# Thien baffle with 4 to 2 1/2 reducer?



## okacookie (Oct 31, 2013)

Hi everyone,

I am looking at making a baffle, and was thinking about making a thien baffle. I have seen several for both 4 inch, and for the shop vacs at 2 1/2, but I was thinking about making one baffle to use once I get my HF DC sometime in the near future, but in the meantime I wanted to use it with my shop vac. My question is there any downside to piping it with 4 inch elbows and then just use a reducer to hook up my vac? Just thought making one and using it later on for the DC would be cheaper in the long run.

I was interested in the SDD for the DC, and the DD for my vac, but that is a little out of my budget as of right now.

Thanks,

Chris


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## Lifesaver2000 (Nov 17, 2009)

I built my separator with 4 inch connections, initially reduced to 2-1/2 inches for a shop vac, and it worked fine. A couple things to keep in mind are the size of the shop vac and the size of the hose from the separator to the tool. If the shop vac is too small and you use a larger/longer hose from the separator to the tool, the air stream may be too slow to move some of the heavier particles in the larger hose.

I will mention though, I built a "top hat" type Thien separator, with a side entry and no elbows. I cannot comment on how the additional air flow resistance of the elbow might impact efficiency.


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## okacookie (Oct 31, 2013)

I was going to use 2 1/2 adapters on inlet and outlet so i don't lose the flow, and I was going to use a trash can. I am not sure if the can will cause any issues since it will be bigger than the usual 5 gallon bucket, but I figured it should not be a big issue. I guess we will see.


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## Lifesaver2000 (Nov 17, 2009)

I use a 20 gallon trash can with mine, and it worked fine with the shop vac and reduced at both the inlet and outlet. I was also using one of the so-called "6 hp" vacs. Only thing to watch for with the vac is if you use a plastic trash can it may want to collapse it if the flow gets too restricted.


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