Dust collection question

[Jim Baker]

I have two Jet 1100 CFM dust collectors. So far, I have been moving them around from machine to machine. (what a pain). I am ready to begin setting them up permantntly.

I have a 32' x 48' shop with the typical collection of machines. When we built the shop (remodeled old hog barn) we ran 6" metal duct between the ceiling and hay loft. The ducts run out into a 12' lean to room. The dust collectors will be placed into a 6' x 10' "closet" in the lean-to adjacent to the shop with an opening back into the shop to allow the heated air to reenter the shop in the winter.

My original plan was to hook up half of the machines to each collector, but lately I've been wondering if it may be more effective to hook up all of the machines to both collectors to get twice the suction power.
Will this work or should I stick with my original plan?

If you have any other advice, I'd love to hear it.

[Jim Becker]

Hooking up two blowers in parallel isn't the best idea. Honestly, you really should consider upgrading to a single, larger cyclonic system for a shop of that size. Given the known health issues with wood dust, it's one of the best investments you can make in your shop--more than any other tool you could buy, frankly.

[Scott Coffelt]

I agree, just got my system operational. Still working on a few leaks, but it is operational. The 5hp Leeson works wonders and man it sucks. The stuff coming off the CMS was just flowing right into the duct and gone. I do even have the enclousre built for it yet.

Sell the two units and buy or built you a big unit, 2hp or larger. Keep your runs 6" to the machine if at all possible.

[Bill Pentz]

If you were to dig back into the Badger Pond Archives, you would see that quite a few tried running two blower systems. Those that put them in series found out what happens when you try to move too much air with a blower. The motors badly overheat and fail. Those who ran a pair in parallel found they worked well, in fact in many instances much better than those who ran a single motor with twice the horsepower driving a much bigger impeller.

Jim Halbert who taught me much of what I know about dust collection is still running a two blower system.

I believe that you would be just fine running the two collector inlets into your ducting provided you go with at least 6" interior diameter ducting.


bill