New DC system slowly coming togethor

-- If the old masters had power tools, they would have used them. So get off your damn High Horse.

OK, this might be a dumb question, but why would you not turn the DC unit around so the inlet is facing the wall and then just 90 up from there? You’d eliminate 2 of the 90 degree elbows you’re using to get you from the inlet to the wall behind the DC. Not criticizing by any means. Just wondering.

My DC is nowhere near as powerful as yours so I’m always looking at shortest run and fewest elbows. Maybe with yours, it’s got enough power that those 2 elbows are meaningless in the overall scheme of things :)

Very nice! A really clean install.

I’m planning on doing the same to my shop this Fall. I have some questions if you don’t mind me asking:

It looks like it’s all metal duct, what type did you use? What gauge?

It looks like you used PVC for the drop to the table saw, but metal for the drops to the rest. What was your reasoning for that?

Thanks!

-- John

Charlie, the DC itself is just temporary. Eventually the motor and blower will be mounted directly on top of the cyclone separator.
In get practically no carry over from the cyclone separator, so I will be building a filter box that mounts high and directly to the blower. I will be adding two more filters for even better air flow.

-- If the old masters had power tools, they would have used them. So get off your damn High Horse.

Actually that’s not pvc, it’s black stove pipe. I used the stove pipe because it is much heavier gauge and the pipe to the table saw is much more exposed than the other down comers. However, pvc would have been much cheaper and just as durable, but the stove pipe was given to me.

All the other ducting is 26 gauge, the y’s are a little lighter gauge, I get them at lowes and home depot.

-- If the old masters had power tools, they would have used them. So get off your damn High Horse.

Nice job scot, and thank you for sharing your shop photos with us LumberJack viewers. I just ordered and received the same DC as yours. I have not set mine up as of yet. However, I like to know how you like it so far?, is it loud?, (I mean noisy) and did you get a remote with it as well? Nice set up.

It is noisy, border line loud. A Powermatic it is not, but it moves a heck of a lot of air. I do like it and as I stated before I’m going to make a filter box and have four filter instead of two and no bags. this should muffle the blower noise some. I did this to a harbor freight DC for a friend and reduced the noise substantially.

I’m using a shop fox remote that works ok. If and when it dies I will look into a better quality remote.

-- If the old masters had power tools, they would have used them. So get off your damn High Horse.

Scot, have you tried (intentionally or accidentally) running the DC with all the ducts closed? There’s been some question about 26ga being able to withstand full vacuum without collapsing. I’ve seen pictures where 30ga will collapse.

-- John

Hi Scot,

That’s a good looking work space.

Nice job on the dust collection system, too.

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

I have run it with everything closed with no problem. I believe you would have to get up to well over 5 HP to start having to worry about that. The blower on a DC is not a positive displacement air mover. It will reach a point to where all it does is just spin without increasing vacuum.

On larger Industrial systems I could see where this could be an issue but they typically run from 15 to well over 100 HP systems.

-- If the old masters had power tools, they would have used them. So get off your damn High Horse.

I see way too many 90 degree elbows. You should have none, unless they are wide sweep. Use two 45s and a short straight section.

brtech, I do have more than I wanted, However to keep things close 45’s just were not working around the lights. But to account for the 90’s all of the ducting is 6” and I am getting excellent dust/chip removal at the jointer, table saw and planer. And the 3 HP DC is providing more than enough cfm’s. Other than coming into the CS I am using 45’s.
The combination of 6” pipe and 3 HP DC more than makes up for the 90’s used.

-- If the old masters had power tools, they would have used them. So get off your damn High Horse.

I’m got a few days off mid week next week so Hopefully I’ll get the next section done and post more pics.

-- If the old masters had power tools, they would have used them. So get off your damn High Horse.

I think it’s a good looking installation…most importantly, you’re happy with it. It looks like your blast gates will have inserts instead of the sliding gate type. I need to do that on a few of mine where the slides project too far out of the gate body.

-- I long for the days when Coke was a cola, and a joint was a bad place to be (Merle Haggard)