Internal Thien Baffle for HF DC

I have not done it and (I have not read much about it) I'm not sure what the "internal" baffle does. I've seen baffles on garbage cans pre-DC to separate the big stuff our before it reaches the DC. The internal baffle must sit on the bottom side of the DC? Otherwize the Wynn filter will not fasten down. Even on the bottom side it is going to make it real difficult to anchor the filter if they are still anchored as mine is, you need to have access to the bottom to tighten the anchor hooks. It appears that every time you want to blow out the filter you will have to remove the baffle to remove the filter..... Like I say I haven't read much about that baffle, but I would suggest, if you don't already know the answers, wait until you get the filter before building the baffle to see how they will work together.
 
Paul, trust me. It works very well and makes a HUGE difference. (Keep in mind that most photos showing the baffle have the DC part upside down, so you're seeing the bottom of the separator.) Yes, it's a bit tricky attaching the filter with the turnbuckles that Wynn provides, but it's worth the trouble, especially since it greatly reduces how often you'll need to remove the filter to clean it in the first place. Before I added the baffle, I was having to remove and clean my filter about once a month. After the baffle, it was once every 12 to 18 months, I'd guess.

Not exactly sure why it works so well, I just know that it does. :thumb:
 
The explanation that I got, was that is reduces the cyclone happening in the bottom half of the collector, which allows the chips and dust to settle rather than being stirred up and possibly getting sucked up into the filter bag. So without the baffle, I can watch a little tornado going in the bottom of my collector bag. With the baffle it should hardly move down there, so I've been told.

BTW, Just got off the phone with Denise from Wynn, great folks to talk to, should have my filter next week sometime.
 
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I've done it on my Jet, works great at keeping the filter cleaner for much longer...


Also love the folks at Wynn - such great people. Sadly, they sold me a "lifetime filter" so I probably won't have to buy much more from them anytime soon - they deserve all the business we can give them, though. :)

The way I understand it, the baffle simply keeps the cloud caused by the stirred up air from being able to rise up into the filter area ... it's basically giving the cleanest possible air a clearer path to the filter with as little dust picked up from the bag as possible. It still swirls down there, but not nearly as fast or as dust-laden. It works VERY well as an alternative to a full-on cyclone - especially after going to 6" duct work and the Wynn filter.
 
Thanks for the explanations. I see how Jason in his video has his filter attached. Why wouldn't that work on the HF? Sure be a lot easier than standing on your head undoing the hooks and getting all that dust falling in your face! One more question and them I think I have another project to do, but does this baffle restrict the air flow in any way, if so I'd be afraid that would not be good for the DC unit? Boy I hate cleaning that filter!
 
... I see how Jason in his video has his filter attached. Why wouldn't that work on the HF?...One more question and them I think I have another project to do, but does this baffle restrict the air flow in any way, if so I'd be afraid that would not be good for the DC unit? Boy I hate cleaning that filter!

I agree that Jason's elastic approach for mounting the filter is brilliant, and yes, it'd work great on the HF model. As for airflow, if anything, it improves it because your filter is not getting clogged. Also, the opening in the baffle has more square inches than the opening at the end of the DC hose, so I'd think the hose is the limiting factor.

So you've only done a baffle on the bottom half?

Yep. It goes below the separator ring. Not sure where you'd add another one to the mix.

I should also add that in the thread I linked to earlier, there was some discussion about whether the neutral vane helped or hindered things. (That's the extra sheet metal tube I added to the inside of the inlet.) I did eventually remove mine, and it seems to have made a good thing even better. ;)
 
From what I've read, no, but from what I've seen I not sure a little bit of loss would out weigh the benefits.

The data I've seen is that there is a very minimal hit with the in ring baffle (like <5%) because of the convolution in the airflow, but as Vaughn noted you'd easily get that back with the cleaner filter.

I have a Thien top-hat pre-separator, and managed to fit it into ~the same~ footprint as the original HF cart by lifting up the impeller and turning it sideways and then putting the top hat underneath. I like the convenience factor of being able to dump the 30g drum instead of fighting the bag... otoh I also know that the pre-separator has a ~40% performance hit. I believe that I got some ~large~ percent of that back with the straight shot into the ring reducing flex loss a bit (~1" of pressure maybe; 5" stovepipe works well here) and the wynn filter having greater surface area/airflow. I had to open the slot on mine a LOT to handle the shavings from my planer (over 2") so I get worse fines separation than I would otherwise. I've considered adding an in-ring baffle to get the really fine fines back under control (mostly a problem when running the 16/32").
 
First - all that the other guys said about airflow. The two biggest improvements to my system (which was just cloth bags top and bottom) were:

1. Going to 6" ducts all around as much as possible.
2. Going to the Wynn filter

Those two things made me SCARED of that DC inlet - even 20 feet of ductwork away, it will yank yer arm in pretty dang good. The baffle merely keeps the filters clean for MUCH longer - in fact, i'm not sure if i've had to clean mine more than once since doing it 4 or 5 years ago. There is a point where if the bag gets too full, it will still push more dust up into the filter. So i empty it when the bag's about half full now.

So can we see some pics of the bag holder you're using? You mentioned a ring, but can't picture how you're holding it up in there...Thanks!

That ring came with my Jet - it's like a metal ring that's exactly the right size for the inside of the hoop (i think) that's covered in fabric. It just snaps in place ... I'm not sure how tough they'd be to make ... you could probably pop rivet some spring steel together at just the right diameter and it'd work just fine. It's prolly not more than 18ga steel - pretty springy - it really wants to keep that round shape. The cloth protects the plastic bags. I am pretty sure i ordered it from Jet themselves because they later came out with their own canister one with a plastic bag on the bottom. Before that, I had some weird giant ratchet like hose clamp - sorta like metal watch band clasps? And it chewed up the plastic bags something horrible.

I could take some pics or measurements if you like - it reminds me of the steel strapping you see on pallets from time to time. Finding a nice smooth length that matches the circumference of your inner ring snugly with a little fabric sewn around it probably wouldn't be TOO hard to make. Though, not something I'd know how to do - got lucky and was able to buy mine :)
 
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