Building DC hood for drum sander

[Don Parker]

I just upgraded my drum sander to an old Performax Shop Pro 25. I have very good dust collection (Clearvue) with 6" PVC piping, and the drum sander is near the front of the line to the DC. I would like to build a better DC hood for the drum sander. It comes with a single 4" connection, which I am sure is better than nothing, but since I have a Clearvue, I want to build something better.

The box construction will be very straightforward, but I would like your opinions on whether I should build a hood with a single 6" connection or a hood with two 4" connections, spaced along the span of the drum. The larger sanders with a similar footprint seem to come with two 4" connections, but that is probably due to the manufacturers' assumption that everyone has 4" DC piping (a common assumption). Again, since I have a better than average DC system, and I am going to build something, I want to build whichever is going to be better and not have to redo it later.

So, what do you think? Thanks for your help.

[James Gunning]

Don,

As an advocate for generally larger hoses and ducts for dust collection, I vote for at least a single 6". Do the math. The cross sectional area of a 4" pipe is 12.566 sq. in. Doubling that will give 25.132 sq. in. A single 6" pipe will give you 28.27 sq. in. If anything, go to two 6" pipes on the dust shroud. You have the DC capacity for it.

I have a Performax 22-44 I will be converting to larger ducting this winter. Right now it has a 4" to 6" adapter, which was a crutch since I didn't have time when I acquired it to build the different hood. Haven't decided whether to build a completely new hood, but I'm leaning that way, since modifying the current one to take a 6" hose doesn't look like it will be easy or effective. If I roll my own, I can easily make it to fit a 6" hose.

[Don Parker]

Thanks, James. I was leaning toward a single 6" connection. I think I will try that first. Now that I think about it, I can build a new hood and just switch out the top piece if I want to change the connection configuration.

On your 22-44, I would definitely build a new hood. If you ever want to sell this drum sander, you will want to restore it to its original condition. More importantly, building a better hood is going to be way easier than widening that 4" port.

Thanks for your help.

[John K Jordan]

...The box construction will be very straightforward, but I would like your opinions on whether I should build a hood with a single 6" connection or a hood with two 4" connections, spaced along the span of the drum...

I'd tend to lean towards splitting the 6" into several 4" ducts and spacing them over the drum. Watching the dust pickup while sanding on the lathe I'm surprised at how far dust will travel horizontally to be sucked into the pickup - dust will easily travel a foot or more even in free air without a hood.

My Performax 22-44 has one 4" connection in the middle of the top and for now I step down to a single 4" flex hose. (I use a flex hose here since I roll the sander out a few feet when I use it.) The DC still picks up all of the visible dust. I wouldn't be afraid to use two 4" ducts, each spaced about 1/4 of the way from the ends of the active part of the drum.

I've seen designs for a hood for a SCMS which the builders claimed to be effective - these spaced several 4" ports along a wide plenum.

I have the 5hp ClearVue cyclone with 6" pvc ducts and drops, split to multiple 4" where it makes sense to me. For example I use three on my 18" bandsaw. Works well. That DC has an incredible suction and air flow.

JKJ