Ideas or Opinions? SCMS hood for DC w/ 6" or 8" hose connection

[Jim Neeley]

Has anyone seen a dust collection hood (i.e. downdrafter or big gulp) with a 6" or 8" DC connection or seen a posting showing someone who has done it yet? I'm planning my stationary DC system and want to add a DC draw to pick up what the little shop-vac port misses. I've seen the 4" units but I'd gave to open anther blast gate part way to get sufficient duct air velocity to keep the dust and chips entrained. That seems like such a waste.

Jim

[Ryan Brucks]

Hi Jim,

I got this idea from another member over at the festool owners group. I made a downdraft table for my kapex SCMS. The guy I got the idea from used a pegboard template to drill like 1000 holes. I drilled around 20 holes 2.5" diameter through melamine and 1/2" ply then sandwiched a 1/4" wire mesh between them. Alot less holes to drill.

I used the kapex itself to draw a pencil outline and then drilled my holes along the edge of the kapex, under the center holes etc.

Two 4" lines feed a 6" take off using a clearvue transition. The insides of the downdraft table are sloped.

http://worstkind.com/shop/dc/kapex_dc_01.jpg


http://worstkind.com/shop/dc/kapex_dc_03.jpg


I have since improved the ducting a little bit.

http://worstkind.com/shop/cv/7-6/05.jpg

My DC is a 5hp clearvue unit. I used two 4" lines instead of a 6" line purely for space reasons. At some point I will make little thin shelves that will fill the 5" gap on either side of my kapex table. these will be little shelves for offcut scraps, and will hopefully make it look nicer. also have a door made to put on the table at some point.

[Jim Neeley]

Thank you, Ryan.. Great idea. I'll have to look at my Bosch gravity rise stand for my Glide to see how to incorporate it, or something like it. I particularly like your idea of the split, as I'm vascillating between the CV 1800 and MAX. The MAX only makes sense with 8" duct so it'll depend upon the viability of running my duct in the attic, something I have yet to determine.

I've been chuckling to myself with a visual of an 8" DC feed (plus vacuum) to a miter saw, figuring it'd look like a bowling ball retrieval system... Though, with the nanofilters it'd double as a shop air filter!!

[Clint Olver]

Nice set-up Ryan. Here's my SCMS set-up and Down-draft sanding station:

C

[Jim Neeley]

Nice twist, Clint!!

[Ryan Brucks]

Yea that's a really nice use of space with the miter saw support table pulling double duty as a sanding station. If I hadn't already committed to building some drawers into the cabinets next to my miter saw I might copy that.

one of my next projects (soon) is an offset style router table using the original incra jig. I've always thought all that space on the back of the incra tables was wasted... why not drill some holes and make the back of the offset table double as a sanding station? already got the ducting available might as well use it.

[Jim Neeley]

I agree, Ryan...

I've been planning a large (4'x8'?) assembly table with drawers / cabinet underneath for my new shop and the pictures have me considering foregoing one section of drawers or cabinet to made a small (?2'x2' ? 2'x4'?) downdraft sanding surface. I'm thinking that wouldn't take away its ability to serve as an assembly table.

Jim

[Ryan Brucks]

nope not at all. could even consider using larger 19mm holes and trying to make the thing double duty as your own mini festool MFT style workbench top. could aid in securing pieces for sanding using qwas dogs. You could still incorporate a wire mesh somewhere to keep screws and the like from getting sucked away (assembly table after all).... maybe put the screen wedged between one of the male/female duct connections to the piece?

[Clint Olver]

No reason to forego the drawers. I have a bank of drawers directly under the downdraft table.

C

[Van Huskey]

Jim, thanks for sharing!

[Sam Layton]

Clint, I really like the way you made your down draft table part of your SCMS station.

Jim, I used a 6" duct to my SCMS. The dust collection is very effective. I really like Clint's set up including a down draft table in his SCMS station. I have a 3 HP cyclone with an 8" trunk line going down to a 6" duct throughout the shop.

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[Ryan Brucks]

good idea for blocking in the space around the air intake as much as possible. i might be able to build up wings on the side of mine to help keep the air moving quicker.


Hey Jim, I sent you a PM last night but cant tell if it sent or not since my sent messages thing still says 0 messages. mind popping a quick reply if you got it?

[Ben Martin]

Sam,

I might be contacting you in a couple weeks on tips for building that SCMS station, I have the same saw (albeit the newer model) I thought the rails hanging out the back would pose a big challenge.

I will ask, why all of the Craftsman tool chest bottoms? Get a good deal? Didn't want to build the cabinets yourself?

Ben

[Sam Layton]

Hi Ben,

Contact me anytime. I have more photo's I can show you. When I built the SCMS station, I did not have time to build the cabinets, and drawers. Just happened that Sears had a great sale on the tool chests. They worked out really well. I think that if you build your own cabinets, you would get more storage. I am going to build a new outfeed table for my table saw, and I will build the cabinets and drawers under the outfeed table.

Let me know if you have any questions, Sam

[Jim Neeley]

Nice setup you've got there, Sam.. I particularly like the wings on your SCMS collector.. although I need to be *able* to cut compound miters, most cuts are at 90* and I want to get all that fine little stuff!!

[Jim Neeley]

Clint,

I noticed your DC connection is on the top of your sanding table. Do you have any form of internals to draw the dust towards the DC inlet, or does it work OK without?

Jim

[Sam Layton]

Thanks Jim,

The wings help a lot. I can also cut compound miters. Each wing is held on with one rear earth magnet. It is very to move the wing aside. With the wings removed, I still get very good dust collection.

Sam

[Ken Deckelman]

I have two pictures of the one I made in my Picasa album: https://picasaweb.google.com/113966569709555812037/DC