As I am waiting for the delivery of my dust collector, I have been planning
out the piping runs and the upgrades that I will be making. I already have
a Wynn filter here waiting for it. I have been thinking about the need for
a separator this whole time. My understanding is that there are two primary
reasons for a separator. One is to reduce the frequency of bag changes, the
second is to protect the impeller and the filter from sizeable chips coming
through and damaging one or both. In the couple of weeks since I got my
new machines (TS, jointer and planer) I have noticed that none of them
produce chips that seem to be potential sources of damage to my DC. The TS
produces mostly dust, as expected, and the jointer and planer produce mostly
fluffy shavings.

My question is what kind of machines or what kind of operations produce the
kind of chips that will damage a DC?

SteveP.