DC duct material

[Terry Hatfield]

John, I went with metal due to ease of fabrication, cost and the lack of static discharges to my head.

(I had a plastic hose from my planer to the metal overhead duct, it's very surprising when you get an arc to your head as you bend over to pick up the wood from the outfeed side of the planer).

I replaced the plastic flex hose with a piece of aluminum flex to eliminate the static problem.

Regards, Rod.

Rod, so sorry about the shock but the mental picture your story gives me is....well....interesting to say the least.

[Rod Sheridan]

Rod, so sorry about the shock but the mental picture your story gives me is....well....interesting to say the least.

Terry, it was funny afterwards

Regards, Rod.

[Clark Harbaugh]

I think a lot of the discussion about shock potential has to do with the amount of relative humidity you have in your shop. Dryer air will lend itself to more static charge. I live in Dallas (typically more humid than other parts of the country) and have my shop plumbed with PVC and have never received any shock at all. On the dryest winter days, touching one of the flexible hoses may make my arm hairs stand on end, but nothing more.

[Dell Moore]

So, what is the opinion on what the most affordable duct material is? I'm at the point of making a small system in my shop and would to know what people have been to be the most cost effective.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

I use a combination of 6" and 4" S&D PVC. Works great, easy to install, ....and smooooooth.

-Jeff

[Terry Hatfield]

So, what is the opinion on what the most affordable duct material is? I'm at the point of making a small system in my shop and would to know what people have been to be the most cost effective.

PVC is typically cheaper than the metal.

[Jim Becker]

While I prefer metal ducting for more flexibility in sizing and configurations, I would have no fear of any kind of "explosion" potential using PVC/ABS in a home shop environment for dust collection.

[Jim O'Dell]

PVC is generally the cheaper of the best types of ducting to use. This is one reason why Bill Pentz recommends it. Not that it is the only ducting, but it is easier on the budget. Also that it is super smooth on the inside for less drag on the air flow.
Bill emailed me after reading what I was doing with my ducting and recommended I use metal where the pipe would be out of site for safety reasons. If your pipe is hidden (my pipe in question was running through the attic) and you hit metal, send a hot piece of metal into the duct, it lands in dust, it is possible that it could start a fire. Metal pipe would give you a little better margin of time to either get it under control, or get safely away. I modified my set up so that I can see all of the pipe. Reason is I already purchased the pipe to do this section, and it was an easier solution than trying to find something else to use and adapt to what I had. Jim

[Kirk Simmons]

A local Menards in the Twin Cities is closing up shop (bulldoze it, build a new store on site). As part of that they have everything heavily discounted, up to 50% this weekend. So I took this opportunity to pick up a bunch of Sewer and Drain Pipe PVC fittings plus some 6" x 10' pipes to try and use for duct in my garage.

Now I just need the time to do so =)

[Steve knight]

I guess I want to throw a small monkey wrench into the gears just for fun. I ended up using metal because around here the pvc fitting's were very expensive.
I have a cnc router and static electricity is a big deal. everything has to be grounded. so I have to run wire inside the 3" hose to the 4" then the 6" hose has a wire core and I use that to finish the ground.
here is the fun part I replaced the cheap clear hose on my cyclone outlet with some industrial pvc flex hose. I kept hearing a cracking sound. a customer pointed out there was a giant spark on my cyclone.
every 10 to 15 minutes there would be that big spark. I ended up running some copper wire around my cyclone to a iron ground pipe. I had to add more as I was getting a spark from the cyclone to the metal hose clamp holding on the flex hose.
I have no idea why that hose caused the problem where it never existed before.

[Joe Mioux]

Four or five years ago, I bought a ONeida Dust Gorilla. I never got around to piping it. However, last year, I called Oneida and they had my original plans still on file. We reconfigured it a bit.

Even with price increases over the 5 years, I was pleased with Oneida's price for metal pipe, fittings etc (it was also easier because they figured out all the details) and their Customer Service was good.

Since you have an Oneida DC, you might want to get their recommendations.

For me PVC pipe price wasn't too bad but the fittings were expensive. ONce totaled up (pros v cons), metal won out.

joe