Yet Another Dust Collection Install Thread

[Matthew Springer]

I've put together the photos from my DC install and wanted to put up a quick summary. I had bought a second hand Delta bag unit and decided to repurpose that rather than the free HF 2hp unit.

Blower:
a repurposed Delta 1.5Hp bag unit suspended in a homemade 2x4 frame. I had a 10' odd ceiling clearance so I mounted the unit with the filter on top and a regular ploy bag below. It's also rewired 220v which Delta made really really easy.
a Wynn style filter (it's not a wynn, it's the other company) on the blower.
a 220V long ranger remote.

Cyclone Assembly:
an Oneida SDD XL (the 6" intake one)
a 55 gallon orange juice concentrate drum.

Ducting:
6" PVC Schedule 20 pipe and fittings (3 or 4 6x6x6 Wyes and about 16 45deg elbow) from my local irrigation /sprinkler shop.
3 ClearVue 6" acrylic blast gates.
lots of home center foil tape.

If I'm using my anem... anmonemt.. anm.. The little twirly fan measurement thingie right, I was getting around 650 CFM with just the cyclone and filter and bag, but no ducting.

The ducting has a straight section, then a loop de loop up and into the rafter space. From there I have two main branches. One to the Table Saw and planer which will eventually terminate in a floor sweep and a second bandsaw drop. Then the other branch heads to the bandsaw and eventually a mitresaw dust hood.

Good:
I'm getting 600 odd CFM at the drop to the saw. It still need to get the 5" hose cut a bit shorter.
Remote controls are awesome.
The 6" PVC worked pretty well and wasn't that hard to work with.,
This is also the first setup I've had where I could leave my planer setup permanently, so that's a huge win for shop time.
The system seems happy sucking up handplane shavings (at least for a jack plane) without getting stuck, so that's good.

Bad:
As mentioned in the previous thread its a pita to cut 6" thinwall PVC. A good, cheap ryoba works pretty well but none of my ends cam out square. But it still worked.
I'm getting about 600 CFM at the table saw which is respectable but I could go with more. The K3 dust port just isn't that great.
The laguna 14/12 dc port is also pretty bad.

Ugly:
If you're building the blower/drum/cyclone unit into a rigid frame like that really think hard about where the bracing is to get the drum in and out and the cyclone in. I was thinking about this and I _still_ had to move some of the braces more than once.
I'm still working out how to do the drum to drum lid connection so I can slide the drum out for emptying.
Overall I'm about $400 into the ducting, about $200 in to the DC unit, $200 for the cyclone, $25 for the drum and 8-10 hours of time. But I've had no DC at all for 10 years, so it's way better now.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HYPDh69v36DkgLul2

[Peter Christensen]

The fan type airspeed measuring devices, an anemometer, is not made for measuring at a duct opening and can read a third higher than it actually is. A hot wire type is the go to for checking ducts because they don't interfere as much with the airflow. They used to be quite expensive but have come down a lot in price. One like this Testo works with a phone or tablet. I'm lusting for one. Self contained one from Asia might be cheaper but you have to make sure it can read high enough. A simple tube manometer is another useful tool for a DC.

What you have now is indeed better than the lack of anything you had but when you come across a 3 hp DC to salvage for your system will work much better as you already have the 6" ducts.

[Larry Frank]

Peter is correct that the accuracy of the fan anemometer is not very good and over rates the flow. With the SDD which causes a loss static pressure, I think you would be great if you got 500 cfm and barely sufficient to keep air velocity high enough in 6" duct.

But having some dust collection is great. Anything people do is a step in the right direction.