180 bend

[Rusty Eads]

Hopefully somebody can help me out with a little dust collector piping issue I am having. I am upgrading my dust collector and in doing so have to move it from its current location. I can easily pipe to all my machines except my jointer. My jointer has the port on the outfeed side and my dust collector is located about 20 feet behind it. The jointer is located about a foot from the wall in which the main run will be located. The jointer is the last machine that will be connected to that run. How do I make the 180 bend that is required to attach it to the main run. Looking at the cabinet I don't see how I can move the port. I have the older model Rigid 6" jointer with the sheet metal full cabinet if that helps. Thanks in advance

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Rusty, a couple of 90 degree elbows with a suitable length of straight pipe betwen them should do the trick........Rod.

[Stan Mitchell]

Flex hose should accommodate the need to change directions as long as you keep the lengths moderate, and as long as you can get the ducting somewhere near your machine.

[Dave Gaul]

I have read that it is better to use 45º's instead of 90º's. Rod's idea should work, just use 4 45º's with straight pipe between each elbow..

[Rusty Eads]

As of right now I have no flex pipe whatsoever and would like to keep it that way though I don't think it is going to happen. But then again I am also going from a 550 cfm unit to a 2480 cfm unit so a little bit of flex pipe probably won't hurt too much.

I was thinking about the 2 90's but was afraid that the 2 sharp turns that close would restrict the airflow down ALOT. This will be my first serious dust collection system and want to do it right the first time.

The space between the jointer and the wall may not allow for 4 45's, I will have to measure that.

[Bruce Wrenn]

Do bends have to occur at floor level? Can you come out of the machine at a 45 degree angle to floor, add a 45 at the wall (to make vertical), and a 90 at the top of the wall. I would definitely use a short section of flex, as this would allow you to move jointer, with out having to undo DC pipe. Don't worry, you WILL drop something behind the jointer and need to move it.

[Mike Cruz]

Rusty, I hate to be a downer, but I see a lot of rework in your future. If you have a 55o cfm unit, you probably don't have larger than 4" pipe throughout your shop. If/when you move up to a 2480 cfm unit, you'll have to upgrade your pipe to 8" mains and drops to 6", 5" and 4" at your machines...otherwise getting the 2480 machine is almost useless (unless you are doing it is that you can have all your machines open at once without having blast gates, but that doesnt' sound worth it in a one man shop). The 2480 of which you refer is TOTAL overkill for 4" pipe.

To answer your question, though, 2 90's will not "kill" your cfm...unless you already have too many turns in the pipe already. Not sure what the concesus is here and the forum, but when running my 6" pipe through my shop, I made sure that there was no more than 360 degrees of turns to any given machine. I did as few as I could, but when figuring out the layout, 360 was the maximum.

[Rusty Eads]

When I finally get the bigger unit home I will be going through a complete overhaul of my dust collection system. This includes new pipes and even changing locations of some machines, adding ports to others and trying to take advantage of this dust collector's abilities. Even with all that though, when it comes to the location of the jointer, the dust collector will be located behind the machine and was wondering if it is ok or the best way to make the 180 degree bend that will be required. My shop is only a 11 x 30 with 7.5 foot ceilings so I am very limited on where I put everything. Once I finally do get the machine home I will probably be coming back here for some final advice on the layout of everything.

[Mike Cruz]

Ok, Rusty, glad you've already thought about the change over.

As for the layout of pipe, most systems are generally the same where you run a large main pipe (as large as the intake on your DC) and then make drops to your machines that are the sizes of you machine's ports. Personally, since my DC only has a 6" intake, I ran 6" all the way to each machine, and made that machine's port a 6". I have two exceptions: My 20" planer has a 5" port and I, for now, have not been able to figure out how to put a 6" port on the hood; and my sanding station that I built has a 12" disc and a 9" long drum sander...there are 4" lines that go to them and they don't need any more than that, so I have a 4" drop to that. My TS, Jointer, Lathe, and DP all have a full 6" run to them. My two BS's have a 6" run to them, then split to two 4" flex pipes (one above the table and one below). Many people do this type of thing for their TS...one in the cabinet and one on their dust guard. I don't have a dust gaurd, so I have the 6" going into my cabinet (overkill for in the cabinet? yeah, but it's there, so there).

If you have (and probably do) an 8" intake on your DC, you'll probably want to run an 8" main (or larger if your intake is larger) and appropriate sized drops to each machine. The advantage that you will probably have with such a large DC is that you'll likely be able to leave multiple gates open at once if you have all 4" ports on your machines, and still get enough cfm through each (for some reason 480 cfm through a 4" pipe rings a bell.

But back to your original question. If you use two elbows to make the 180 degree turn (especially with the large DC) you should be fine. I assume you have seen Bill Pentz's site on dust collecion. If not, visit it. Read up. When you are done, read some more. Oh, when you get a chance read more on his site. :D It goes on forever. It is the most informative site on dust collection I've seen. Check out the calculation table that will tell you how much (percentages) elbows, wyes, and tees affect airflow. To be honest, your 500 cfm DC probably isn't pulling enough cfm. I know, I know, you put your hand in front of it and it feels like it is pulling a lot, but it isn't pulling enough. With a bigger machine, you'll be wowed.

Good luck and keep us posted!