DC in a Garage

[Don L Johnson]

I've got about a 23 x 30 garage that I've taken over from the cars (my LOML even lets me do it). I've got a permanent workbench on the back wall and another permanent chop saw station on the left. I'm setting up DC for the chop saw with a bottom suction and another suction off of the top. I also have to have DC for: table saw, radial arm saw, jointer, planer, 37" drum sander, and an 18" band saw. Right now, I move hoses to machines as I need them (I forgot about my little 5" sander, that I like to hook up to a 2 1/2" flex hose). Since I still have to have the capability to open the garage door, (the planer, current 1 hp Jet DC, and table saw reside under the garge door it it were open), what do others do about DC in a garage? Is the only answer to move from machine to machine? Thanks, as always.

[glenn bradley]

I brought rigid duct to a spot where I have a manifold so-to-speak made of some "Y" connectors and blast gates. I then have flex running to various machines. Longest run from the rigid duct was about 6' till the BS showed up; now I have one run about 10' which i feel is too much. Haven't figured a way around that one yet without going permanent.

[Jon Bonham]

I just finished my DC today. I purchased a 2HP Oasis at Toolmart for $239. I went to the orange Borg and bought about 30' of 3" black PVC plumbing pipe, various Y's and 90s and some galvanized strap. From my DC, I run about 6' to the first Y, that's the miter saw. I rigged a seriously cool little setup to go from 3" to 1.5" to a flexible tubing that goes into the 1.25" port on my DeWalt DW716 MS. Then I continue along the miter saw bench another 6' or so to a capped flexible 1.5" tubing that I use on my hand held router when I'm using that. At the Y at the miter saw, I go up the wall about 4', across the ceiling about 6' and then down a support beam 6' in my garage to a T. One side of the T is capped for future use. The other side goes to my table saw using various adapters to get to 4". I would estimate my run from the dust port of my table saw to the DC maybe around 30', including the flexible hose and all ducting. Me and my son were cutting 1/8" strips off a redwood 2x4 tonight and laughing the whole time as we could hear it quickly making it's way from inside the cabinet, through the ducting and into the DC. It was bad ass. I no way thought it had enough suction to pull scrap through the tubing. Everything was glued with PVC purple glue and all the step up and step down adapters are that nice flexible rubber boot with hose clamps that they sell at the Borg. I'm seriously impressed with the whole deal. I'm MAYBE $400 into the whole thing, best $400 I ever spent. The only thing I'm going to add is a sweep chute so I can just sweep my sawdust right into the DC.

[David Giles]

Small HP dust collectors don't tolerate a lot of pressure drop. It doesn't take many bends or elbows to seriously reduce the total air flow. With a 1HP DC, I'd put a trash can separator behind the planer / jointer and move it from machine to machine for the rest.

I've been messing with a 1.5Hp DC for three years and consider all of the 4" ductwork runs to have been a waste of time and money.

[Steven Wilson]

I run a Oneida 2HP Commercial cyclone in my garge with metal duct work to where it needs to go. For handheld powertools (routers, biscuit jointer, sanders, etc) I use a Festool vac.

[Fred Floyd]

I bit the bullet and bought metal ducting for my Oneida 2hp Commercial. Way better than the portable Jet 1100 I had before. The metal ducting takes some doing to put up, but once sealed, it has given excellent service.

[Joe Chritz]

My shop is the same size (22'9"x30' finished size), I run a 2 HP Super Gorilla with rigid pipe. I am reconfiguring it to add a new planer and drum sander that just showed up.

When it is done I will have a downdraft table, tablesaw, SCMS, jointer, shaper, planer and dual drum sander all on drops with blast gates.

I just got done sanding an entire kitchen of panels with a 6" ROS and there was no dust in the air that I could tell.

With a smaller DC you are probably stuck moving from machine to machine, but with strategic use of quick connects (the slide in kind) it would be easy to switch them out.

Joe

[John Thompson]

You can move the DC from machine to machine as I did for years. But.. you can also designate a "machine area" near your doors.. put the machines on mobile stands and move the machines to the DC located in that forward area when you use an individual machine.

By doing so... I open the garage doors at days end and put a dust mast on. Take an electric leaf blower and start in the back of shop (garage) and blow it out. Close the doors and head upstairs. By designating that cut area forward.. it keeps most of the escaped dust toward those forward doors and make the job easier for the leaf blower.

Good luck...

Sarge..

[Jim Becker]

You don't have to sacrifice the "garage" aspect to put in a capable dust collection system...you just need to make some adjustments to how you do your drops. You can use a quick connection system, such as Nordfab or the Grizzly alternative to be able to remove a drop in about ten seconds, even if it's in the middle of the garage space while you are working. The drop, itself can be rigid duct or just flex. There would only be a small compromise in performance using say a 10' piece of flex from the just-below-the-ceiling drop connection, but nothing meaningful enough to counter doing it for this type of situation. In fact, I have two overhead utility drops in my shop set-up this way with the Grizzly quick disconnects. When not in use, the hose is in the closet. You can handle power the same way...just use twist lock connectors and proper strain relief. When you need to put the vehicles in the space for whatever reason, just take the drops down and store them away as you wheel the machinery into your "tool corral"...

[Victor Stearns]

I am setting up my DC outside of the workshop with metal sprial duct inside. It has taken me some time to actually get my machines in a place that I am happy with. Now the ducting. In the past I just moved the DC to the machine that I has using at the time. This is ok, but cannot wait to get the duct up and hoses to all my machines.
Bill Pentz has an excellent website that is all about dust collection. While it takes sometime to read all the information, it is well worth it.
Victor