Time to add DC to the shop - looking for some help with system

[Richard Shaefer]

I'm getting tired of dusting off myself everytime I use my tools and Im certainly tired of the brown tissues when I blow my nose. Don't even want to think about the stuff in my lungs. It's time to start getting the dust under control. My shop is small, only 17x20, so the DC will be mounted as much as possible up in the loft. I'd like to hardline the 6" floor jointer, the 12" Rigid benchtop planer, and the 10" sawstop contractor saw. I lan on using 6" piping as much as possible with short runs of 4" flex to feed the tools. I have two runs of pipe, the longest of which is about 30' with three sweeping bends. I'm looking at the Oneida 2 HP 'V system" for my shop. The company gets good reviews, it's made in the USA, and it comes with a HEPA filter, so I'm sold. All my vacs have been upgraded with bags and HEPA filters and I'm probably going to add a Festool CT mini and a Rotex to handle the hand power tool dust. Any thoughts and suggestions?




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[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Richard, looks good, my only comment would be to add one or two floor sweeps, they're very handy to have when cleaning up...........Rod.

[Chris Tsutsui]

Nice sketch, that Oneida will be a great help. I heard they own their own fabrications factory now or they bought out the one that they used to use.

My only concern is that the planer removes the most amount of material so I wonder if the piping should be made shorter. I use a 12" planer and it always clogged my 2HP harbor freight DC when I planed wide boards. I do know the Oneida will be more powerful and if you use 6" ducts you might be fine.

One more addition is a shop air filter that hangs up high and controlled remotely. I have a Jet AFS 1500 on low the entire time i'm in the garage. I'll turn it up if i'm making dust.

I also have a quiet 300 CFM exhaust vent with 4" vent pipe that just sucks air from in the garage and puts it outside. This is good for exhausting fumes or in my case, burnt wood smells. :P

[Richard Shaefer]

thanks, I will add a sweep to save the CT mini. I do have a cieling mounted dust collector. My hope is that the Oneida will suck up enough that I can upgrade the cieling mounted unit to a HEPA filter, too.

[Jim Andrew]

I ran my main duct overhead, kindof right down the middle of the shop, and drop down to the jointer and TS. Used big sweep 90"s and Y's, have to add a 45 for a vertical drop. Works pretty well, no plugs in several years. Hard to beat 6" pipe, I refuse to drop down to 4" except to TS, where I run a split system, 4" to cabinet, and 4" overhead, using a shark guard. Wish I had gone 5" on the cabinet, which had a 4" opening, and a 2 1/2" shark guard. The cabinet plugs up, mostly because of tiny little scraps mixed into the sawdust.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Nice. I second Chris' point about the distance to the planer. Old Testament plague of waste off of that one.

FWIW - I also have a main running across the floor to get to the TS. Was concerned about that, so I put in a short section of flex and a quick-connect so I could move it out of the way when not needed for a while. Turns out, everyone - me, LOML, neighbors, just step over it without even thinking. Has never been a problem at all. Only disconnect it under extraordinary circumstances.

[ian maybury]

A four inch duct has less than half the open area of a six inch, and flex hose will be even more restrictive Richard. I'd be reluctant to use it for drops, in that it not only will greatly reduce the flow/cfm at the machine, it will also reduce the air speed and transportation effectiveness in the 6in section.

While some of the books talk about reducing the duct size in the drops to the machines, that's normally the approach where more than one machine will be working simultaneously, and the drops combine in a larger header or branch. One machine at a time systems may be better to use one size all the way from the machine hood back to the blower.

The nature of the machine hoods will matter too - there's not much point connecting a six inch duct to highly restrictive hoods. Modification is often helpful.

At 2 hp you're going to be stretching to get a strong flow through more than a minimal ducting run. i.e. you'll probably get decent chip collection (around 400cfm), but not so good a job on fine dust. Not if you buy the Pentz doctrine anyway - see the table in section 5.: http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/DCBasics.cfm A bit more HP/a larger blower might be worth thinking about.

One way around this is might be to go for a portable blower, cyclone and filter unit that'll keep the hoses short.

Some other thoughts: Exhausting outside in Summer? Return of filtered air to the workshop? Drops for future equipment?

ian