diverter wye

Since I'm cheap, enjoy a challenge and kinda like working with sheet metal, I decided to make my own wye for the dust collection system I'm putting in.

The wye building went pretty well, when it was done, I got to wondering if I could put in a diverter to switch between the two branches rather than relying on blast gates.

After playing with a 3d model and materials for a while I came up with a v1.0 that's ready for testing.

It's fairly simple. A PET plastic diverter pivots at the intersection point of the two branches and is actuated by a metal rod that slides from branch to branch. There will be a wood shelf directly above the pipe, I think the hole through it can provide enough friction to hold the diverter in position. This diverter blocks maybe 98% of the area of the closed branch, I think it will effectively maximize the airflow from the intended wye branch (maybe more so than a conventional blast gate since it doesn't create a "dead end".

v1.2 might incorporate a sheet of neoprene or similar between two sheets of plastic to better seal the closed branch.

Would love to hear thoughts and any ideas for improvements.

http://youtu.be/6s28L3S-Eyc


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-kg

Did you use snaplock pipe, or roll your own sheetmetal? Pretty cool to make your own Y's. I know I could do that, if my wife hadn't thrown away my sheetmetal books. Did you solder the joint?

I tackled the same problem, but made a different solution.

Here's two pics. One of the incoming ducts is up to the right. We're looking down the throat of the other incoming duct, but I've removed that duct for the photo. The outgoing duct is hidden in the photo. It goes straight back to the cyclone. There's a sliding blade with a big hole in it. When the blade is slid up, the hole opens the first incoming duct and closes the second incoming duct. When the blade is slid down, the hole opens the second incoming duct, and closes the first incoming duct. The whole thing is built from wood, because I'm better at wood than at sheet metal.

A wye costs $20. How long did it take to make yours????

Kevin

thanks for posting. I'm goign to need to build something similar -- might be square rather than round -- which will sit between my cyclone output and the filter. this will be used for when i want to vent outside. The biggest thing i'll need to figure out is how to remotely operate it.

Kevin,

Have you considered adding rubber edge molding or silicone to help with the seal?

Jim

I thought about integrating an edge that might make a better seal but decided to keep it simple for v1.0. The difficulty in doing that is the fact that the opening is narrower at the intersection of the wye than it is when in the closed position: the diverter has to be smaller than the pipe cross-section to be able to flip between the two branches.

I got the diverter and the rest of my piping installed over the weekend, so I have some observations.

The diverter works. I have no way of doing quantitative analysis, but I would estimate that ~75% of the airflow is directed from the open branch.

A 3/4x6x6 block of pine will be held on the 4" horizontal outlet end of either branch with the diverter in either position. A 1" x 6" x 12" piece of pine will be held to the end of each branch with the diverter in the neutral position but will fall off either closed branch when the diverter is switched.

I am impressed by the 1-1/2 hp Grizzly G0703 more than anything else. This thing really sucks! I came up with the diverter with the expectation that I would have insufficient airflow throughout my system and that I would need to open/close the branches at the wye. Now that the system is in, I think I could have just left the wye open and I would have had sufficient flow in either branch. I filled up two barrels of chips from the jointer/planer over the weekend and I had very few chips on the floor/machine when I was done. I think this collector was the perfect choice for my situation.

I do think the diverter will help and I think it could be improved and something like it could be helpful for people with DC systems with marginal performance.

-kg

It would be cool if you could post your template for making your Y. If somebody needed several, it would be worthwhile to make your own. You didn't say what you used for material, whether it was sheet or snaplock pipe. If you could use snaplock pipe, it wouldn't require much in the way of tools other than snips, and if you wished you could solder the joint of the Y for an air tight seal. Probably just use a propane torch and some plumbing flux and solder. If you have a tight fit soldering isn't hard.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kevin Groenke

I thought about integrating an edge that might make a better seal but decided to keep it simple for v1.0. The difficulty in doing that is the fact that the opening is narrower at the intersection of the wye than it is when in the closed position: the diverter has to be smaller than the pipe cross-section to be able to flip between the two branches.

I got the diverter and the rest of my piping installed over the weekend, so I have some observations.

The diverter works. I have no way of doing quantitative analysis, but I would estimate that ~75% of the airflow is directed from the open branch.

A 3/4x6x6 block of pine will be held on the 4" horizontal outlet end of either branch with the diverter in either position. A 1" x 6" x 12" piece of pine will be held to the end of each branch with the diverter in the neutral position but will fall off either closed branch when the diverter is switched.

-kg

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For a better seal and total diversion of the air (nearly 100% for both) while still retaining the benefit of reduced resistance and turbulence of the diverter over using just blast gates- try a combo. Put a blast gate in each branch (or large gate with double holes) a couple of inches down stream. The diverter will still redirect the high velocity air flow and it won't leak since there is no where for the air to go in the closed off branch. You could probably rig it so both blast gates and the diverter are operated at the same time with only one lever.

Only testing will tell how much better flow you will have than with just blast gates.

Also, remember blast gates do not need to be perpendicular to the incoming and outgoing pipe- the body and slide can be skew mounted. That is what I plan to do when I remove my box-style diverter. I'll draw it up and post it here later.

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Originally Posted by Jim Andrew

It would be cool if you could post your template for making your Y. If somebody needed several, it would be worthwhile to make your own. You didn't say what you used for material, whether it was sheet or snaplock pipe. If you could use snaplock pipe, it wouldn't require much in the way of tools other than snips, and if you wished you could solder the joint of the Y for an air tight seal. Probably just use a propane torch and some plumbing flux and solder. If you have a tight fit soldering isn't hard.

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Jim, there are several online calculators for cutting wye's. They come in very handy.. One I had in my bookmarks:
http://www.harderwoods.com/pipetempl...&Submit=Submit

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim Andrew

if you wished you could solder the joint of the Y for an air tight seal. Probably just use a propane torch and some plumbing flux and solder. If you have a tight fit soldering isn't hard.

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Just take care if heating/burning galvanized materials - give off some nasty fumes.

That pipe calculator is pretty cool. I modeled the parts in Rhino and unrolled the surfaces to get the template (Rhino's unroll function is awesome for this sort of stuff). I've attached a pdf of a template for a 6" 45, degree wye. it's on 11x17 paper - confirm the dimensions if you print it out).

To assemble the two pieces I cut ~1/2" x 1/2" tabs around the perimeter of the 45 degree branch (using a nibbler for the hole in the straight pipe and snips for the end of the 45), I then folded the tabs in alternating directions as I fitted the two pieces together. Once the two pieces fit together well I threw in a few pop rivets and crimped the tabs. I just sealed the joint with gutter sealant. Galvanized steel is very tough to join, I don't think you're going to have any luck in soldering these pieces together, welding 30ga sheet is pretty challenging as well and doing so creates heavy metal gasses, the caulk works fine for me.

Since I determined that the diverter may be entirely unnecessary for my set up, I doubt I'll take it to a v 2.0, though I think it does have considerable potential.

-kg

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