6" Blast Gate for PVC?

[Dan Case LR]

I'm shopping for 6" blast gates for use with PVC S&D pipe. What type have you had the best (and/or worst) experience with?

D.

[Bob Wingard]

Lotsa' good ideas for home made ones out there ... my ClearVue came with 6 gates that work pretty well ... I clipped the corners off of them so they don't pack with saw dust.

[Eric DeSilva]

+1 on the clearvue gates--http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/11-supporting-products. The plastic they use seems a lot stronger than that black plastic ABS stuff that seems to be everywhere. I also like that I can disassemble these and surface mount these--I've used them as connections for widening the DC connection on my jointer and implementing a better solution for my TS.

[Chris Damm]

Try Kencraft. That's who I used and they work great and were the cheapest I could fine.

[Curt Harms]

+1 on homemade ones. If you have 6" PVC on both sides of the blast gate you can buy a 6" coupling and cut it in half. I used a fly cutter to cut holes in plywood the size of the O.D. of the coupling. Fit the half coupling in and I used some small screws through the PVC into the plywood then sealed it with construction adhesive. For slides I used tempered hardboard for both the fixed and sliding surfaces, it's nice and slick so the slides move freely. I made my slides go all the way through the blast gate body with a 6" hole in one end of the slide. The only thing with through slides is you have to have room for the slide to move, the blast gate can't be tight against a wall. No problem with the slide getting packed with sawdust and undetectable leakage. I'm happy with the way they came out.

[ian maybury]

+2 on the Clear Vue items. Nicely made, strong material and minimal leakage. Made to fit the plastic pipe....

ian

[John Coloccia]

Their new blast gates, if you haven't seen them lately, are a LOT nicer than the originals. I'm half considering replacing all of mine with the new ones. They're reasonably priced too.

I've also used these from Lee Valley and like them too. Again, reasonably priced.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=51506&cat=1,42401,62597

Both very solid products.

[Paul Wunder]

+++++ on the new Clearvue Blast gates. They are MADE TO FIT 6" S&D pipe, they are sturdy enough for long hard use and they don't clog. At $15 each why would I want to make my own?

[Jerome Hanby]

At $15 each why would I want to make my own?

Man I must be cheap. I looked at the LV link and saw the price (pretty close to that $15) andf thought the exact opposite. Man, at $15 a piece, I'd make my own <lol>

[Mike Cruz]

Dan, when I bought my ClearVue Cyclone, it came with six 6" blast gates. I've been thinking of putting them for sale because my piping system is already complete. If you are interested in them, PM me.

[Peter Aeschliman]

I guess I value my shop time so much that I'd rather spend it doing woodworking. So to me, $15 is totally worth it!

[Jim O'Dell]

Mike, I did the same thing with the 4 that came with my CV (original style gates). I tried modifying one to see if I could make it work the way I wanted...still wasn't thrilled. I mentioned that they were available on another wood forum, and sold them. Didn't ask for a lot, and shipping was more than I thought it would be, so I ate the difference. I was just glad they were gone! I love the ones I've made out of Melamine particle board shelving, and straight MDF. I even used 1/4" MDF for the slides. My last one I made out of some scrap PTEG for the slide, and scrap 1/4" Lexan for the body. It is a 4" unit above the TS for the overhead pickup. Turned out pretty slick and fun project. Jim.

[Alan Schaffter]

Like many, I made my blast gates which probably cost less $5 ea. The bodies are MDF. I planned to eventually convert them to autogates and I needed them to slide very easily, so I lined the inside faces of the gate body and made the slide with back to back pieces of high pressure laminate (Formica) that I got for free from a local counter shop. Laminate against laminate- they slide incredibly easy and seal great. You can choose the inlet and outlet sizes to fit your needs- I used half a PVC S&D coupling for the female side and a short piece of S&D pipe for the male side, but you can make them male-male, female-female, and even make them from metal. My article on how to make them was published in the June/July 2010 issue #148 of AWW.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/Blast_Gate_Article1.jpg

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

I mass produced the gates for my shop. Here are body halves for 4" and 6" gates ready for assembly:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/P10100438.JPG

When I converted them to autogates I just added a pneumatic cylinder:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/500/P3080015-1.JPG

[Mike Cruz]

I fully admit that Alan's design works great. That is what I have in my shop. Of course that is because I didn't have blast gates to use already, and had the time to build them. If you have time, they work great!

[Dan Case LR]

So, after reading the thread again, I've concluded that there is no best (or worst) approach to blast gates. It's almost like "boxers or briefs"--everyone has their preference, and as long as they're clean it doesn't matter.

Looking at the different shop-made gates I've seen, there is a common theme: the maker used what he had creatively. There's a part of me that likes the idea of making my own, and another part that likes the idea of using that time in better ways. I haven't decided yet what I'm going to do--other than rebuild the DC and run the pipe while I'm deciding. :)

Thanks!

D.

[Jim O'Dell]

If you make your own, getting the holes cut is the hardest thing. I made a circle cutting jig for my router to do mine. Tweaked the pivot hole using scrap OSB until I had a really tight fit on the pipe. This took the longest. Then when using it, be sure to anchor the body pieces down to a work surface. I used screws through the corners as you need to be able to "bolt" the piece together. In fact, I anchored the slide in place and cut all three pieces at the same time. Be sure to put 3 screws in the part you are cutting out to keep it from flopping around when you cut through a layer. Keeps it from lodging against the bit and side of the cut creating problems. It also makes sure your pivot point doesn't move. Learning that tool a couple tries. The most time consuming part time wise was tweaking the hole that is cut to get the right size for the pipe. After that you can crank out 10 gates in an hour, plus time for assembly. Jim.

[Alan Schaffter]

If you make your own, getting the holes cut is the hardest thing. Jim.

It is easy if you make the gate using my method. The holes don't need to be precise at all and can be cut with a jig saw, or if you laminate the inside faces, you can even use a bandsaw and an access cut. All you need is far-from-perfect, rough holes for the inlet and outlet fittings- the key is to glue them in place with polyurethane glue (Gorilla Glue, PL, etc.). Poly glue will expand to fill any gaps and makes a tight seal.

What I do is cut the holes, laminate the faces with small, solid pieces of high pressure laminate (Formica, etc.). I get free scraps from my local counter shop and use water based laminate adhesive to attach it. If you don't want to laminate the faces you don't need to, it just makes slide move and seal much better, IMHO. Then I glue the fittings in the holes with the poly glue, making sure they bottom out against the back of the laminate at the bottom of the hole. If you don't laminate the gate faces, you must make sure the inlet/outlet fittings don't protrude past the inside faces of the gate. Since I laminate them, once the poly glue has set, I drill an access hole in the laminate and open it up using a hand-held router or my router table and a flush trim bit. That yields a perfect hole and perfect gate face since the bit's bearing rides on the inside of the fitting.

Gate parts. PVC inlet and outlet (a short piece of pipe and 1/2 of a coupling), MDF gate body halves- holes were cut with a jig saw, small strips of laminate are used to hold the gate halves together, the slide is made from the two large pieces of laminate which are bonded together back to back. I cover the MDF with the square pieces of laminate and glue in the inlet/outlets before making the hole in the laminate:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_3008a.jpg

I drill a small access hole, then use a flush trim bit to open the hole in the laminate. This results in a near perfect hole since the bearing rides on the inside of the fitting, not the MDF:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_3011.jpg

I use double stick tape to hold the gate slide to one half of the gate and make the hole in the slide the same way.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_3012.jpg

I apply laminate adhesive to two edges of the gate halves and the laminate side pieces. I add (blue) tape spacers to the slide.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_3019.jpg

I clamp the gate halves and slide together, then apply the edge pieces of laminate to hold everything together. I pull out the slide, remove the blue tape, and I'm done. This method is quick, easy and durable- have you ever tried to remove laminate from MDF- the MDF fails before the adhesive.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_3140.jpg

I use a simple little cradle made from a piece of 2 X 4 with a "V" slot cut in the top and mounted to my miter gauge, to safely cut fittings and pipe on my tablesaw:

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_31381.jpg

Blade height is set so it barely cuts the bottom of the pipe/fitting. I feed the sled until it is centered over the turning blade, then I rotate the pipe/fitting until it is cut through- safe and simple.

http://www.ncwoodworker.net/pp/data/1759/medium/IMG_3135.jpg

[Bruce Seidner]

That is a great tutorial Alan. Thank you.

Bruce

[Dan Case LR]

Interesting technique, using the laminate to hold the two halves together. I have, however, seen laminate let loose of the edge profile of saw-cut MDF, in cases where the cut edge was a little too "fuzzy" or any less than a perfectly flat, square surface. Oof course, we wouldn't have imperfect surfaces, right? :)

D.

[Alan Schaffter]

Interesting technique, using the laminate to hold the two halves together. I have, however, seen laminate let loose of the edge profile of saw-cut MDF, in cases where the cut edge was a little too "fuzzy" or any less than a perfectly flat, square surface. Oof course, we wouldn't have imperfect surfaces, right? :)

D.

I cut the MDF gate body parts with a WWII blade on my tablesaw, but other than that, the edges received no special treatment. Per product recommendations I made sure I applied two coats of water-based laminate adhesive to the edges of the MDF and the laminate side strips, and waited until everything was completely dry before assembly. After seven years I have had no failures nor the slightest delamination. When you think about it, there really isn't much stress on the gates.

[Kevin W Johnson]

+1 on the clearvue gates--http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/11-supporting-products. The plastic they use seems a lot stronger than that black plastic ABS stuff that seems to be everywhere. I also like that I can disassemble these and surface mount these--I've used them as connections for widening the DC connection on my jointer and implementing a better solution for my TS.

I was prepared to order 3 of these, then i discovered the shipping was another $18 and lost interest.

[Paul Wunder]

Kevin,

Yup, shipping costs have doubled since I last bought my new gates. I paid $90 for 6 gates plus $15 shipping. $18 does seem high for three gates. Have you spoken to them?

Paul

[David Hostetler]

I bought my gates, they are 4" and not 6" but I would imagine their 6" models are just as nice. I went with the ones from Lee Valley and they have been completely trouble free...

FWIW, they are kind of spendy, if you have the time and inclination, I think it would be kind of cool to make your own...

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=51506&cat=1,42401,62597

T (http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=51506&cat=1,42401,62597)hey are a bit spendy like I mentioned. $16.15 each for quantities of 4+ for the 6" models... But if you have the budget, and want to use the time for something else... They are very well made...

[Dan Case LR]

I bought my gates, they are 4" and not 6" but I would imagine their 6" models are just as nice. I went with the ones from Lee Valley and they have been completely trouble free...

FWIW, they are kind of spendy, if you have the time and inclination, I think it would be kind of cool to make your own...



Thanks, David. Yes, Lee Valley is spendy, but when compared to other aluminum gates that aren't self-cleaning, they aren't so bad.

I agree it would be cool to make my own, and it would be quite economical IF I had all the materials sitting around the shop. However, if I've got to go buy materials AND spend my time, the advantage quickly fades. All things considered, I think I'd rather buy my blast gates and spend my shop time making a new bench rather than making blast gates. Lee Valley is a definite contender.

Thanks!

D.

[Anthony Whitesell]

I don't have a lot of time and I don't have a lot of money. But I do have more time than I have money. But if buying the materials costs more than buying pre-made gates. The flip side is if you make your own, you can always make more. They way companies put out and discontinue products nowadays. The gates you get know may not be available later. The distant last thing to consider is if you are going to automate the gates. Now or later. Building them yourself, you can design them to accept the drive later. If you buy them, you'll need to modify them later (if possible).

[Scott Wigginton]

I went with http://www.blastgateco.com/Blast-Gates.php since I was looking for a mix of 4" and 6". They fit well in my S&D pipe

[Chris Parks]

For an alternative take on blast gates http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?69344-My-NEW-Unique-Blast-Gates&highlight=blast+gate

[Dave Kennedy]

I know this is an old thread, but I found it very useful and along with other information from Alan gathered a materials and dimensions list. His article in American Woodworker June/July 2010, #148 had the info for a 4" gate. I extrapolated that to 6" gate dimensions. I thought others might find this useful.




Qty
Material
4” Gate
Rough
4” Gate
Final
6” Gate
Rough
6” Gate
Final
Description


2
½” MDF
6” x 6”
6” x 6”
8” x 8”
8” x 8”
Gate body pieces


2
Laminate
6 ¼” x 6 ¼”
6” x 6”
8 ¼” x 8 ¼”
8” x 8”
Gate body faces


2
Laminate
7” x 14”
5 15/16” x 13”
9” x 18”
7 15/16” x 17”
Blade


2
Laminate
1 ½” x 6 ½”
1” x 6”
1 ½” x 8 ½”
1” x 8”
Sides (trim flush at end)

[Robert Engel]

I purchased all my gates and flex from PennStateIndustries. They fit right inside thinwall pvc.

[Joe O'Leary]

Thanks, Dave. Big help.