Dust collector lid

[Shikyo Sawada]

I have been using a 13 gal. Rigid vacuum for cleaning wood shaving from the floor. I often had to empty it three times in a day turning. I had been wondering about purchasing a lid from LV, however, I at last made a Thien separator lid for a 32 gal. Brute garbage bin a few days ago. It works very well with my 8" jointer, however, the space between the lid and the baffle is
clogged right way if I try to suck wood turning shavings. I guess an 1.25" cutout of the baffle is too narrow fro the shavings. The lid works fine for picking shavings from the floor without the baffle, so it isn't the total waste
for the money and time I spent.
I want to hear from people who've been using Thien separators if you have the same kind of problems.😕
I am a new turner and turn mostly wet wood.

 

[Rob Wallace]

Use the dust collector to collect DUST, not shavings/chips...

Many years ago I gave up using any form of dust collector for capturing and removing woodturning shavings, and use the vacuum-based dust collection system during the sanding operations which is the critical stage of the woodturning process that generates the fine suspended wood dust that is very important to catch at the source and remove from the shop air with efficient filtering before your lungs do it for you. I think that the vast majority of turners do not use their dust collection system for removing shavings generated at the lathe, particularly when rough-turning. It is a bit too much to ask a typical woodshop vacuum and ducting system (or a hose and separator in your case?) to efficiently gather the often bulky wood shavings made at the lathe; such a collector system would have to be very large to do this effectively. Sucking large, curly and interlocking shavings through a dust collection system is an open invitation to generating many clogs in a short period of time, no matter how good your separator may be.

I routinely use a broom, a small rake, and a small shovel (or huge dustpan!) to remove the shavings - there are far too many, with too large a volume, to consider using a vacuum system to collect them efficiently.

My suggestion is that you re-think your strategy and maximize efficiency of actual DUST collection when you are sanding, rather than asking your dust collector to handle huge volumes of wood shavings. The latter can be much more easily handled directly, instead of having to routinely deal with clogs and constant emptying and cleaning of the collector's containers.

There may be other opinions out there, but this is mine; it's been done this way in my shop for nearly 20 years without many problems....

YMMV,

Rob Wallace

 

[Clifton C]

Shikyo,
Had to look up the Thien Separator. I can see it working well for things like the jointer, table saw and bandsaw, but green wood shavings, long and stringy, thick and curly are almost sure to give you problems. I use a pitch fork to clean up the large shavings, then a shovel and then the dust collector. My dust collector is a standard 2 bag Delta attached to a 32 gallon bin with an off the shelf lid from woodcraft. I’m sure it’s the same one from LV. I probably empty the 32 gallon bin every few days, but then, I ‘m usually standing on 3 to 4 inches of shavings. Met some girls from a local maid cleaning franchise the other day and tried to talk them into cleaning my shop, after they stopped laughing and wiped the tears from their eyes they said “noâ€, they said more then that, but that’s all I can print…
cc

 

[john lucas]

I purchased on of the Rockler Garbage can seperators. I use it between the jointer and planer but it cuts the air volume by a huge amount and reduced the pickup at the lathe. I like it for the planer and jointer because they produce so much shavings.
Like Rob I don't really try to pick up the shavings. Lathe shavings are just too big and heavy for smaller dust collectors to pick up at the source. I have a Jet 1100 CFM model. I just want to pull in as much airborne dust as possible. I connected the lathe dust collector hose straight to my dust collector to keep the volume as high as I can. That seems to do a pretty good job.

 

[MichaelMouse]

I am a new turner and turn mostly wet wood.

All the more reason to get the stuff out of the shop and not leave it in a closed container where heat might build.

I turn toward the headstock at all times when roughing, so I drop my shavings into a collection bag directly when working outside, indirectly when working inside. Helps to have a table and wall behind the lathe to do the gross collection. Here's what things look like near the end of the roughing process. The leaf bag holds itself open, and slides right up to the front of the lathe. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Forged-Peel-Long-View.jpg

After a couple-three roughs, and at the end of the day I do the Santa act up the stairs rather than the chimney. Catches 95% or better fore and aft. My dust collector does the same percentage or better when I sand, only there I can attach the collector in front or behind depending on where I'm sanding. http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d160/GoodOnesGone/Dryer-Duct.jpg

 

[Shikyo Sawada]

Thank you everybody.
I was expecting much more than the Thien lid was capable.
I'm glad to learn I probably didn't make the lid wrong.🙂
When I got to a LV next time I will get a dustpan from them.