Dust collection on the Hammer K3 (US)

[Todd Brewer]

Wondering what others are doing for dust collection on this machine.

I have a 6" dust collection system but the port on the Hammer is somewhere between 4" and 5". The hose internally is about 3 3/4".

Even though I had no dust collection hooked up to the machine, I was surprised to see that most dust exited out the dust collection port. The blade is not enclosed but the location of the interanl dust collection port just below the leading edge of the spinning blade appears to do very well. I image with suction dust collection will be very good.

I've never run above-table dust collection (blade guard collection) as I think it will get in the way.

From what I've read on this forum, we want 6" of air volume to collect the fines and not starve the dust collection.

[David Hawxhurst]

for my felder i bought the fittings from them and some hose to connect to a home made splitter box that connects the 6" mainline to my dust collector. i use the blade guard dust collection. the blade guard drops down form above and does not get in the way. not threw cuts would be the only time you won't use the blade guard.

if your not going to use the above table you could make a adapter (reducer) to go from 6" main down to 120mm. you will still need to provide some make up air to prevent starving the dust collector. you do this by adding a additonal fitting or opening a second blast gate.

[C Scott McDonald]

Hammer has an adapter that converts from 120mm to 4". It is only a few bucks.

[Ryan Mooney]

I'm using a 5" hose and have a Fernco rubber sewer adapter on the end. I believe the Fernco is 4", but I just took a measurement and went down to the local borg and checked to find one that fit. The rubber adapter fits snugly inside of a 5" connector (or hose) and snuggly over the 120mm connector on the Hammer machine.

Works very well and you can probably gin it up from locally available parts :D

[David Wong]

I bought the 120mm quick connect adapter from Felder. I then use a 6" to 5" adapter with some foam tape on the inside of the 5" adapter on my flex hose. This gives me a slip on fit onto the 120mm adapter.

[Jim Neeley]

A general note: If you are ordering a new machine you can inquire about getting them to put a 160mm DC port on your machine. I talked w/Hammer about it for an A3-41 I'm saving for and they indicated that if I was ordering it they'd be glad to put one on. FYI, 160mm = 6.3",

[Erik Loza]

I'm using a 5" hose and have a Fernco rubber sewer adapter on the end....

This is what we use in the shop and what I recommend to all my customers. No need to spend lots of money on a special connector. We've had a $10 Fernco fitting on our $30K shop combination machine for the last five years.

Erik Loza
Minimax USA

[Todd Brewer]

Thanks to all. Great ideas! I knew I came to the right place! :)

I'd like to try the blade guard collector but have yet to figure out how best to hook it up. The dust collection line comes from a trench in my concrete floor. I see various arms for this purpose but not thrilled about their costs. I may just hook a hose up and see how well it works, then figure out how to route the hose.

If Felder sells the adapters from metric to imperial I sure don't see them on their web site. May have to call them if I can't find something at the borgs.

[Todd Brewer]

One more question. I'm thinking of using an expandable style hose so I can move the machine without too much resistance that might come from a stiffer hose, something like the Dust-right or the hose that Grizzly sells (retracts to 1/3 it's length). Anyone have any thoughts on these hoses? Are they too flexible such that they collapse or deform due to vacuum?

[Todd Brewer]

Contacted Felder/Hammer today. The adapter is actually a 120 -> 100 mm adapter. 100mm is just slightly less than 4". In case anyone else is interested. Part number 02.2.021

[Charles Brown]

Todd, I bought my adapter from Oneida. I wish I had thought about using the Fernco. Oneida can build reducers in a range of sizes. I had them fabricate a 5" --> 120 mm for one hose and a 4" --> 80 mm (I think it was 80 mm. I can't remember exactly. It's the port that is on the bottom of my Felder shaper.). The nice thing about the 120 mm adapter is it travels easily to my SCMI shaper.

[Jim Becker]

I use a rubber Fernco adapter on my MM J/P to attach the 6" hose drop. I have a similar adapter on the slider to adapt to a 5" drop hose. Originally, I used the metal adapters for the 120mm connections from Oneida, but much prefer the rubber one, especially on the J/P where I need to shift it from one port to another when I switch from thickness planing to face jointing. The Fernco parts are available in the plumbing section of any home center or plumbing supply. Inexpensive, too.