Dust Control Manifolds

[Dean Egnater]

I am designing a dust control system for my very little shop. My table saw is Rigid 3650 and attached is a benchdog router table. Both have 2.5" ports. The saw/router is going to be run off a 4" hose hooked into a 6" main run.

So here is the question....has anybody experimented with building a manifold to go from a 4" hose to multiple 2.5" ports. The only other choice I can see is a 4" Y connection with two reducers. Sounds pretty ugly to me.

Also.....area of a 4" pipe is 12.57 inches....area of 2) 2.5" pipes is 9.81 inches....would it be worth making a port in a manifold or Y to make up the difference in area? Would that solve backpressure issues?

Please, I don't want to get into one of those metaphysical dust collection threads that pop up so easily around here. Lets keep the discussion to manifolds / Y's / and ports.

Thanks for your help!