Dust collection install

[John Lanciani]

After I posted a couple of pics in Bruce's "Wye not" thread, I recieved some questions about my setup. Here's a few more shots;

#1 shows a 6" drop for my 25" sander, this is the only machine that I move to use otherwise I'd prefer use much less flex.

#2 and #6 show the manifold that I use for all of my stationary machines, there are nine ports.

#3 is the adaptor for my 16" J/P in jointing mode

#4 is the J/P in planer mode, it uses the same 6" overhead drop as the sander.

#5 Shows the dust collector, it drops into a 1 cubic yard (+/- 200 gal) box that is emptied from outside the shop. I have to empty it about once a month.

Feel free to ask questions, I have a bunch more photos I can show.

John.

[Scott Rollins]

Very nice shop. well organized. How do you like the v series dust collector? I have been considering the V3000.

[Mitchell Andrus]

Hey John!!!!!!

You're allowed to have a LITTLE dust on the floor y'know. Jeeez!
.

[John Lanciani]

Nah, no dust allowed on the floor!;) Actually I'm between projects so the shop is clean enough for pics right now.

As for the V-3000, I'm happy with it, it is a big upgrade from the Woodsucker that it replaced. The wall bracket that Oneida provides does leave lots of room for improvement, though.

[Alan Lightstone]

So you switch boxes when going from jointing to planing mode??? Interesting. Didn't think of that approach.

Clearly, you'll get far more air movement than the native combined shroud.

How do you connect / disconnect the boxes (pictures 3 and 4)? Are those two 6" flex-hose runs to it?

[Paul Wunder]

John,

Thanks for sharing. Some good space saving ideas.

[Shawn Morley]

Very nice setup.

[Bruce Seidner]

After I posted a couple of pics in Bruce's "Wye not" thread, I recieved some questions about my setup. Here's a few more shots;


John.

This is enormously helpful. Thanks for your trouble.

I have relied on a ShopSmith DC3300 that follows me around task to task. But I am planing a new shop with 6" pipe. I have been playing with S&D PVC and have not purchased any flexible pipe yet. I have set myself the goal of trying to see how little flexible pipe I can get by with. Going from 4" to 6" is a huge jump in cost. Your manifolds are very well done and I am going to give them a go before I start buying a bunch of wye's and flexible pipe. I know they will be necessary but I am holding out so long as I can.

Is there a rescue society for retiring shopvacs? He is a cute little R2D2.

[David Hostetler]

All I can say is WOW... I've seen some guys that apparently are friends with tin knockers build up sheet metal manifolds similar to your arrangement, first time I've seen one in wood... Do you have any issues with the blast gates getting plugged up?

You obviously get more shop time than I do. I empty my 55 gallon drum / dust bin once every 2 months... If you empty out that often, I can see why you'd want a 200 +/- gallon capacity dust bin...

[John Lanciani]

Alan; The adaptors are held on with a single bolt with a wing nut. The jointer adapter uses two 4" hoses and the planer a single 6". The planer adapter definitely moves more air, but I suspect that it is because the 6" line is much more direct and has less loss than the dual 4's that originate in the manifold. They are both vastly better than the factory piece that used a singe 4" port.

Bruce; Don't be too afraid of flex, it's not the end of the world to use it as needed. My approach was to start with more and whittle away at it as I could. It's easy to make a piece shorter, it's not so easy to stretch it. I personally like to have some flexibility if I move things around to not have to get them back in the exact spot for the dust connection.

David; Yes, the cheap plastic gates clog some. My solution was to take them apart and re-profile the slider so that it is less sensitive to clogging in it's track. Also, I removed the stops on all of them so that the slider can be removed and the track cleaned with a coat hanger. (it's hanging on the tool rack on the manifold for quick access :rolleyes:)

[Alan Schaffter]

There is a short article about building a blast gate in the new (June/July) American Woodworker magazine written by one of their new Contributing Editors. Made from PVC, MDF pipe and laminate scraps, it is simple to assemble using glue and laminate adhesive only. It seals well, yet slides effortlessly- laminate against laminate moving surfaces. It is non-clogging and you can easily size the inlet and outlet to meet your installation needs. The construction technique used could be easily adapted to a manifold setup as well.

It kinda looks like this:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/Blast_Gate-exploded.jpg

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_3156a.jpg

[Kent A Bathurst]

John - that is just too cool. The gear and the dust system - very clever work on your part.

You reinforced the "Brazil meet woodworking" opinion.;)

[Jon Lanier]

Hey John!!!!!!

You're allowed to have a LITTLE dust on the floor y'know. Jeeez!
.

Now that's funny!

[Alan Lightstone]

Alan; The adaptors are held on with a single bolt with a wing nut. The jointer adapter uses two 4" hoses and the planer a single 6". The planer adapter definitely moves more air, but I suspect that it is because the 6" line is much more direct and has less loss than the dual 4's that originate in the manifold. They are both vastly better than the factory piece that used a singe 4" port.

John:

Why didn't you just make one adaptor to use for when your machine is in both jointing and planing modes? Why two separate adapters? What am I missing here?

My next task is clearly building an adaptor for my Laguna. I can't stand the pile of wood chips I get when jointing.

[John Lanciani]

Hi Alan,

A couple of reasons; first, in jointing mode the machine is pretty efficient at catching all of the chips, I just needed to get them into the dust collector and actually a single 4" line is satisfactory. More importantly, though, is that I didn't want to have to figure out how to route, and handle, a 6" flex hose from my manifold to the machine. When I'm set up for planing the 6" line drops down from above and it is a nice straight shot. The same 6" drop also gets used for the wide sander so it is more versatile. Additionally, when planing, the J/P needs all of the air flow that it can get, the hood is not the greatest design.

[Alan Lightstone]

I agree about not the best design on my Laguna. My biggest issue is with the jointing mode, where it drops tons of chips on the planer bed from above. This is with a 6" flexible hose converted down to 4" at the inlet. And you're right, a 6" flexible hose is a beast to flip around.

I'm going to build a new 6" outlet box and try it first in both modes. I need to see if my modified 6" inlet HF DC with Thien can get the majority of the chips if I enlarge the jointer inlet to 6". If not, time to think about a bigger DC (aaargh!!!!!!) I'll deal with the length of flexible hose for now. If that becomes too unwieldly, I'll try two separate outlet boxes.

[Joe A Faulkner]

How did you arrive at the 1 cubic yard chip\dust bin? I take it the size of the bin does not factor into the system's performance?

[John Lanciani]

Hi Joe,

I built the bin as big as would fit the space and it ended up at just over 25 cubic feet. It did take a few tries to get it completely sealed, especially around the cleanout hatch that is on the outside of the shop but once it was airtight there is no negative impact on system performance. The plus side is less frequent emptying.

I did notice when I was testing for leaks that with all of the blast gates closed the plywood sides start to bow in noticably. The dust collector pulls 13" SP with all gates closed (measured after installation) and the sides of the box are 1/2" ply.

[Joe A Faulkner]

I am remodeling my shop with the intention of putting in some type of central dust collection system. This post provides several great ideas. Thanks for posting the pictures and all of the information.

[Van Huskey]

Thanks for the pic John, gave me some good ideas!