Scouring of DC separator

[C & E]

My dust collector separator is made of a 30 gal drum and has performed nicely when using my table saw, radial arm saw, jointer and floor sweep, leaving very little in the DC bag. When I started using a thickness planer I found the separator to be scoured clean and the lower DC bag full. Nuts! This isn't how it's supposed ot work. What has changed? would it help to add a horizontal baffle inside the drum to slow the shavings and allow them to settle? That doesn't even sound reasonable. Experiences and opinions needed. Thanks

[Jim Northey]

[Chris Friesen]

Maybe the planer shavings are big enough and light enough that they act like little sails?

Chris

[Toller]

I have the one sold by Rockler, and it works just fine on my 2hp with my planer. How big is your DC? I remember a thread where people said that too big a DC will overpower the separator. Seems to me though that that is more likely with small particles because there mass/surface is so much less.

[George]

My Delta unit-on-a-can type has a baffle on the intake side almost exactly as you suggest. It's a curved piece of 4" wide galvanized which does double duty by isolating the hose intake from the impeller intake and is curved to slow the drop as well.

Though other problems may exist. what you suggest is a viable option.

At least no one has suggested dulling your blades and taking heavier cuts to make high-density shavings!

[C & E]

I have the HF 2 HP unit so it's definitely not overpowered. After reading Jim's post about how the hoses are connected I thought, "Jeeze, I'm not that dumb". Then I got to thinking that when I emtied the unit the drum fell over and all of the connections popped off (this is a homemmade separator). I had better give that another look because I did use an angled inlet in order to slow the intake. Thanks to all!

[mac davis]

Just a WAG.. does your planer have a dust extraction fan or whatever?

Trying to think WHY the separator works fine except for the planer..

I don't have a planer, but my separator sounds pretty much identical and I use it successfully with everything in the shop except the lathe.. Mac

[bridgerfafc]

big fluffy shavings....