Dust gates clogging

[Robert Willing]

I am having a problem with the gates clogging, that is the slots fill up with saw dust and the gates will not close all of the way anyone have a solution other than digging in the slot to remove the clog. I use the plastic gates I bought from Menards. They work at first but the second time around I can not close them all of the way.

[paul cottingham]

The only way I have been able to fix plastic gates is by replacing them with steel, self cleaning ones.

[Paul Wunder]

I have read that some people cut the rear corners of the sliding portion on a 45 degree angle in order to prevent the dust from getting caught and preventing the gate from closing. I have not personally tried that technique. I use the plastic gates by Clearvue (new version) for $15 each.

[Robert Willing]

On one of my gates I cut the edge to a radius and still not good. If you cut the edges you need to cut off the tab that keeps it from coming out.

[Jim O'Dell]

Self cleaning are the only way to go. Never clogs. Easy to build. Several of us have tutorials here at the Creek! I've used MDF and also melamine shelf material. Both have worked great. Jim.

[John McClanahan]

Mounting with the gate handle in a downward position may help prevent dusty from settling in the groove. I've seen pictures of shops with the gates "upside down". I'm guessing thats why.

John

[Robert Willing]

Mounting with the gate handle in a downward position may help prevent dusty from settling in the groove. I've seen pictures of shops with the gates "upside down". I'm guessing thats why.

John


http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.aspx?p=51506&cat=1,42401,62597 I found these on another wood talk forum and I am going to try them.

[Ryan Baker]

I struggled with that for years with my old system. The real answer is that you don't have enough airflow. With high enough airflow, you won't have dust accumulate there.

Now jumping back into the real world where you have to work with what you have, self-cleaning gates are the only real option, as the other guys said. Either make your own gates or get some aluminum self-cleaning gates. That makes a big difference. Make sure to install them in the correct direction or you will have a big air leak around them when closed (they are designed so that the vacuum sucks the plate down to seal them off when closed). Cleaning out the plastic ones is a massive pain, and I lost a huge amount of airflow due to gates not closing all the way.

Anything else you can do to improve the airflow of the system will help as well. Make sure everything is sealed up well. Get rid of as much static pressure loss as possible (too many corners, long pipe runs, flex hose sections, etc.).

[Michael W. Clark]

Mounting with the gate handle in a downward position may help prevent dusty from settling in the groove. I've seen pictures of shops with the gates "upside down". I'm guessing thats why.

John

I like to mount them horizontal, that way I don't have to use the little thumbscrew to hold them open and they can't vibrate shut when in use. Seems the seat would be less likely to accumulate dust in this position as well.

[ian maybury]

Can't say what the long term position will be, but i've had Clear Vue moulded gates for the past year with no problems. Very well made, and good value at $15 - tight seal/minimum suction loss, tough PET plastic and by all accounts self cleaning. They have moulded in air bleeds that clear the tracks. Interesting to search 'blast gates' on the Clear Vue forums linked off the Clear Vue cyclones page - there's lots of feedback there from what seem to be a universally happy body of users.

They are made to fit plastic sewer pipe ducting rather than the galvanised spiral steel variety - the sockets have close to 162mm bores. Which as it happens is a very good fit to 160mm spiral steel ducting, but needs a packing sleeve (maybe a ring cut off a piece of sewer pipe would fit?) if they are to be used with 6in spiral ducting.....

There no doubt are decent ones available in the US, but i'm not very keen on the typical commodity metal blast gates we get locally. Quite apart from questions of whether or not they are self cleaning or not it's not uncommon to see for example warped castings - plus the fits tend to be very loose. The problem with that is that unless you can find well made examples they (by the time the loss is multiples x maybe 4 or 5 gates) can waste a very significant proportion of fan capability/CFM....

ian

[Robert Payne]

I suspect that OP Robert Willing has 4" gates and the inexpensive plastic ones are generally prone to clogging. Like Jim O'Dell, I made my own when I was using 4" gates -- the newer ClearVue Cyclone gates are self-cleaning but are for 6" duct (they fit 6" PVC S&D exactly, and as Ian has noted, need some tweaking for metal pipe). I have no experience with the metal gates from Lee Valley, but I understand they are pretty good from what I've read.

[Phil Thien]

I just clip off the edges on my plastic gates. When I close them I sometimes see a little "poof" of sawdust come out of the hole that resulted from the clipped corner.

[richard poitras]

I just installed a bunch of 4’’ and 6’’ self cleaning gates from this company “The BlastGate Company” and am very happy with the price, quality, and service and got my orders in one day as I placed two different orders.
4’’ ……$ 11.78
6’’…….$15.55


http://www.blastgateco.com/Blast-Gates.php

http://www.blastgateco.com/images/Steel-Self-Cleaning_Blast_Gate-LG.jpg

[Robert Willing]

I saw the same after googling blast gates, I am glad you stated the price, I am going to order 5 of the 4" myself.

Thanks

[glenn bradley]

I have two plastic ones still in the system. I used a sander to round the corners to create a small opening as others have discussed. This leaks no more than metal gates and seems to solve the problem.

250984

However, if your problem is from a lack of adequate air flow the fix will only be so-so. Once I upped the power in my system, the remaining non-modified plastic gate has never clogged (?).

[Jim Finn]

I made my own self cleaning blast gates. Masonite body, with metal collars to fit my 6" metal duct system. Plywood slides.

[Mark Ashmeade]

+1 Richard, I used those. No problems at all, and inexpensive. Fitted right in with my spiral ductwork or 6" flex. No way I could make my own 6" blastgate for $15 and think it was worth my time or wear on my tools.

http://www.blastgateco.com/Cast-Aluminum-Self-Cleaning-Blast-Gates.php

[Chris Fairbanks]

I still have the cheap non self cleaning ones that clog up every so often. I am waiting till I upgrade to a cyclone and replumb to replace them. In the mean time when they start getting plugged up I just open the gate and turn the dust collector on and then blast the grove with a shot of 175psi compressed air at it and everything seems to blow out and get sucked up.

[Chris Parks]

Drill some holes in the blind end, 1/8 should do it. One in each corner and perhaps one in the middle though the CV gates only have holes in the corner. My home made gates were made as a complete slide so the clogging of the ends was not an issue.

[Robert Willing]

source for self cleaning blast gate in ABS http://www.woodcraft.com/product/2020106/25951/dust-collection-fitting-self-clearing-blast-gate-abs-4inch-od.aspx The flange is easier to mount your hose where as the above gate offer very little area to mount your hose, I know I just bought 5 from blast gate. I wish I had seen the gates at woodcraft sooner.