More DC Ducting

[Anthony Whitesell]

I have a Rigid 1 1/2HP DC with a single 4" inlet. With the recent purchase of a bandsaw, the electrical and the DC ducting need to be redone. The electrical changes are in process (more to be done than I expected; a lot of "when did I put that on this circuit?"). Now I am looking ahead to ducting changes.

Right now everything is done using the 4" black "flexible" (which isn't all that flexible compared to the clear stuff) hose. Since I have to take out and re-run 2/3 of the current system, I was looking even further ahead to when I finally get to build a proper DC system. So my question is: For the runs I'm replacing (and maybe all the runs) what would be the problem or what would happen if I installed 6" PVC that reduced to 4" at the DC?

[Jason Beam]

The problem might be that the DC won't be able to keep the airspeed up high enough in the 6" duct. This will cause the chips to settle out in the duct and not make it up to the DC. The only way to know if this will happen is to try - there are so many variables (lenght of run, static pressure tolerance of the impeller, etc) that it'd be tough to predict if it can do it or not.

[Dave Bender]

Your DC isn't up to supporting 6" pipe. It's really not designed to support any duct work. That machine is designed to be moved from machine to machine with a small piece of 4" flex.