I'm just venting my frustration I guess. It seems there isn't a standard on hose and fitting size. I buy a 4" flex hose and a couple of blast gates and the hose doesn't quite fit the 4" flange on my dust collector and barely fit a 4" to 2.5" reducer I got from Grizzly.
It took me all morning to persuade the hose to fit my dust collector.
What gives?
That's the way it is….you learn to cobble together whatever is needed to make things fit. You can get some plastic fittings that make connecting the hose a little easier (Woodstock makes 'em), but it's just as easy to cobble things together.
Beats the hell out of me too. Bought some 4" flex hose from Woodcraft and I wrestled with it for the longest time to get it on the fittings. I had to soap up the fitting to get the hose to slide on. It's so tight it doesn't need clamps.
If dust collection and shop vacs just used standard plumbing pipe sizes, that would be a lot easier. Not to mention cheaper. That is far from the case, though. I feel your pain. I just spent $60 at Rockler trying to get some hose and the right fittings to hook my table saw to my dust collector. It works, but it was a real pain.
Yes it would be easier. But they are designed like Tubing and Pipes.
Tubing is measured from the outside diameter (so is dust collection)
Plumbing is measured from the inside diameter .
I use plumbing mostly, and make my own gates which I cut the plumbing pipe down and rejoin it to work for connections to flex hose at the machine. Simple and effective.
Oh, yeah, it's very much a PITA. One thing I discovered when resurrecting my shop is that the spiral hose differs quite a bit from one manufacturer to the other. Some is softer and easier to fit over certain flanges, other is very stiff and uncooperative. I had 2 different brands that I purchased, plus some hose that came from a Craig's List purchase. 'Bout drove me nuts getting stuff put together (using 4" triple-wall PVC, various blast gates, reducers, etc.). Can't remember how it went over the DC flange, will take a look tomorrow. Hang in there, it might be an initiation rite.
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