What's Plugging Your Ducts

[Tom Bender]

Just wondering what we have found plugging our dust collection ducts. Curly shavings, chunks of wood, rags, rodents, bee's nests?

Forewarned is forearmed.

[roger wiegand]

long stringy shavings from green wood on the lathe = disaster

Won't' try that again!

[Jim Becker]

What Roger describes combined with inadequate air flow to keep them moving. That's what I faced when I first bought my J/P and started to regularly flatten and thickness wider material. My original cyclone was underpowered for what that machine actually needed and certain woods, such as pine, could plug things up really quickly.

If anything else is plugging up duct work...such as creatures...then your shop is way underutilized. :) :D

[Ole Anderson]

A properly designed duct system shouldn't plug. Nothing to catch shavings inside, enough velocity to keep everything moving, blast gates closed to keep out critters and bees. I have had heavy off cuts stuck in a vertical bend, but not enough to clog anything.

[John C Cox]

My small thru-the-fan DC has a fairly smallish grate at the entrance to the fan designed to keep junk (and fingers) out of the fan....

This means curly things, big chips, rags, paper tags/labels, paper towels and such ilk end up cobbing up the works...

Second biggest "cause of clogs" is when the filter bag starts blinding.... The capacity of the unit goes down massively with the filter bag plugging up - which makes junk lay down in the ducts rather than running through.

[Charlie Jones]

My small thru-the-fan DC has a fairly smallish grate at the entrance to the fan designed to keep junk (and fingers) out of the fan....

This means curly things, big chips, rags, paper tags/labels, paper towels and such ilk end up cobbing up the works...

Second biggest "cause of clogs" is when the filter bag starts blinding.... The capacity of the unit goes down massively with the filter bag plugging up - which makes junk lay down in the ducts rather than running through.


I haven't had any clogs. Sometimes a cutoff will get in one of the vertical runs and bang around for awhile before it gets sucked into the cyclone. I have found a few acorns in the bin. I had a problem with flying squirrels getting in my cyclone closet. That is now taken care of..

[Martin Wasner]

Usually thin drops, and usually from a tablesaw where they get sucked down through the throat plate. When I took the pipe out of my old shop, a couple of pipes were full of little chunks.

[Rod Sheridan]

Just wondering what we have found plugging our dust collection ducts. Curly shavings, chunks of wood, rags, rodents, bee's nests?

Forewarned is forearmed.

My shop apron complete with a 25 foot tape measure in the pocket. Didn't make it past the elbow above the blast gate on the floor sweep. I pulled it out by the tie strap...........Rod.

[Ben Rivel]

Nothing yet thankfully!

[Yonak Hawkins]

If you ever had occasion to plane panels across the grain those very long fibres could clog pipes.

[Ben Rivel]

If you ever had occasion to plane panels across the grain those very long fibres could clog pipes.
Those should probably be swept up in a large dust pan. I wouldnt try or recommend sending those through the dust collection ducting.

[Tom Bain]

I’m happy to see that no one has said missing digits! :eek: Never had a clog personally ... I guess Oneida did a good job designing the system.

[Andrew Seemann]

My old Jet 1HP canister didn't have enough pull for my 15" Grizzly planer when I would do 12" wide white pine boards. The wide resinous shavings would get caught in the ducts and the planer head would jam up. I tried a trashcan with the separator and still had the problem, probably from the loss of static pressure. I eventually had to take off the dust hood on the planer when I did wide pine. I've since gotten a 3 HP Oneida and haven't had any problems with collection.

[Bill Orbine]

If you ever had occasion to plane panels across the grain those very long fibres could clog pipes.

Agreed....especially from plywood.

[Ole Anderson]

Agreed....especially from plywood.

Never has occasion to plane plywood.