Dust Collection Piping

[Johnnyy Johnson]

I have read many posts on DC when I did a search for it. I did not see anyone asking about using PVC pipe. Here is what I have in mind. I have a Jointer 10”, Planer 15“, Shaper 3hp and router table located down one wall of my shop. They are all on mobile bases and when I use one of them I roll it out from the wall so the lumber fits fine. (My shop is long and narrow) I plan to have the DC within 20 feet of the farthest machine. At each machine I will have home made small cyclones, so hopefully little or no large pcs will get to the DC bag. I would like to use some PCV pipe I have left over and since I read nothing about anyone else using it, it must be a bad idea. I am wondering if it has anything to do with static build up. I did a test on all the machines and using a large shop vac and the cyclone works great. Little or no dust gets to the vac. (except 5 micron). I was hoping to use the PCV for the straight run down the wall and at the tee’s use standard flex with cut off’s for DC’s. Since only air and the smallest particles will be going through the PVC is this safe?

Thanks
Johnny

[Neil Brooks]

A good article (http://www.rockler.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=7F49013C-1372-6771-F61DF1DDCE112A26) on the subject of PVC for DC ductwork.

[Dan Friedrichs]

You should spend significantly more time reading about dust collection. Probably more than half of the users here on SMC use PVC pipe for dust collection, and it presents no hazards at all. Perfectly safe, and exceedingly common. But, for effective collection (using any type of pipe), you need a large volume of air, which typically requires 6" diameter ducts (for single-man home-shop uses). You should also avoid using flex ducting as much as possible. And you shouldn't use tee's, you should use wye's.

[Johnnyy Johnson]

Thanks Dan...I know about the flexable PVC, what I have is some left over waterpipe PVC that is ridgit. Was hoping to use it for the straight run from the DC to the first wye.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Humm... I wonder if we are thinking about the same thing - many people use rigid PVC (like, the SCH 40 stuff you use for plumbing, or more often, "sewer and drain" PVC which is lighter, but still water/air tight). So, yes, that's perfectly fine.

[Van Huskey]

PVC for DC in hobby shops is safe.

I noticed you used "tees" in your first post, Ts will reduce the airflow significantly uses variations of Ys instead.

Use one big seperator instead of one at each machine, more effective both in efficacy and money.

Probably better than 50% of people here use PVC most of them probably use 6" & 8" S&D (sewer and drain)

What size PVC do you have, it may not be large enough to work effectively

There is a wealth of info here on PVC ducting just keep digging and/or asking.

[Phil Maddox]

I used PVC in my shop but would use spiral if I had it to do over again - the PVC was a pain.

What do you mean by "little cyclone at each machine"? A "little" cyclone will kill airflow - one bigger one just before the collector or part of the collector is most desirable. A pretty simple formula for a small shop with one machine running at a time is 6" pipe - long sweep 90s, Y's, not Ts, hard pipe as far as you can - you get the picture.

Let everyone know what you mean to do with the little cyclone thing and the experts here (not me) will help.
Good luck

[Alan Schaffter]

What everyone else said. There are tons and tons of PVC ducting posts on SMC. You should also read Bill Pentz's site.

Can someone tell him how to search this new forum, because I can't get it to work either.