Metal Dust collection question

[Rick Fisher]

Hello

I'm looking to order pipe and fittings for a new shop. I intend on going metal, and actually looked at Norfab but.. wow .. I add up all the parts and its so expensive.. on top of that, I cant help but believe I will forget a bunch of stuff.. so many parts to consider.

Looked at Blastgate Company. Its way more affordable .. is it the same spiral pipe available at a HVAC Wholesaler ?

Blastgate Company is in CT .. I am north of Seattle.

Kinda stumped on what to do ..

Norfab will cost thousands .. upon thousands..

Advice ?

[Larry Frank]

This is a question that many of us encounter. I looked at the options and looked at costs for 6" duct and looked at metal duct from Norfab, Blastgate and Penn State. I compared it to the Drain and waste PVC and went wit the PVC. I did make my own blast gates.

On thing that was really expensive was the shipping on metal duct parts.

[Larry Edgerton]

Check out "Air Handling Systems" Rick, they have different grades, and much cheaper than Nordfab.

Larry

[David Linnabary]

I hung around on craigslist till I found a batch of nordfab stuff taken out of a shop that closed, then purchased the additional items I needed to finish my design which was kinda pricey but I have not regretted it. I would have to say that the main advantages are the ease of installation and the flexibility to easily take down and reroute things at will. The system maintains nearly all of it's functional value, the components are every bit as functional and in as nice shape as the day you put them up.

Basically I could with confidences tear down my system one day then put it up in another shop the next and likely would need very little if anything additional.

By the way, just about the only tools I used the entire job to cut pipe was a portaband bandsaw and a round file to clean up the cuts. My first cut was a little rough, after that I got my technique down, they came out quite nice. Most of my runs, I put up by myself or with very little assistance. Eventually made an adjustable dead man.

No nordfab isn't for everyone, the cost is quite prohibitive but it's biggest advantage is its ability to easily adapt to changes in shop layout or an entire shop relocation.

David

[Martin Wasner]

Buy spiral pipe from a local hvac wholesaler. I don't understand the norfab stuff, but I'm cheap and don't mind spending the extra few seconds pulling the tape off a joint.

[Robert Engel]

The myths surrounding PVC have been thoroughly dispelled.

Think of the lumber you could buy with the savings.

[Tom Wassack]

Hello

I'm looking to order pipe and fittings for a new shop. I intend on going metal, and actually looked at Norfab but.. wow .. I add up all the parts and its so expensive.. on top of that, I cant help but believe I will forget a bunch of stuff.. so many parts to consider.

Looked at Blastgate Company. Its way more affordable .. is it the same spiral pipe available at a HVAC Wholesaler ?

Blastgate Company is in CT .. I am north of Seattle.

Kinda stumped on what to do ..

Norfab will cost thousands .. upon thousands..

Advice ?


Since you're in the Pacific NW, consider buying from Spiral Manufacturing http://www.spiralmfg.com (http://www.spiralmfg.com/) in Minnesota. I've bought pipe, fittings (stock and custom), and blast gates from them and found prices (and shipping) quite reasonable.

Regards,
Tom Wassack
Asheboro, NC

[Jim Becker]

You should be fine sourcing spiral locally and just need to get your fittings from a dust collection specialty. That will safe you shipping cost on the straight pipe.

Nordfab and similar indeed are more expensive...the extra cost is for the flexibility and easy reconfiguration properties. That said, one thing I did was use some quick-clamp-disconnects on a few ports in my shop that are used for things like my router table and combo sander. Those tools are not permanently connected and being able to easily hook up is a great benefit.

[Ben Rivel]

Could also check out Oneida's ducting. I got all my ductwork from them. Was free shipping too if ordering over $300 which is easy to do.

[Martin Wasner]

Since you're in the Pacific NW, consider buying from Spiral Manufacturing http://www.spiralmfg.com (http://www.spiralmfg.com/) in Minnesota. I've bought pipe, fittings (stock and custom), and blast gates from them and found prices (and shipping) quite reasonable.

Regards,
Tom Wassack
Asheboro, NC


I believe they are who supply McMaster-Carr. I've got an hvac buddy and have will called stuff directly from Spiral. I will probably do that again if I can ever get my new shop built. The nice thing about getting it direct is you can get longer lengths.

[Tom Wassack]

I believe they are who supply McMaster-Carr. I've got an hvac buddy and have will called stuff directly from Spiral. I will probably do that again if I can ever get my new shop built. The nice thing about getting it direct is you can get longer lengths.

You're right, you can get longer lengths and I needed a custom 3 inlet manifold and called them with the angles and sizes and they custom built it for less than $60 + shipping. They don't mind selling you 1 piece or dozens - which is unusual for a manufacturer!

Tom

[Mike Heidrick]

I asked this question on another forum too. Is spiral pipe all Female female? Kencraft has Wyes and other fittings with one end that is corrugated. Do you corrugate the end of the spiral pipe end connecting to the fitting? PVC is much easier LOL. PVC is not easy to have a 8" main trunk.

[Peter Kelly]

Looked at Blastgate Company. Its way more affordable .. is it the same spiral pipe available at a HVAC Wholesaler ?Whether it's for HVAC or dust Spiral pipe itself is pretty much the same thing with somewhat varying wall thicknesses. It's the fittings on the other hand are very different. Due to space constraints in ceilings and walls, HVAC systems typically have relatively hard turns at intersections, instead of wyes there are "T"s, etc. As per the other recent thread on metal duct, Blastgate Co., they also sell 26ga snap lock, which is certainly cheaper than spiral. They just don't advertise it on their website.

I feel like it's best to order everything from the same place and not need to worry about variations in pipe ID / OD, etc. No regrets ordering everything from them.

[Peter Kelly]

I asked this question on another forum too. Is spiral pipe all Female female? Kencraft has Wyes and other fittings with one end that is corrugated. Do you corrugate the end of the spiral pipe end connecting to the fitting?Connector rings are used to butt sections of spiral together. Actually far easier to work with than trying to wrestle with snap-lock crimps on 26ga overhead duct. If the end cuts are clean, it's much easier to get a nice straight run of duct.

http://blastgateco.com/images/Pipe_Connector.jpg

[William C Rogers]

Why not snap lock? I went as cheap as possible using 30ga with plywood rings. 26ga is fine and no need for plywood rings. You will need to reverse the flow for the wyes by crimping and straightening, but that is minor. My second choice was PVC.

[John Lankers]

I hooked up with my plumber to get access to his wholesaler for heavy gauge pipe and fittings, this way I can return extras also. I already have 6" blast gates from LV. Before you buy you need to know the static pressure of your d/c to get the proper gauge pipe.

[Ole Anderson]

Yea, what is the fascination with spiral? If that is all one is willing to consider, no wonder so many migrate to PVC. Just use 26 gauge snap lock. And yes they "myth" of dust explosions with plastic has been largely dispelled, but that does not solve the static buildup problem which attracts dust and can give you a good zap when you are least expecting it.

[Martin Wasner]

Ever price out 16" pvc for a main trunk line? That's my fascination with spiral. I don't know if that size even exists in pvc.

If I won the lotto it'd be all 1/4" wall stainless and welded. Quiet and shiny. But that's unrealistic in every fashion.

[Peter Kelly]

Snap-lock only goes up to 8" diameter and the longest length is usually 5'. 14" and larger diameter spiral is easily available in up to 118" lengths. Snap-lock is perfectly serviceable but spiral is pretty much the industry standard for dust collection and air-handling systems.

[Brad Shipton]

I am far north of you and my fittings came from Blastgate not more than four weeks ago. Shipping was not that unrealistic for a small neatly packed pallet. Nordfab would be nice, but yikes. Grizzly re-sells nordfab.

My old system was all PVC, but I got tired of the plugged gates. I could have re-built the gates as many have done or had a custom reducer made to work between PVC and the nice metal gates that blastgate or Nordfab makes, but I didn't think the blastgate prices were that unrealistic.

[Rick Fisher]

Brad.. did the blastgate fittings work with the locally sourced spiral pipe ?

My system is 6" pipe. Spiral is cheap .. under $3.00 a foot Canadian .. The supplier is hit and miss on fittings. They have some, but not all .. ugh. So I look at Blastgate and picture the fittings being a different size when they show up .. ( metric / Imperial ) ..


Thanks for all the responses..

[Ole Anderson]

Snap-lock only goes up to 8" diameter and the longest length is usually 5'. 14" and larger diameter spiral is easily available in up to 118" lengths. Snap-lock is perfectly serviceable but spiral is pretty much the industry standard for dust collection and air-handling systems.
In general the Creek caters to hobbyists and small shop owners, very few are running anything over a 5 hp DC which is happy with 8" main duct runs. So in general we are dealing with folks that do not need industrial solutions to major air handling systems. If someone wants or needs and is willing to pay for the beefier solution then they need to know that is available to them, so no harm discussing spiral pipe here. Just as you can build your system with heavy schedule 40 PVC or the thinner choices in PVC pipe. They both work, how much do you want to spend?

[Brad Shipton]

Rick, I ordered all my pipe from Blastgate. I could measure the ID of a fitting or two. My system is relatively small, so it all the fittings and pipe fit on a pallet. It was $250 to ship the package. My guess is the Blastgate spiral comes from a mech supplier, but I never asked.

[Mike Henderson]

I put in 6" and 4" Sewer and Drain (S&D) in my shop and it works fine. Very reasonably priced in this area and you can get all the fittings easily. Blast gates are pretty inexpensive so I bought them.

Mike

[Rick Fisher]

Today, I bypassed the HVAC Wholesaler who sells the Spiral pipe (and was almost no help with using it for Dust Collection) and called the manufacturer on the pipe in Vancouver.

I asked about Dust collection, they put me through to the DC guy .. I got a bit of an education .. the guy knew his stuff. He said the Spiral pipe would need to be ordered " planed " for DC use, it would be totally smooth inside. The fittings would the the same, they would make them. Every question I asked was simple .. no problem, done lots of them.

I emailed him a list, he said he would price it out for me ..

Its sure cool talking to people who know what their doing..