Dust Collection Added To Shop

looks fantastic

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Very nice post. Did you ground it?

-- -John "Do I have to keep typing a smiley? Just assume it's a joke." www.flickr.com/photos/gizmodyne

nice websit too. beautiful wook.

-- Sharp tools and thin whispy shavings make woodworking a joy.

Thanks guys for the kind words on the post and my site.

gizmodyne,

I didn’t ground it. I based this on a number of articles I read that convinced me that small shops like mine have not had any problems with static. The volume, pressure, air flow and quantity of dust is not sufficient to cause a problem. There was an article by an MIT professor that went in to some detail on this subject. I am not recommending that anyone else make the same decision I did. You will have to research it for yourself. But I am satisfied that there is no problem.

-- Joe.....

I have a dewalt planer and it has a grounded flex hose. I didnt connect the gound wire one time and got a pretty hard zap out of it. I gound that hose to the gound loop every time now. I think with a planer, you should consider grounding that hose. In a hobbiests shop, that is the only tool that could generate enough ststic to be a problem.

-- Sharp tools and thin whispy shavings make woodworking a joy.

Rob,

Thanks for the advice. My planer is an easy one to ground since it has no piping between it and the collector. Only wire ribbed flex hose. So I will do it. Thanks again.

-- Joe.....

Beautiful shop and layout. Sure wish I had that much room in mine. Great website too.

-- Jerry--A man can never have enough tools or clamps

Thanks Jerry. I enjoy both working in the shop and on my website/blog.

-- Joe.....

Chief, If you haven’t gotten your blast gates yet, I found a killer deal on aluminum ones. Teh 4” gates are $5.28! They’re at blastgateco.com

-- M1911BLDR

Looks good Joe

-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop, custom furniture ,maker, woodworking school, heirloomwoodshop.com

I just finished modifying all my blast gates so they close all at once. Simple enough to do and now I don’t have to look around the shop for the one(s) I’ve forgotten to close. I simply “push the button” next to the dust collector power switch and voila! they’re all closed!

-- M1911BLDR

What blast gate make/model did you use?

-- Joe.....

Looks great Joe. I have been in limbo on my system for a few months now debating 4” vs 6” PVC. Some of your runs look fairly long and wondering how they are performing with the 4” pipe. Life would be much simpler if I could go down and buy the 4” pipe rather than ordering 6” pipe. I can get 6” from a plumbing supply but it is twice as much as ordering it. I have been leaning towards a 6” trunk about 30 feet long with 6” Y’s, reducing to short 4”runs and 4”drops of pvc and hose. Any thoughts if 6” is really necessary. Total run is about 80’ and my dust collector has around 1300fpm of air. I have a 15” planer and 12” jointer, unisaw and the other small misc dust makers. About 10 drops total. The Jointer is close to the dust collector and the others are 15 feet or more away.

Elksniffer,

Coincidentally, I just finished my hookups today. I haven’t made any tests yet except the feel with my hand what the air flow is like. It seems fine. But I will know more tomorrow when I try planing with my 15” Jet Thickness Planer. I also want to get some test equipment to make actual measurements. That will take me longer.

My longest run is about 55’. Less to my planer. 80’ seems a long distance for 4” but the calculations say 55’ is too. I’ll let you know how I make out tomorrow.

-- Joe.....

I have dust collection envy! Nice set up and your shop looks great. I f yours is a “small” shop than mine is puny!

-- Rick

Thanks Rick. It has been my life’s dream to have the shop I now have. And I am retired so I can enjoy it every day. Can’t beat that.

-- Joe.....

Elksniffer,

I have a central dust collection system myself. It’s trunk line is 6” sch-40 PVC aprox 40’ long with several machines that are reduced down to 4” sch-40 PVC with some 4” flex hose in the needed area. My planer is a 20” spiral cutterhead 5hp wood eating monster. I have 5” flex that comes out of the beast and go’s no more than 3’ up to the trunk line and the system just eats it up for lunch! Seriously I’ve never been so impresed with a dust collection system! The planer is eating an incredible amount of wood about 3/16 sometimes in one pass and thier is just no sign of any dust or chips anywhere but in my DC PERIOD! My 12” jointer is also the same. Thier is a blast gate for everyone of my machines which is about 9 machines hooked up to the DC. This allowed me to open a direct line of suction to the one or two machines we would use at the same time. What ever size shoot that came out of the machine we hooked up that size hose and right up to the main trunkline. The bigger the better! U want volume! Restricting ur dust collector is only necessary for hooking up your machines, other wise get the 6” as close as possible to the machine then adapt with the size pipe or flex hose needed. Yes my system is grounded. I truely believe it matters! At least with PVC, Exspecially with the size pipe and machines producing the dust it does, at least mine do. The bad boy that takes all the dust away from our machines is a 2 hp 1700cfm unit. We just love it!!! Incrediable amount of suction! Real story, I knew a guy who installed a PVC system ungrounded and a static spark ignited the fine dust and waaaloooom! Fire was instally started, luckly he was able to tame the situation without an incredible amount of damage. With a shop like mine in my basement I wasn’t taking any chances. Anyways elksnifer I would go with 6” even if ya had to fork out the big bucks. I no i sure did but at the end it does look so much more proffesional than that metal heat duct crap. In my opinion. And will perform so much better than if you were to just run 4”.

Good luck.

-- "I don't cut wood. I machine it!" G.M.

Chiefwoodworker,

Nice looking system and shop keep up the good work.

Peace.

-- "I don't cut wood. I machine it!" G.M.

I am really jealous. I need to seriously upgrade my system.

You have a great looking shop:)

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com

Great looking dust collection system. I am really pleased I put one in my shop. Thanks for posting.

God bless
tom

-- Mc Bridge Cabinets, Iowa

Thanks guys. I’ll let you know how I make out today with some real work.

G.M., that is one awesome DC system you have. Is your shop a professional shop or hobby?

-- Joe.....

Chiefwoodworker, Joe

Thankyou I will def post some pics soon. Anyways it started out as mainly just a hobby shop. I then began to enjoy woodworking soo sooo much that dust came to be an issue, exspecially in a shop with my home (living space) above me. I now, do small stuff such as night stands, shaker boxes, and some wood turning too. I would like to say yes my shop is becoming more and more of a proffesional use day by day. But I also the kind of guy who likes my shop to stay clean and tidy and look proffesional, like yours. I do have say I love the looks of the white PVC, it just looks very custom and neat, compared to the metal duct work. Your system deff looks like one healthy setup! Nice work!

Peace!

-- "I don't cut wood. I machine it!" G.M.

G.M.,

Looking forward to the pics of your shop and DC system. I tried woodworking for revenue when I first retired and though I had a number of customers not enough to make it worthwhile. Besides, I like doing what I like to build and customers sort of got in the way. Now I just build for my family. The strange thing is, now that I am a hobby only person I get lots of calls from people wanting me to build something for them. But I just say no thanks and pass them on to someone who is in the business.

-- Joe.....

Chiefwoodworker,

just have to say it’s proffesionals like you that give the young ones the chance. A huge percent of my projects when I first started were for family. Mostly my mother who just wouldn’t let me sell a beutifull piece. Lol! I do look foreward to expanding and making my true dream come true of hopefully having a sucessfull business. But honestly it’s honestly just like you, just the fact of working in your own shop is soothing enough. I look foreward to hopefully sharing ideas togather.

Happy woodworking Joe.

-- "I don't cut wood. I machine it!" G.M.

Great job. Looks fantastic.

-- Wayne - Plymouth MN

Thanks guys. G.M., do you have a website? I sure would like to see some of your work and shop.

-- Joe.....

It works!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At least empirically.

I just came in from using my new DC system all morning. After reading some of the feedback I have received I was worried I made a big mistake using only 4” PVC instead of a 6” main. But after thicknessing and finish sanding wide cherry boards I am reasonably convinced I am in god shape. I am going to see if I can borrow some instruments to make air flow measurements right at the equipment. But that will take a while. In any case I will provide more information on my website blog http://www.srww.com/blog .

-- Joe.....

Joe,

I do not have a website at the present moment, but it’s something that I’m actually going to make my next task. I am out of town at the present moment so I’m actually blogging right off of my phone, but can’t get a picture posted on LJ yet. But if you have an email adress I would be more than happy to send u some pics of my shop and some of my work.

-- "I don't cut wood. I machine it!" G.M.

G.M.,

My email address is jpz@srww.com . You can go to my website http://www.srww.com and get other contact information on the Contact page.

-- Joe.....

I sent some to your email Joe. Sorry if I sent some doubles.

-- "I don't cut wood. I machine it!" G.M.