# 2nd Stage Canister



## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

Hi everyone:

I just finished my 2nd stage canister and I thought that I would show a couple of pictures. It was quite fun to make! 

The canister is a 16 sided polygon. It has a 16 sided liner at the top (and bottom) that you can see in the picture. The liners were created on the table saw with two jigs. The first jig created an octagon (8 sides) and the second jig changed the octagon to a 16 sided polygon.

The back has two (2) 2" dia x 48" long poles to hold the 4" dia dust collection hoses when they are not in use.

The front has a 1-1/2" x 12" clear viewing window that shows how full the canister is.

The base has two (2) double locking casters on the front and two (2) fixed casters on the back. 

I still have to add a baffle to the top. That is this afternoon's project.

Glue up was done with the assistance of masking tape and four (4) band clamps.

I finished it with Watco original.

Enjoy the photos!

Eric


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Nice looking job. Let us know how it works.


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Nice looking job. Let us know how it works.


So far, it works great! I used it with my bandsaw today. 

This afternoon, I added a handle made from some scrap curly maple.

I also added a baffle from some 1/2" scrap plywood. I used the Thien design (The Thien Cyclone Separator Lid w/ the Thien Cyclone Separator Baffle. I am curious to see how it works. Maybe over the weekend, I can cut up some plywood for my next project and test out the new 2nd stage canister.

Eric


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## Thos913 (Mar 4, 2012)

*Great Job!!*

I am thinking about building one myself and was curious as to the dimensions of yours. Thanks


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## randyruth (Feb 20, 2012)

Did you use any dowels or biscuits to join the sides together or did you just glue the edges? You do nice work!! I will get to your level one of these years!!


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

Thos913 said:


> I am thinking about building one myself and was curious as to the dimensions of yours. Thanks


Kenny: 

Here are two (2) more photos of the finished project. I have added a baffle based on Thein's recommendations and a handle. The handle is very helpful when I am moving the barrel around the shop. With the swivel casters on the front and the fixed casters on the back that handle works great.

I have not figured out how to post a Sketchup drawing to a thread yet, so PM me if you would like the Sketchup file. It contains the drawing with dimensions for the barrel.

Eric


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

randyruth said:


> Did you use any dowels or biscuits to join the sides together or did you just glue the edges? You do nice work!! I will get to your level one of these years!!


Randolph:

No dowels, biscuits or any other joinery was necessary. There is very little pressure or stress on the slats, so I believe that just a nice solid glue joint will be fine. The trick is to use masking tape on the outside of the joints before you put the glue on. I don't have any pictures, but I will try to explain the process. 

After all the slats are cut with the 11.25 degree angle:

1. Layup. Lay the slats on a flat surface with the (finished) outside surface up. (That should be the widest side up)

2. Align the slats. Push all the slats together side by side with the tops aligned.

3. Tape the joints. Put about six (6) inches of 3/4" wide masking tape at the top and bottom of each slat across the two (2) adjacent edges. The tape will hold the pieces together during dry fit and glue up. Make sure there are no spaces between the slats.

4. Dry fit the pieces together. The easiest way I found was to use a scrap board that is at least as long as all the slats are wide. A 2x4 or 1x4 works fine. Use four (4) clamps to clamp the board under the slats just at the top. The board will help you lift up the slats all at once. After you have all the slats vertical, you can start at one end and release the first clamp. "Roll" those slats together. Now, release the next clamp and "roll" those slats together. Continue with the process until all of the slats are fit together. If the slats all come together properly, then your 11.25 degree angle was cut precisely. If not, well....good luck with that one! 

5. Clamping. I used four (4) Jet strap clamps (which I notice have been discontinued on Amazon). Find some good ones if you don't have any. They come in handy for a lot of things. You might find them by searching for "ratchet tie downs". The strap clamps will allow you to pull all the joints together for a good glue up.

6. Dis-assembly. Undo the straps and clamp the board back on the slats while they are vertical.

7. Layup before glue up. Lay the slats back on the flat surface with the finished inside surface up this time. The masking taped sides should be down. If you don't want glue on the flat surface, make sure you cover it before you lay the slats on it. During glue up it will get plenty of glue on it.

8. Glue up. Squeeze glue on both sides of each joint and spread the glue evenly. I used the Type III glue for two (2) reasons. 1. It doesn't set up as quickly as the Type I and II before you put the joint together. 2. Some of the wood I work with is green (and wet). I did not want my joints to come apart, because of wet saw dust being in my barrel.

9. Assembly. Repeat steps 4 & 5. Make sure that you have a plastic mallet available to align the slats both vertically and horizontally into place before you tighten the clamps. 

Let me know if you have questions.

Eric


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## Cherryville Chuck (Sep 28, 2010)

Thanks for the extra photos Eric. Did you notice a difference in efficiency after you installed the baffle?


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## randyruth (Feb 20, 2012)

Eric, Thanks for the explination. I might try something similar but maybe not so many sides.
Randy


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Thanks for the extra photos Eric. Did you notice a difference in efficiency after you installed the baffle?


Charles:

I have not been able to test with and without the baffle properly. You might want to search this forum for "Thein". There are plenty of posts from members that have added the baffle and found a significant difference.

Eric


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

randyruth said:


> Eric, Thanks for the explination. I might try something similar but maybe not so many sides.
> Randy


Hey Randy:

8 sides is pretty easy and should work well. Probably a lot easier to glue up also. Use a jig on your table saw to cut the eight sides for the top and bottom of the barrel. 

1. Start with a perfectly square piece of wood. The dimensions should be the same as the inside "diameter" of your final barrel dimensions.

2. Create the jig from the attached drawing. I used 3/4" plywood, but you can use what works for you.

3. Create a paper template for your octagon and attach it to the square piece created in step 1 OR draw your octagon on the square piece with precision.

4. Use the jig to cut each of the corners off of the square piece. Make sure the piece is seated correctly in the jig for each cut.

5. Enjoy your new octagon.

For the barrel slats of the octagon, use 22.5 degree cuts on each side of each slat. If you want to test your table saw blade angle, just start with cutting both sides of one slat. Cut the slat into eight (8) pieces that are 1" long. Masking tape the pieces together to see how they fit. If they come together well, then your table saw blade angle is set properly. If not, readjust your blade angle and cut another test slat.

Post some pictures when you finish.

Eric


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

Cherryville Chuck said:


> Thanks for the extra photos Eric. Did you notice a difference in efficiency after you installed the baffle?


After using the second stage for a couple of projects, I have found that the baffle helps a lot. It was worth the time and effort to add it in. The baffle appears to keep the air flow at the top instead of sucking out sawdust that has already settled in the bottom of the barrel.

Eric


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## ORBlackFZ1 (Jul 14, 2011)

*Update*

After using 4" flexible hose to all of my equipment for a couple of years now, I decided that I should do some more research on improving the dust collection. The alternatives that I came up with were:

1. Switch to dedicated metal piping. 

2. Replace my 4" flexible hose with 6" flexible hose

3. Improve each individual piece of equipment dust collection.

4. Status Quo (do nothing).

Alternative 1, still does not make sense for my small (500 sqft) shop. I have two (2) areas in the center of the shop that I swap equipment to when they are being used. Otherwise, the equipment is staged on a wall, sometimes, two (2) pieces deep. The two work areas are easily reached by a 10' hose from the DC.

Alternative 2 was the one I selected to get started with because it promised the best improvement for the time and effort. Alternative 3 is a "must do" after alternative 2 is completed.

I created a new Top Hat Separator (See Photo #6) that has 6" input and output ports. It also allowed me to use my 40+ gallon barrel to it's fullest capacity (See Photo #1). The in-barrel design worked great, but used about 25% of the barrel capacity.

I also created a 6" hose clamp for my Jet DC-1100 (See Photo #4). The DC-1100 will accept a 6" flexible hose on its intake port, but I wanted to be able to quickly remove the hose for cleaning and movement.

The Top Hat Separator works much better than the in-barrel separator. Both are based on the same design principles. I believe that the implementation of the principles when I created the Top Hat, allows it to perform better than the in-barrel separator. My DC filter has yet to need a cleaning (I check every time I empty the separator barrel) and the "fine" bag has about a cup of fines even though I have emptied my 40+ gallon separator barrel eight (8) times since I installed the Top Hat. That is about 320 gallons of sawdust to 1 cup of fines!!! 

Here are some of my thoughts on why the Top Hat works better:

1. The Top Hat has 6" input and output ports, which match the Jet DC-1100's input port size. This allows for a much larger volume of air flow that matches the DC-1100's capability.

2. I am using a 5" flexible hose from the separator to the jointer and/or surface planer. The speed of the air through the 5" will be faster than the 6". When the air flow reaches the Top Hat separator, the speed will decrease which helps let the dust separate out.

3. The construction of the Top Hat incorporated many ideas from the JP Thien discussion forum 5", Rectangular Inlet, Bellmouth Outlet with Air Straightener, Top Hat Separator, that weren't available when I constructed the in-barrel separator.

As for alternative #3, I have updated the following equipment to work with a 6" diameter hose: Jet JJ-12 Jointer. 
The following equipment will be updated next: Rikon 18" bandsaw, Craftsman Hybrid Table saw, Router Table, Milwaukie compound sliding miter saw and sanding down draft table.

The Grizzly G5850Z surface planer works great with its existing 5" port and the Top Hat separator.


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