Dust Collection fitting frustration

[Jack Frederick]

I have one of the very first Dust Deputy's. It is metal and has a nice metal barrel. Unless I use yards of duct tape I have never been able to connect it. On Saturday I ran into the local Rockler store with the DD. The fellow who tried to help was informed, professional and we had a nice chat, but nothing in the store would connect up to the DD. Frustrated, I also thought of the box of plastic dust collection fittings I have bought over the years for my gear. I have a large box of fittings that do not connect the way I thought they would. Now, by trade, I am a pipe fitter and perhaps that lends itself to my frustration on this topic, but I suspect that I am not the only one in this boat.
In my business I was a Manufacturers Representative and regularly participated in discussions on packaging of products and information to make it easier and therefore more profitable doing business. I just sent the Sales Manager at Rockler a note suggesting that a series of videos actually showing them connecting device A to vac or Dust Collector B through hose C is done with X, Y & Z. That way I can walk over to bin C and pick up the correct part, with confidence. As it stands today, in woodworking, as a hobbyist, this is one of its most frustrating aspects. Well, other than figuring out what the wood is actually going to do.
I have had a Festool TS-55 and vac for a long time and it is excellent in all regards. I am somewhat put off by the price of Festool, but at least if I pony up for it I know that all the dust collection connections are consistent. I believe that gives Festool a value edge in the market. It would seem to me that Bosch, PC, Milwaukee, Makita, etc would benefit from consistency in connections. Call it a "design condition" for new products. While in the store Saturday I looked at the display of RO sanders. Every one has its own method of dust connection if there is one. This makes it tough on the consumer and potentially has health ramifications.
I do not know what trade groups there are in woodworking, or if any have a voice in this, but I would like to know that if I buy a biscuit jointer (can't afford the Domino;) it will have the A hose connection. From there I know that my Ridgid Vac has the B connection. Good i all ready have those... No one can bring pressure to bear on a manufacturer better than their customers. What is the path forward on this? Do you agree that it is a serious issue? Feel free to tell me it is a tempest in a teapot or that I am out of my mind, but how do these things get moved forward in the WW World?

[Jon Nuckles]

With respect to your general issue, some sellers obviously want unique connection sizes and types so they can sell proprietary fittings and hoses at a premium price. I don't know what pressure could be applied to stop this other than large numbers of consumers refusing to buy tools that didn't conform to some defined "standard," or a legislative solution if the health aspects of the problem were deemed serious enough. I don't think either is feasible or desirable. Some of the unique connections may be better than the more common ones; I don't own any Festool, but I read that many people prefer Festool's hoses and plugs. Personally, I wouldn't want to mandate a particular fitting if it made subsequent improvements in technology more difficult.

With respect to Oneida's dust deputy products, I share your frustration. Many outlets that sell the super dust deputy don't sell Oneida's fittings designed to connect it to standard 4" fittings. After exhaustive searches in big box stores and a Woodcraft, I resorted to Fernco fittings to hook mine up. My smaller dust deputy "sort of" worked with the smaller hoses I have, but things still fall off when pulled (if the whole thing doesn't tip over first). I intend to build a cart and hook it up with pvc connections and stabilize the whole thing, but haven't gotten around to it.

[Patrick Kane]

Wait until you buy euro machines. Atleast the portable ones are pretty easy to adapt to 27mm via a cheap adapter. The DC ports on my felder require stupid expensive adapters from Felder($50+ shipping). Is your male connector slightly bigger or small than the DD's female connection? What i did on my one Felder port was chuck a slightly larger PVC adapter into my lathe and turn off about 1/8-1/4" of material until it fit snugly. 5 mins of work.

[Tim M Tuttle]

This is my biggest pet peeve with major tool manufacturers; DeWalt, Bosch, etc. I have a Bosch router and I bought their dust collection hood kit which came with 3 hoods. They all have a different sized port which would not fit the hose on my shop vac and I couldnt find adapters that worked. I ended up buying a Bosch hose that works great and it also works really well with my DeWalt tools (sander, track saw).

I recently picked up the new DeWalt cordless sander. Took it out of the box, tried to hook it up to my hose and it wouldnt fit. They changed the fitting from the corded version. Well, it's actually the same fitting on the outside but the inside of the cordless version has some type of baffle or something so I couldnt slide my Bosch hose into the fitting like on all of my other tools.

I immediately boxed it up and took it back. However, I also took a picture of it planning to roast DeWalt on Instagram but decided not to.

This crap really infuriates me. There's no reason these companies cant make their dust ports consistent.

[Jim Becker]

The DC ports on my felder require stupid expensive adapters from Felder($50+ shipping).

Many of us use rubber Fernco sewer pipe fittings on the 120mm ports to adapt to 5" flex. Reasonably priced, too...

[Jack Frederick]

Tim, while I understand not taking the time to send your dissatisfaction to them there is no benefit, other than your time gained. It is why I think that for particular tools there could be a design criteria that allows satisfactory DC connection. Or they could provide an adaptor to fit the common size hoses. I have dealt with Bosch in other segments of their business and they are kinda Teutonic, to say the least about their engineering and know-how.

[Osvaldo Cristo]

I have one of the very first Dust Deputy's. It is metal and has a nice metal barrel. Unless I use yards of duct tape I have never been able to connect it.
[...]


I have a powerful and beautiful shop vac. Including some accessories and a couple of adaptors... believe or not they cannot fit any of my shop tools, table saw, sanders, routers, jigsaw, K5 Kreg jig, and a few more. It looks each manufacturer decide randomly the size of the vac connection.

I have been a heavy user of duct tape... :mad:

[Jim Andrew]

Agree, too bad they can't use fittings from the plumbing department to attach tools to vac. I have tried those, after failing to find anything in the vac area.

[Steve Eure]

I had an issue recently that caused some anxiety. I had bought an ROS that had a round DC port on it. I really liked the way the tool felt and worked, so I decided that I needed to buy another since they were on sale at a decent price. To my amazement, the second too had a rectangular port. How in the world can you hook up a round hose to a rectangular port. I contacted the manufacturer and asked them that question. Never received a response. I decided not to buy from them again. It might be better if they would offer an adapter but they don't. Live and learn!

[William Hodge]

It sounds like you are asking several manufacturers to have their design departments work together. It seems to me that the marketing people play a big role in design. I have a lot of respect for the way marketing people at big companies dress.

I often have to re-engineer a new tool or machine's dust collection to work with what I have, and to collect dust. Neither is a given as bought. For small stuff like sanders and power planes, I have had good luck using rubberized plumbing connectors from Home Depot. I have no idea what they are called, or what plumbers do with them in private. They are about 2" to 3" long, and come in a variety of sizes. They can be trimmed to fit odd stuff, like 3-d trapezoidal angular dust ports on power planes.

[Charlie Hinton]

Dust collection fittings are certainly near the top of the annoyance list.
If a manufacturer is truly producing a complete system (Festool for example) that's one thing, you know going in what you are signing up for, but the simple round hose type fittings that are so oddball sized you can't easily attach readily available "hoses" to is just dumb.
There's many more woodworking related things that are proprietary (or just plain old oddball) sized / shaped that doesn't make sense either, but that's for another thread.

[John Cole]

I'm fed up with this too. My new years resolution is i will only buy a tool if it has a standard dust connection, i.e. It hooks up to any of the standard vac hose sizes. It also has to be a direct connect, not you need to buy xyz adapter.

[Jim Becker]

That's going to save you a lot of tool buying money, John... ;)

[Art Mann]

It would seem that Oneida could at least standardize their own products, since this is their whole reason for existence. Sadly, that isn't true. I bought a Super Dust Deputy with a 6 inch outlet and I needed to pair it with a 5 inch dust collector inlet. I called Oneida and described exactly what I wanted to do and supplied all the necessary inside and outside diameters. What they sent me was an adapter that wasn't even close to fitting either end. Oddly, the adapter wouldn't even fit the SDD they designed and built! Furthermore, I found the exact same fitting at Home Depot and the price was less than half - and that is before shipping. Thank goodness for pipe crimpers, tin snips and duct tape.

[Mike McDonough1948]

I am new here to this forum and this is my first post. I agree that there are many tools that have DC outlets that are hard to find the proper fitting to attach collection hoses to them. One thing I have done to overcome this is to use PVC to create my own adapters. If you use a heat gun and heat the end of a piece of PVC to get it soft you can then slide it over the outlet of the tool's dust port and let it cool. The PVC will form to the ports exact OD.

[Mike Cutler]

Many of us use rubber Fernco sewer pipe fittings on the 120mm ports to adapt to 5" flex. Reasonably priced, too...

Exactly!!
Pick up a roll of 1/4" sticky backed insulation tape with them and you're done.

One more "hack", is stove pipe. ;)

[Jim Becker]

Mike, when I needed to source something locally, "stove pipe" was the way to get 26 gage material, even at the 'borg, although they only carry 24" long snap-lock in that thickness. Other sources carried 60" material which was my preference.

[Mike Cutler]

Jim
Yeah, there are a lot of ways to "skin this cat". I also know quite a few sheet metal workers, retired, and still working. If I ever needed something "special" done, they'd just crank it out.
We have a really nice sheet metal fab shop at work. It's cool to watch them make duct work.

[John K Jordan]

I am new here to this forum and this is my first post. I agree that there are many tools that have DC outlets that are hard to find the proper fitting to attach collection hoses to them. One thing I have done to overcome this is to use PVC to create my own adapters. If you use a heat gun and heat the end of a piece of PVC to get it soft you can then slide it over the outlet of the tool's dust port and let it cool. The PVC will form to the ports exact OD.

Mike, I read this thread for the first time just now and after reading the first couple of messages I was going to suggest the PVC method also! I have done the heat and sizing, either with a heat gun or a propane torch if I don't care what it looks like. (also easy to bend PVC if needed - I did that installing a automatic waterer for the horses.) As you said, the stuff gets real soft with little effort cools in just a few minutes.

If you have a lathe you can turn a wooden form to push over or inside the pipe, tapering the wood a bit to make it easier to get started.

Another thing I did when installing my DC system (ClearVue) was make adapters with short pieces of 4" and 6" pipe, the bandsaw, and some glue. For example, if I wanted an adapter to slide into a 6" duct to make a coupler to a blast gate, I started with a ring of 6" pipe, calculated the needed circumference, then cut a segment out of the ring with the bandsaw to give the needed diameter when pressed together. Then I glued the new piece inside the 6" duct or inside a shorter ring to hold the size. It was very quick to make such fittings.

I think anyone who designs or installs a dust collector should start by reading Bill Pentz. Guess what, he has good instructions for bending and forming PVC to make anything needed!

How to Bend and Form PVC
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/pvc.cfm

JKJ

[Mike McDonough1948]

Thanks John. I like the idea of turning a wooden cone shapen piece to slide inside the heated PCV. Also, the idea for making an adapter to fit inside a DC fitting is great. I have not tried that yet but it is on my list now. Thanks for your ideas.

MJM

[glenn bradley]

My plastic DD ingress and egress ports are flared. I slipped the connectors on until tight, measured the location on the intake and cut the unneeded length of the flare off on the infeed. Didn't worry about the outfeed.

[Bob Varney]

Can't believe no one mentioned 3-D printer. Print your own.

Bob