I have  overfilled my 15 gallon fiber drum on many, many occasions.  The biggest reason for doing this is that I am never 100% sure how full the dust collector is and I forget to check it.  Usually during jointing/planing operations.

Objective

I set out to make a clear window in my fiber drum so I could see how full it was anytime I glanced over.  I bought the following piece of clear plexiglass from Amazon

Mistakes

I attempted to add the window twice to my fiber drum.  During my first attempt I cracked the thin piece of acrylic.  My mistakes were the following

• Trying to contour the piece with force alone
• Using Rivets to fasten the acrylic to the drum

First lay out piece of acrylic on drum and decide how big of a hole to cut.  I think I went a little overboard on the size of the window, but it works.   Then cut a rectangle from the drum

Forming Acrylic

The next step is to heat up the acrylic to form it into the shape of the fiber drum.  I used a heat gun and it took quite a bit of time (10-15 minutes) to get the shape right.

Mounting Plexiglass

The acrylic is on the outside of the drum because the drum is under suction or vacuum and will pull the acrylic onto the drum.  I am going to use some small 1/4-20 bolts to fasten the acrylic to the drum.  I drilled my first hole in one corner and placed the bolt.  One by one I added the holes and bolts.  After I had all the holes drilled and fastened I removed them all.  I added some sealant/adhesive between the drum and acrylic to make sure it was air tight.  All I had was black colored adhesive/sealant.

I placed the acrylic on the drum and snugged up all the bolts.  Once everything was snugged down, I added some sealant to the inside seam.

It really looks like crap with the black adhesive, but its very functional.  I have about 14 bolts in the 12″X12″ piece of acrylic to hold it onto the drum..

I let it dry and then put it to work.

It works great without any air leaks.