Thien Cyclone Separator

 With all the reporting that FWW has done re dust collection, it is disappointing that no mention has been made of the Thien cyclone separator design. The design, by Phil Thien, is far more easily built than the usual cyclone cone, is adaptable to many dust collection systems, and seems very scalable, from shop vac size up. I understand that Mr. Thien has applied for a patent, but also has been extremely generous with his design and hosts a discussion forum in which he answers questions and shares comments from people that have used his design. For my shop, I converted a circa 1990 3/4 HP Delta 50-179 two-stage collector with a 35 gallon barrel to a Thien separator. The result is shown in the photo; the output from it is so free of dust and debris that I simply feed it outside while the chips and sawdust are collected in the barrel. The hose shown is a Rockler extendable dust hose that easily reaches every corner of my 16x24 shop. (Note that my shop is near the middle of a 7 acre triangle, with more acres between me and neighbors. The output is directed away from our buildings, but there is virtually no evidence of output on vegetation outside the shop.) Interested folks can learn about the separator design at www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm