Portable 1.5HP DC with easy-empty Thien intake

[Chris_B]

I borrowed (stole?) ideas from a bunch of places for this project, but thought I would post this since I have not previously seen a portable DC with an easy-to-empty can. Overall, this thing truly sucks!!



The slide-out drawer is a recycled 12 gallon shop-vac base. Big enough to run for hours, but small enough that it is easy to empty.



My previous DC was a 1 HP Steel City, and this is a *huge* functional upgrade with only a small increase in footprint. I park this DC near my tools, and move the 4" flex to whatever station is in use. This is not as convenient as a fixed installation, but is far, far better than dual shop-vacs!

I had originally planned to install a large Clear-Vue cyclone, but the realities of life in a garage shop made a fixed installation not feasible. Half the time I am working in the driveway, which is a long, long way from my planned DC installation.
Fortunately I think this thing is powerful enough to serve as a fixed DC source if I ever decide to permanently exile our cars from the garage.

I know that the Thien separator is not a "real" cyclone, but so far the only time that I've gotten *any* debris in the plastic bag under the Wynn filter has been while testing it as a yard-waste collector (which overwhelms the Thien slot). Otherwise the bag is completely empty.

The Thien intake is constructed from MDF slices. Fortunately a colleague suggested 'lightweight' MDF, otherwise I would probably have a hernia! Now I just have to find a use for all these MDF pieces that look like comic strip text-bubbles.



For more details, there are a few more photos at this link.

[toolguy1000]

congratulations on a very nice modification. appears to be well thought and neatly executed. but what were you referring to as "lightweight" MDF? i only know the stuff from the box stores and the 3/4" 4x8 sheets are hardly lightweight.

[Chris_B]

Thank you!

Some lumber stores (not HD or Lowe's) carry a lighter-density MDF material. It is a little bit more expensive than the regular stuff, but the weight is much closer to plywood. IOW, it is light*er*, but hardly light. Regular MDF seems to be impregnated with lead.

Apparently one of the trade-offs with the lighter-weight MDF is that it tears out and sags more easily than regular MDF. Neither of these issues was a concern in this application.

[Chris_B]

FYI: Comparison of "lightweight" & standard MDF

Here is a recent price-list from a lumber yard with a variety of sheet materials. While the absolute prices probably vary considerably by region, the relative pricing should be pretty close. In this case, "lightweight" MDF is 16% ($5) more per 3/4" sheet, and about 1/2 the cost of shop-grade birch plywood.

The weight reduction is about 30%, and the strength reduction is closer to 40+%. See here and here.

For applications requiring strength or sag resistance, I think most folks typically use plywood (and/or fastener inserts), so the lighter MDF variant should be generally useful. It is certainly easier to handle!

[LCHIEN]

if its significantly (30% would qualify in my book) less dense then can they still call it Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) or is it now light density Fiberboard (LDF)?

[Chris_B]

if its significantly (30% would qualify in my book) less dense then can they still call it Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) or is it now light density Fiberboard (LDF)?

I also wondered about this. "Lighter" MDF certainly stretches the definition, but I think "LDF" = particle board, and "HDF" = hardboard (/Masonite). This stuff definitely machines and behaves much more like standard MDF than particle board. The only way I can tell the difference is by the weight.

Think of it like 'Light' Ice Cream. Some of the brands get awfully close to "Ice Milk."

[lrogers]

Sweet! Isn't it nice to have a project that really sucks and that's a good thing?!?!?!
Was this your own design or was it made from plans? Either way, nice job.

[Chris_B]

Sweet! Isn't it nice to have a project that really sucks and that's a good thing?!?!?!
Was this your own design or was it made from plans? Either way, nice job.

Thank you! Yes, I am getting a lot of mileage (and sometimes confused looks) out of variations on "this sucks."

This was my own design, but I got inspiration and ideas from a bunch of other posts (particularly on Phil Thien's forum).

[JimD]

How many slices are in your Thien intake?

Looks nice. I have been thinking of trying something like this on my 1hp Delta DC. I use it in one location and it will remove the debris pretty well from everything except the planner. Sometimes the table saw 4 inch flex hose fills up too. Probably when I have more than one gate open at a time. I also use a Wynn filter cartridge and find it get dirty fairly frequently. I am hoping something like this would help that too. I also like the idea of a smaller container on a slide out. I had been thinking of trying to find a drum that fit and I can but only from McMaster Carr and I am a bit afraid of their shipping costs for something like a large drum.

Jim

[Chris_B]

How many slices are in your Thien intake?

13 total, including the top (with the intake hole) and bottom (with the slot). So the curved section is 11 x 3/4" MDF slices. This is actually one more than I planned, but I made one extra slice in case I screwed-up, and decided to simply include that in the stack as well.

For a bin, consider searching CL for a cheap shop-vac, or if you have a freecycle in your area post a 'wanted' for a shop-vac with a dead motor. I considered a small trash can, but could not find any strong enough to handle the vacuum - and the cost was more than I paid for the shop-vac.

[Rand]

Pretty ingenious!

Nice job.

[Sid]

Very nice!

It looks like you could have saved a fair amount of weight by cutting holes in at least three of the corners in the 11 center slices of MDF.

Sid

[Chris_B]

Very nice!

It looks like you could have saved a fair amount of weight by cutting holes in at least three of the corners in the 11 center slices of MDF.

Sid

Thank you!

Yes, that is a good idea. It would have been fairly easy to jigsaw holes in the three corners, particularly since no precision is needed.