Homemade dust collection fittings - anyone got plans?

In the U.S. 5” stove pipe is a standard item in any good home Center. You could go to a sheet metal shop and ask them to make you some pipe with pitsberg lock edge. Don’t snap the metal into a tube until you have cut it into the legnths that you need for connections. They could make all your parts for you.

-- Nils, So. Central MI. Wood is honest.Take the effort to understand what it has to tell you before you try to change it.

How about putting 5” x 6” reducer on your inlet then using 6” pipe and fittings. Some effeciency loss, but the cost of everything else goes way down.

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

6” pipe has worked great for my system.

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

Thing is – where i live 6” parts are just as common as the 5”, so whether it’s 5 or 6” doesn’t make a difference. It’s just too expensive to buy all the fittings here (a wye connector costs $70), so i am going to make them myself.

I have more time than money, so spending $1000 just for pipes and fittings is not an option :).

There is no sheet metal shop anywhere near here, so i have to be creative.

-- I'm from Denmark, but live in Sweden.

How about Plastic water/sewage pipe? You can also put a hose clamp on it and heat the ends up a bit and when it softens up tighten the hose clamp.

-- What we do in life will Echo through Eternity........

You might try to find a retired sheet metal worker, like me, near you, to show you the shortcut method of making wyes. Books on this subject usually show a long, and more accurate method of pattern development for these fittings but the shortcut method is what is used a lot in the trade. A book by Daugerty and Powell is what was used by me, and most tradesmen ,years ago, to learn pattern development.

-- In God We Trust

Standard plastic sewage pipe is 110mm here – there is no bigger sizes available for the private consumer. So going from 125mm pipe to 110mm pipe means a reduction from 12265 cubic cm to 9500 cubic cm. Thats a 23% loss of pipe size.
I realize that, even though it’s a high volume, low vacuum (HVLP) system, i won’t lose 23% effeciency, since some air acceleration will occur, but 15% of the air flow is about what i think will be lost.

But if i lose the same amount of air, by building my own wye’s out of phenolic, it might be the best option for me – being on an budget and all.

Jim – do you have a link for the book you mention?

-- I'm from Denmark, but live in Sweden.

Yet another suggestion: Can you access aluminum roof flashing? With a sheet metal book, some snips and a pop rivet tool, you could learn some new skills and have a lot of fun.

The great part about dust collection is that it’s under suction, so just taping a leak is adequate.

FWIW, I have a professional one man shop and a 2 hp Murphy Rogers DC and everything is reduced from 5” to 4” at the bottom and it works just fine. It serves table saw, planer, edge sander, Grizzly 15” wide belt sander and oscillating spindle sander. I value velocity more than capacity. It’s just dust.

Kindly,

Lee

-- "...in his brain, which is as dry as the remainder biscuit after a voyage, he hath strange places cramm'd with observation, the which he vents in mangled forms." --Shakespeare, "As You Like It"

Here's some info that might be useful building the wyes and other fittings.

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

Thank you for the great input.

Well – that settles it.

I will use the 110 mm plastic duct, and fitting that to my 125mm dust collection hose is easy, and a wye only costs $8. The blast gates are pretty easy to make.

Thing is – I like to be able to see and touch the things i buy, so being able to get it locally from a hardware store is great, instead of some online store. Dust collection is allways a work in progress for the hobbyist, so having to plan everything ahead is nearly impossible. It’s a balance between ordering enough so you don’t have to pay $100 shipping again, but not so much that you end up with a bunch of stuff, that you can’t use, but don’t want to throw out either, because you payed good money for it (It’s the same problem if i ordered custom stuff from a sheet metal guy).

You know how it is. You hold on to stuff for years, and eventually you take the hit, and throw it out, only to find that you need it the week after. You never seem to forget the things you throw out, that could have been usefull :).

-- I'm from Denmark, but live in Sweden.

http://www.powells.com/biblio?show=TRADE PAPER:NEW:9781559182942:17.95#synopsesandreviews
This is a link to one of his books. The simplified method is quite simple to do and can be made accurately with some trimming of the pattern after laying it out. All you have to do is lay out ( or trace a pattern) for the hole and fit the branch to the hole and trim to fit. Make simple tabs and seal with caulk.

-- In God We Trust

The may help.

http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/content/6-duct-design

-- Alaskan's for Global warming!