MM Combo dust collection

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I would appreciate anybody's advice on how they connected their DC to the MiniMax Combo.
I'm thinking that One or Two drops from the ceiling will do. Dust collection will be part of the changeover from one tool to the next.

Mike H in Pasadena, CA

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Forgot to mention that I've got a Dust Gorilla on order.

Mike

[tod evans]

is this a hidden gloat???????? dont own a combo so can`t help:) tod

[Philip Glover]

Mike,
I have a MM300 Smart, however, my D/C is mobile (Felder RL125).
Anyways, in thinking about your situation, I think two 6" drops with a 3" drop for the saw gaurd should work. You'll need to use flex hose with a combo machine - there's no way around it.
Place one drop to the left side (saw side) for the j/p and morticer.
Place the second 6" drop to the right side (j/p side) for the saw and shaper. The 3" saw gaurd drop should be placed near this saw/shaper 6" drop.

Regards,
Phil Glover

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Phil
How's the noise level on that Felder?
I can cancel the Dust Gorilla. The portable solution intrigues me.
There was someone else here with a MM/Felder setup. Please chime in.
Being a one man shop and having to set up each part of the machine anyway, maybe a portable is all I need. I sure wouldn't miss installing all the plumbing.
Thanks for gettin me thinkin.

Mike H


Mike,
I have a MM300 Smart, however, my D/C is mobile (Felder RL125).
Anyways, in thinking about your situation, I think two 6" drops with a 3" drop for the saw gaurd should work. You'll need to use flex hose with a combo machine - there's no way around it.
Place one drop ot left side (saw side) for the j/p and morticer.
Place the second 6" drop to the right side (j/p side) for the saw and shaper. The 3" saw gaurd drop should be placed near this saw/shaper 6" drop.

Regards,
Phil Glover

[tod evans]

the someone else i know of is paul cresti.....shoot him a note. tod

[Philip Glover]

Mike,
I have the silencer on it and it is quiet.
This is the link to my earlier post on the RL125.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=26745&highlight=gloat

Here is a Felder link to the John Renzetti RL artical.
http://docs.felder-it.info/rl_report.pdf

There is more info on the Felder Owners Group (FOG) Yahoo site in the folders section, I think, with a test report on the performance. I do not know who wrote the artical but John Renzetti does.
For example the RL125 will produce 1,456 CFM @ 16.5" static pressure and 1,673 CFM @ 9.5" static pressure.

Regards,
Phil Glover

[Richard Wolf]

No, Paul Cresti does not own a combo. Charlie Plesums does, contact him.

Richard

[Jim Becker]

The RL125 is, umm...not a tiny machine, BTW. Very nice, but NOT small... ;)

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As to the connections, you can do a single drop and move hoses around, but it may be more convenient to have a couple drops with quick disconnects so you can insure there are no hoses "underfoot" as you move around the machine...something important with a combo machine. Oneida in their own lab has Nordfab quick disconnects on their MM 300 combo with "regular" hose and ducting from there out.

[Charlie Plesums]

I use two 4 inch hoses to the MiniMax combo. One is normally connected to the saw, and goes directly to the dust collector. The second goes through a chip separator to either the jointer or planer. When I use the shaper, both hoses are connected to the shaper... one above the table (at the back of the shaper hood), and one at the shaper port below the table. I don't use the blade guard, but I understand that some people use a T and a smaller hose to the guard.

The actual connection is through a cheapskate hookup from Home Depot. I have the "quick connect" fittings on the hoses. They fit pretty well into the PVC couplings for 4 inch Drain pipe (which is a different size than the schedule 40 PVC couplings.) The 4 inch coupling is under $1.00. Then for about $4 you can get a neoprene coupling with stainless steel strap over it that attaches the coupling to the funky-size minimax dust ports. For $20 the mystery connections are solved for four ports.

I even put a long radius ell on the bottom of my mortiser, using the same clamp, although I often skip running the dust collector with the mortiser.

[Paul B. Cresti]

Mike,
I have the RL 160, I mean MM160 and so far it does seem to work quite well. These dc's offer a lot of suction and capacity for their size. Even though I have almost 9ft ceilings in the shop a Oneida 5hp unit was just at that height and would have forced me to change a decent amount of my ductwork. I have changed my layout so many times over the years that I am sick and tired of playing tin nocker. Another nice aspect is the size of the bags/containers they have. On mine it is 106 gallons! It was really cumbersome and tiring to empty out my dust bin twice a day on my old system even though it had a 55 gal barrel. This unit is also very short at about 5ft tall so it fits very nicely.

On the bad side, it will take 3-4months for you to see one after you order it and they ain't cheap one bit. I do believe they still have them on Christmas special though. You can get the RL125 in single phase but not the 160 like I have. Yes they do have wheels for mobility and the wheels do work well, they even have handles to move them around with, but like Charlie mentioned I would opt to have dedicated drops instead of moving a dc around

[Philip Glover]

Mike,

RL 125 dimensions with silencer are 30 3/4" x 37" x 72".

Regards,
Phil Glover

[Steven Wilson]

I run a 7" main that branches to 2 6" mains. I run a 6" drop from the ceiling that terminates in a 6x5x5 wye. One 5" flex hose goes to the cabinet ports (shaper, tablesaw, jointer, planer, mortiser), the other 5" port services the shaper hood and tablesaw blade guard. When connected to the tablesaw blade guard I use a 5x4 reducer, 4" flex hose (suspended from the ceiling with block and tackle), then a 4" to 60mm reducer rivited to the blade guard DC port. All my terminating connections use Nordfab QF fittings. The other Minimax ports are 120mm to 5" reducers made by Nordfab.

[Steven Wilson]

Here's a couple of more views of my DC install. On the non-MM machines I've attached 4" QF machine couplings and then use a 4"-5" Nordfab reducer. The run over to the Lathe is 5", the DC hood is custom made, and the mount was from Rockler

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Mike

I've got a CU 300 Smart and a Gorilla in my shop. I have a main trunk running along just past the end of the full reach of the combo, and three drops down to it. One is a small one for the sawblade guard, and the other two are 5" lines. One of them is relatively permanent on the TS port, and the other has a Nordfab quick connector for the jointer, planer, and shaper. Even the "permanent" connection comes apart relatively quickly on those occasions when I need the hoses out of the way, usually when I have a full lathe class and need all three lathes. Moving the hose on the other parts of the machine is fast and usually pretty easy, and the Gorilla does a great job.

Bill