# Tree Pot top hat Cyclone



## sprucegum (Dec 6, 2012)

I have been looking at some of the top hat chip collectors you guys have been building so I had to try one of my own, having had one failure a couple of years ago I was not inclined to spend much money or time on it . I used a plastic tree pot I had kicking around, some recycled plywood, some odes and ends of 4" pipe (also in stock), a handfull of drywall screws, and half a tube of almost dried up silicone.
I wanted it primarily for my planer as the dust collector gets full very fast and the longer shavings plug the blower. I tried it first with the Thein type baffle shown in one of my pictures but as soon as I tried to plane some wide pine boards it plugged. My first inclination was to make the slot bigger, since I had to remove it to cut it I thought I may as well give it a try without the baffle. It worked great I can fill the garbage can full to the top with almost no shavings going into the collector bag. I feel that the lip of plywood between the bottom of the pot and the top of the can is enough of a baffle to trap most of the shavings. I also think the taper of the pot is a big plus as the shavings must accelerate some as the diameter decreases, when they hit the larger diameter of the can they should decelerate. 
My tree pot cyclone works so good I think I will build one with a 55 gal barrel size base for the planer and use the garbage can for the rest of the shop. My son does a lot of landscaping along with his excavation business so the pots are pretty easy to come by.


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