Who hasn't been annoyed by the fact that the shop vac is always full? Buying dust bags doesn't come cheap, either. I remembered having seen a homebuilt cyclone separator, so I searched the web and came up with this one: The Thien Cyclone Separator Lid. Looked great, and I decided to build my own.
My version is based on a galvanized IKEA planter, some threaded rod, PVC piping and plywood of the crate my lathe came in. Here is the baffle fitted in the planter:
The completed lid. The fittings are glued in using hot glue:
One would think that waste water tubing is standardized. Nope. Isn't. I had to turn one of the pieces down on the lathe to make it fit:
The completed separator, mounted together with my vacuum cleaner on a little plywood trolley built from the lathe crate. This thing is awesome!
