Sheet metal workers call this an evolution. We covered each trench with surplus computer room raised flooring tiles and on top of the whole shop floor we have interlocking horse stall mats. Take a look at my for more details on how to build your own muffler. We will remain open for business performing essential operations during this crisis, supplying industrial, military, and healthcare operations with our products. Woodworking Hobby Shop Dust Collection now offered by Air Handling Systems. Again the research followed by decades of refinement show what we need in terms of hoods and what is needed in terms of total airflow. With the hot rod oversized impeller on his cyclone, he was got 60 mile per hour air speed which had zero chance of capturing the well over 100 mile an hour dust stream. I protected the power by putting it in well-sealed PVC coax. Manufacturing in lighter gauges of galvanized metal has considerably cut the cost. Types: Many choose to run to their local box store and buy HVAC (heating ventilation and air conditioning) fittings. It is easy to just stick the tape on the outside of the pipe. Worse, when these piles break loose they create one of the few times that small shops end up with a potentially explosive dust to air ratio. If we use too small of ports, duct, fittings, or outlets, or we use too rough of duct we kill the airflow needed for fine dust collection. Sadly, the vendor ads strongly disagree with my measurements because most choose to measure at different heights and much further distances. And, it does help to dampen the noise considerably. Fine dust particles are so small they are invisible without magnification. I look at the table and see a 4" blade guard port with a 4.5" diameter port is the closest solution for my saw cabinet. You cannot because our lungs cannot create the pressure needed to overcome the high resistance of that small pipe. I cut the end off a metal screw, drill a hole through the PVC and blast gate flange, and keep all held together with that screw. Using a PVC pipe from the blower to the muffler wrapped with pipe wrap helped a little. Not only will this cause piles in the horizontal runs, if we have any vertical runs there is a good chance that we will develop plugging because we need at least 3800 FPM going up to keep the heavier stuff moving. In place of the blade guard that came with his over arm blade guard system my friend added a pretty amazing product. I cut a hole in the back bottom that was 4" in diameter then warmed up that plastic with my heat gun. You can then use dividers to go from the top to the base to get the diagonal. When airflow is restored from open more area these piles go slamming down the ducting. Thanks for sharing Stan! His free online software program Harder Pipe Joint Template Software creates templates to assist in cutting PVC pipes that can be joined together at different angles to let us have joints without needing to buy expensive pipe fittings. PVC pipe is an excellent insulator that will build up a static charge, particularly in a dry cold climate. I seal them just in case with the aluminum tape. These piles pose a serious fire hazard as any spark can quickly get fanned into a dangerous ducting fire. I also tapered each of my trenches with just a little grade and put drains at the end of each trench.
Using MDF instead of my original plywood top on my cyclone and blower helped some. This angle forms a right triangle as tall as the height of the fitting and base taken with a set of dividers from that view picture. My twin to yours measures out at a real 1800+ CFM before connecting cyclone, ducting, or filters then the bad news is I only get 875 CFM through that 6" duct. Light 24 Gauge 45 Degree Saddle Tap Tee perfect for a small hobby shop with a max 3 HP dust collector. Created: May 9, 2001
If you want this kind of duct, it is best to get it directly from one of the manufacturer's main distributors. At the same time using PVC poses a serious fire danger for those who use a tiny blower and large PVC pipe. During the magazine testing I oversaw three different vendors had cyclones burn up because they did not amply limit airflow. Also, if that pipe fills too much, opening the gate will cause all that material in the down drop to slam into the impeller potentially ruining motor bearings and even breaking impellers. For instance, my table saw came with just a single 4" port on the saw cabinet. I only use the 6" (remember 4" and 5" are too small for our larger machines!!) My engineer friends at Dwyer Instruments that build most of the air measurement meters say roughly 10 diameters of pipe will both stabilize the airflow and set that airflow to about the same duct speed as your main. Everything is made to order and ships within 5 working days. Your blower design has a rectangular outlet that will not fit anything! Strangely, some saw blade and router guards are smoky or solid steel like the one that came with my European saw. Your actions are your responsibility - VERIFY and CHECK information out before proceeding, and don't attempt anything without the required skills. S&D 2729 series and all from the same supplier. saw dust garage chop woodworking miter workshop pvc lumberjocks pipe diy stand storage projects jigs wood tools station collector visit dust system install ducting workshop baileylineroad spiral garage works systems woodworking floor reliable ceiling shown strong going then down Our smaller blowers also require us to use properly sized duct with long sweeping big radius curves or 90-degree joints broken up with a straight run between two 45-degree joints. They share that we need the right sized ducting to carry each different airflow. This web page will give you the information you need to calculate sizing that will overcome that extra resistance: Rectangular Duct Calculator. He replaced his over arm saw guard with a new Shark Guard pictured here made by Lee Styron. I put the wire through the hole then wind tightly around the metal flange at about the same spacing as the coils in my flex hose. I cannot affordably get 4.5" diameter duct or ports, so next best was a 5" diameter port which is the size added to my saw. It only takes about 50 feet per minute airspeed to overcome normal room air currents, but we have to provide that airspeed over such a large area that we need about three times more total airflow for good fine dust collection as we do for good "chip collection". A much better design is shown here where the portion that closes goes all the way through ensuring there is no place for the sawdust to clog. I originally thought I could get by with using my existing 2.5" port on my splitter mounted blade guard on my table saw. The result is tight enough that a piece of tape is ample to make a good seal. It pulled the real 1100 CFM I got from my dust collector through a 6" test pipe to under 450 CFM. If you have this kind of set up, you should never clean your shop floor or other areas that might have metal or stone bits with your dust collector. It's usually in 8x10 sheets and is basically a 1/16" sheet of asphalt and recycled rubber with adhesive on it. A 2 HP dust collector capable of 1200 CFM is lucky to provide 450 CFM. If there are three ports such as on my band saw, we need to calculate all three legs separately, sum them up and divide by three. That same heat gun technique will let you make most of your long bends in your PVC without using any joints or fittings at all. (my thanks to Dave for reminding me that under typical dust collector pressures air is virtually incompressible). The low cost sewer and Drain (S&D)PVC (plastic) pipe worked so well I used to recommend the PVC ASTM 2729 "Sewer and Drain (S&D)" pipe for most small shop woodworkers. Machine outlets don't match our sized duct or flex hose. Most are no where near ready to pay the high cost for this type of duct. The result is the main ends up building up first the larger chips then finer dust. This means most dust collection systems need all 7" diameter and larger duct. Most used a slide that slips out of the way leaving an open track that will pick up sawdust even if the gate is set with the slide pointing down. After digging into the engineering behind cyclones, I realized that almost all small shop cyclones were copies of the same original design. My cyclone moved more air and also separated off the material before it got to the impeller so worked well with my new floor sweep. I had multiple sales people tell me their elbows were only for dust collection. We pretty much have to replace all the 4" ports on our larger machines if we are going to collect the fine dust at the source. That 6" to 4" taper cost me about a third of my total airflow. Many say they are best way to go when building ducting for your shop. Smaller pipe kills the airflow needed to keep the air in the mains moving fast enough to avoid plugging and building up dust piles. His mixed combination of Imperial and Metric sized ports on his tools required lots of different reducers and expanders to work with his 6" mains. Power requirements to move more air also differ from water greatly. That means we also need these same air speeds to keep the vertical runs from plugging. He is right, but it takes a fairly long length to be as efficient. My question is I want to put my ducting buried under a concrete slab. Most air engineers design a safety factor so target 4000 FPM air speed in our vertical ducts and 3000 FPM in our horizontal. This change does not interfere with the operator, requires no special maintenance and is inexpensive to make. because these also kill air flow. *Laughing* I recommend smooth interior walled ducting and smooth interior walled flex hose. Likewise, you either need to buy your wyes at a ducting store or use a roller and crimper to reverse the male and female ends. A leak between the collection barrel and cyclone will quickly clog your filters just like when the barrel gets too full killing any ability to collect the dust. The best place to put your blast gates is next to the wyes off your main line up high. Don't do like many and run a 6" or 8" main trunk line then come off with smaller duct or flex hose. Now try to breathe through the longer piece. For almost all small shop systems this works out to using the same sized duct for the mains as the down drops. They also formalized this process into something that most can follow without special training or expertise to come up with a good dust collection system. I wish it had a 6" instead of just a 4" port. The standards, fittings, and details are specified in the ASTM D-3034 standard. You have to have a couple of heat guns to get a large enough area hot at once, but the result is nothing short of amazing. Sadly, most small shop tools come with internal ducting, hoods, and ports far too small and too restrictive to effectively protect, control, and deliver the fine dust. Does a 4" connection at the machine negate the benefit of the 6" duct going right to that machine? Many of these gates, including expensive metal commercial gates, leak badly and we can make this problem worse by installing them backward. Neither the author nor any other references or links on these pages will accept any liability for any damages or injury caused to people or property from use of this information or from any associated links. This 1000 CFM requirement poses many challenges. Had I used that raised computer room flooring my trench would have been big enough to also include lines for my shop vacuum, drainage, and possibly water if permitted by my building codes. My problem with 4" diameter duct is most don't understand the impact that ducting size has on our total air volume and air speed. Spraying the outside metal sides of the blower helped some, but wrapping the outside of the entire blower except for the motor in heavy foam rubber foam helped more. Neither I (Bill Pentz), American Air Filter, nor any other references or links on these pages will accept any liability for the applicability of this information to your specific situation or any damages or injury caused to people or property from the use of this information or from any associated links. My air gauges showed that was still not working, so I discovered there was a 4" hose inside the cabinet that went to a lower blade guard connector that also had to be upgraded to 5". This will get the tape stuck. Shipping ducting is tough because it is so bulky it gets shipped with heavier items. Larry Adcock, creator of the WoodSucker, told me that using a length of fiberglass insulated HVAC flex duct instead of building a muffler is easier and costs far less. Most home insurance inspectors, building inspectors and fire marshals will fail almost all small shop dust collection solutions due to serious safety concerns. Dr. Rod Cole on Grounding PVC (Click here). For tools with two ports, we generally need a 6" down drop that ideally splits into a 5" and 3.5" separate hoods. Air speed and air volume are related with a simple formula FPM = CFM/Area where area is measured is square feet.
If your dust collection system is properly sized it can go anywhere in your shop, but most use smaller dust collectors and cyclones, so these should be placed as closes as possible to your tools that require the most CFM for good dust collection. Light 24 Gauge 45 Degree Lateral Tee perfect for a small hobby shop with a max 3 HP dust collector. If we don't do this we get unreasonably high static pressures that do not occur in real use. Additionally, since the more air a blower pushes the higher the amp draw my designs also use restrictions to ensure our blowers can't move so much air that we burn up our motors. It moved less air than my dust collector, just about half of what the vendor claimed in the advertising. When the airspeed inside our duct falls below about 2800 FPM then even our horizontal runs begin to plug with piles. All of my other machines use anything from 4" down to 1 1/2" dust ports. I know as 12" of well-insulated plenum between my and my teen's room still let me hear the bass. There is always someone who will bring up the concerns about duct static potentially causing an explosion when you use PVC pipe. The key is long straight runs, no sharp bends, no right angle fittings, no rough or ribbed hose, on and on.. Don't use anything but large smooth interior walled flex hose to your larger machines. I then heat the pipe with a pair of heat guns and use a custom made wooden mandrel that I slip into the hole from the inside pushing out a perfect female fitting that when cool can be used to join a pipe. Since we use the same size and types of tools as smaller commercial tools, most of what we need to do for good fine dust collection is already laid out in detail. Assuming that I'm careful with building smooth and tight joints, would melamine provide as high flow efficiency as PVC or metal? When I let my first prototype cyclone follow a friend home he also got that ducting, so I again started over. The dust generated by random orbital sanders is sometimes controlled by a vacuum in combination with a perforated sanding pad. Explosion or not, getting a good zap while next to a sharp blade or cutter can be plenty dangerous, so if you live in a dry climate and chose to use PVC, you might want to seriously consider protecting yourself. Additionally, for my similar joints I wrap and CA glue some heavy copper grounding wire around the PVC joint that we can use to screw in flex hose creating a solid joint that seals well with an inexpensive hose clamp. It then goes into the filters potentially poking holes and greatly reducing filter life by requiring far more cleanings.
Even reducing ducting size right at the machine for the shortest possible distance to a small 4" port will still kill system performance. Only two large distributors have come forward willing to work directly with hobbyists and small shop owners, Duct Incorporated 877-BUY-DUCT and Air Cleaning Specialists Inc. (866) 455-2130. Every time you close a gate like this it jams sawdust into that track. A 4" port will only support about 350 CFM, but the airflow charts say we need 550 CFM for good fine dust collection. This table from AAF shows what airflow measured in cubic feet per minute (CFM) we need to collect at each type and size of woodworking tool before it can escape. You have a lot of nerve! An undersized down drop immediately limits our airflow. Additionally, air engineers have studied almost every brand and size of tool to determine how much airflow is needed to provide good chip collection. As with wyes the inexpensive sheet metal HVAC units found in home centers have far more resistance and potential to plug. It was a bear to find on Amazon and often not in stock (search for "jet hose"). Auto parts and auto stereo stores typically carry it, some brands are Evercoat Q-Pads and Dynamat.". Since those early comments, others have responded with solutions that apparently do work. What ducting would you recommend for someone who wants minimum upset and trouble to do the install and later move things around? So although many use flat HVAC connections it is far better to use actual dust collection ports that have a really nice curved inlet. Another solution for hanging duct is to use stranded metal cable (called wire rope) with special clamps that let you adjust the length. This FPM airspeed is very important because when it drops below about 3800 FPM it is not fast enough to pull heavier material upward in vertical duct so we get plugging. What do you use and what do your recommend? Living right on the edge of an industrial area, I was fortunate enough to be able to bring in three-phase power. A typical dust collector or cyclone only moves air at about 40 miles an hour. The fan tables show 7" diameter ducting is so large that all commercial dust collectors and cyclones generate too little pressure to maintain the airspeed needed to keep our vertical runs from plugging.
The longer the duct run the higher the static pressure and the lower the performance. Contractor saws also need good collection below the blade, but most lack the enclosures needed to control the dust sprayed below the blade. The 2729 PVC is rated for many times the pressure that even large industrial blowers generate. Also, these are very good looking smooth strong ports. Shrinking PVC is a major pain that takes a mandrel, special heating arrangement, and big clamp similar to a piston ring compressor. This is all the information you need to actually draw your layout for your cutting diagram. Don't cover the motor as that needs to be open for cooling. At typical airspeeds and pressures for dust collection, air is virtually incompressible. The result in terms of efficiency is not too bad for each joint, but unless you are careful the total can add up to terrible performance. They found we need the same airspeed to pick up the chips as we do to keep them moving in vertical ducting runs. Most air engineers add a little safety factor so design their systems to provide at least 4000 FPM airspeed in the vertical runs and 3000 FPM in horizontal runs. The smaller ducting, flex hose, and small ports limit the maximum airflow just like we proved in that little air test sucking experiment! If you have a unit where material can directly hit the impeller, then rocks and pieces of metal can hit that impeller, cause small sparks and those sparks fall into your sawdust and slowly grow into a disaster, often many hours after you leave your shop. I then received an email that asked me to further clarify, because in many instances this will not work. These are much stronger than the 2x6 and much easier to install and remove for access. It was found that, in spite of this control, large amounts of wood dust were still emitted into the workroom. (Thanks Amer from Amer's Woodworking) This makes sense because most blades, bits, cutters and even sandpaper launch dust filled air streams at over 100 miles an hour. Additionally, there are flex hoses available with plastic reinforcement ribs, but these plastic ribs provide poor crush resistance and make this type of hose generate so much static electricity that it is not permitted in commercial shops subject to fire marshal inspections. On a few of my gates that end up next to my machines and get connected with flex hose I instead use a short length of PVC pipe for the lower portion of the gate outlet. I already got a price quote from Paul, and I see that the Delta motors are still available via eBay. One person is only allowed to blow and the other to only suck. You need to install the gates so the slide opens downward, but this often causes the slide to fall out on poorly made gates, so with these we need to clean often. If you use standard hoods you should still convert over to 6" ports. You need to use Y's with one end going to a clean out for each buried run. That 4000 FPM when pulled through more than about 40" of 4" diameter duct will end up with a total air volume of 350 CFM. Hanger strapping is used with economical hangers. In short, for good fine dust collection we almost always have to rebuild our hoods and use larger ports. (Thanks Grant Erwin!). They carry a copper airline, a water line, additional 110, 220 & 440 power, and the dust collection mains. HVAC air blows in the opposite direction as it does during dust collection, so every joint is backward. Wynn continues to have the best pricing on hose if you buy 25' lengths. After retiring I fell in love with woodworking, have just finished building a large shop, and am slowly adding one machine after another. One of these tests was at an engineer friend's shop with the testing coming out worse than ugly. Unfortunately, particle testing by the author and hundreds of others all across the country shows those who vent inside even with very clean looking shops invariably have huge build ups of invisible dust. This works well, but is difficult to adjust without a lot of practice or use of expensive turnbuckles. You can put in your ducting, power, water, and whatever else you need or want to run under that floor, then have easy access to make changes.
Shops subject to commercial fire marshal inspections are not allowed to use plastic duct. If you use these links a small commission comes back to help support these pages. Start by drawing with a horizontal line that is the length of the longest side of the fitting rectangle. The only retail carrier I've found who that sells these types of "self cleaning" blast gates in 6" for an affordable price is Lee Valley Tools (search on blast gate). Adding more suction to these units causes the sanding pad to be pulled to the work surface making the tool difficult to use and potentially damaging the piece being sanded. It moves an incredible amount of air! Some have successfully used large magnet signage material to seal up the holes, but the bottom line is the only way to get a contractor saw controlled in terms of fine dust is to use a good blade guard like the Shark Guard mentioned above plus use coverings to enclose the saw base with a port for your dust connection. I recently did air quality testing all over the State of California. Benefits of Air Handling Systems Hobby Shop Ductwork include: Ductwork available in 3 7 diameter. When I bought a set of air gauges and did some testing, I realized that my trashcan separator was not good news at all. The two main firms that make the laser welded steel duct are Lindab and Nordfab, but this duct is resold by many other vendors. for more details on how to build your own muffler. I've done one by hand for a 13.5" and another for an 18" cyclone. We spent quite a bit of my company's money to try and solve the problem with consultants and experts all to no avail. Also, after making sure all fits and before my final assembly into the PVC, I pull out my flux and solder the HVAC transition up so there are no air leaks. To reconfigure just release the clamps, make the changes and then reclose the clamps. For this reason, most agree that dust collection bins should be metal. I then attach the tape end sticky side up to a long 2x2 and feed that board through the pipe while unwinding the tape. Most existing small shop dust collection equipment works poorly because most small shop vendors do not follow industry standard practices to build dust collection systems. That makes the dust more awkward to empty, but safer and the metal flex duct is much less expensive. If the gates you bought are normal, they will be too small! A couple of my machines are European and use a dust port that won't fit anything.
There are many nice accessories that you can use with your dust collection, but realize that even with these accessories a dust collection system does some functions poorly.
If you do change size ducting, use a big enough blower to support opening multiple blast gates and appropriate connections for enlarging and reducing: My friend Sugi found a better way to do ducting reduction and expansion. Sadly, this is not what I am saying. Many choose to use this class of pipe because it is readily available in or can be ordered by some of the larger hardware stores.
Ronald says, "You need three things, a wood dowel a round disc the size of your incoming duct and a wooden rectangle the size of your inlet. Leaks kill system performance and can cause all kinds of other problems. The smoothest walls that make for the least resistance come with using plastic coated pipe and fittings such as PVC pipe or plastic coated metal or wood duct. Most can but find it difficult.