit.

Enjoy your cleaner woodworking environment! Your lungs will thank you in the future!


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## onesojourner (Sep 13, 2013)

I would love to see more pictures of your setup.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Dec 25, 2013)

*Ask and you shall receive.....*



onesojourner said:


> I would love to see more pictures of your setup.


Nice link to your new construction project!

Here are some more photos of my dust collection. You can see where I started when I started the thread. I just posted some photos of the completed dust collection.

http://www.woodworkingtalk.com/f32/pipe-diameter-vs-performance-59625/

Let me know if you have any questions that I can answer.

Eric


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