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Members and guests have been following my progress here and at least one other forum, I am just going to point back to this one thread.
And I am not going to assume you have actually been following this, and just go with the idea that you stumbled on this because you want to get opinions on how best to rig up a Harbor Freight 2HP Dust collector.
Before anyone mentions it, yes my shop looks like a bomb hit it, even through it was just a week ago nice and clean, more or less. This is the result of LOTS of packaging, and having to yank things out and apart to get the ducting in place effectively, and remove what old ducting I can. It will be fixed soon.
First and foremost I make no claim to be any sort of expert, or even that this thing will flow ideally. The expert in the field allegedly at least is Bell Pentz, and I followed his recommendations for what I will call a minimum system. This means the following.
#1. Chuck the bag air filter, and use a pleated canister that filters below 1 micron. I am using a Wynn 35A that is rated for .5 microns / MERV15. There are other options out there, but the Wynn is the most popular for good reason.
#2. Upsize the impeller. The Harbor Freight 2 HP Dust collector features a massively undersized impeller for the size of the motor etc... it uses. I upsized mine using a Wen 3403-22 Turbofan. Search this site for that phrase and you should find the thread where I got the pointers on how to order it. And it was cheap. Like $35.00 delivered cheap. I have seen performance curves that don't make much sense. Some folks will post a huge increase, others will post a negligible increase in performance. In my experience the increase was very notable.
#3. I created and installed a nuetral vane for a separator of sorts to try to keep the chunks, and dust as much as possible out of the filter. I do often blow the filter down using compressed air, but the neutral vane helps.
#4. The max size duct that should be used with this dust collector is 5.5". As in 5" doesn't really fully utilize this machine fully, but 6" drops efficiency at least according to what I have heard. Now if I had plans to at some point replace with a 3 - 5 HP machine I would definately go with 6", but I don't, so I didn't.
#5. This was a happy accident but works to keep the ducting shorter, and striaghter, but the DC itself is on a stand that puts it over the 8 gallon air compressor. This ended up putting the main duct more or less around 36" off the floor. While a chunk is taken going back down to the blast gates, it is FAR better than down all the way to the floor, then back UP to the blast gates and over to the machines.
Secondly I KNOW there are those that disagree with me on the determination that 5" is the sweet spot for this dust collector. And I am cool with that. It made sense to me. If it doesn't to you, you do you and we will be good...
Other than the budget issues, what challenges were there in doing a 5" mains upgrade?
Plain and simple, finding fittings. Period. The branch wyes for 5" are available, but they are also expensive at $40.00 each. I was able to find ABS plastic 5" branch wyes for $12.00 each at Woodcraft. So that put them in the realm of the affordable, although I would have preferred to have gone with metal...
Anyway, so I came out of the dust collector with an elbow, set to 45 degrees, a 2ft section of pipe, and another elbow set to 45 degrees the other way. This got me to the wall, A Branch wye aimed up, an elbow and 3' piece of pipe and 2 elbows set 45 degrees each gets me to the ceiling. A second branch wye pointed down, a 5x4x4 splitter and for now 2 4 inch blast gates get me to the hoses for the band saw. A single 5" gate has been ordered.
The band saw has 2 4" runs, the first is split with a 4x2.5x2.5 splitter and pulls form 2 2.5" ports, 1 on the lower blade guide, and 1 on the lower wheel guard. The other is a simple 4" hose that I am planning on affixing to the table top via rare earth magnets. In the pic below you can clearly see I did NOT remove the old floor level run behind here at all yet... That is on my to do list...
Continuing down the main tool wall another wye, a 5x4 reducer and blast gate servces the pull out flip top tool stands.
The extra segment of pipe is for the overhead run to the miter saw, more on that in a bit...
Another short run of 5" gets us next to the lathe, another branch wye, 2 5x4 reducers, 2 blast gates, One serves the lathe, the other serves the drill press.
Back to the ceiling now that we are done with the main machine wall. I come accross the ceiling, more elbows and another branch wye, and of course a 5x4 reducer where I then go into a 4" 45 deg elbow, and down to the workbench where there is a short run of 4" DWV servicing the bottom of the router table and the bottom of the table saw. The run of 4" is attached using 4" 2 hole U straps. I have 5" hole U straps coming for the 5" stuff... And it SHOULD be noted by anyone trying this, that the sheet metal ducting as you are trying ot assemble it overhead,, well it isn't as rigid as you would like, not exactly, but I did get the feeling like I was wrestling cooked spaghetti. Oh and the markings on the pipes saying SHARP EDGES do NOT LIE! My fingers are a little sliced up today...
Finally I come around to another wye, some elbows and reducers. I drop to the table saw blade guard / workbench top line. I need to add a longer segment of hose. The hose on here is ripped anyay and needs to be changed.. You see the port I left for the miter saw is blocked. I am considering this, and honestly moving the branch wye to right where the connection to the ceiling is, and come over directly from there, another 5" blast gate and wide open 5" at the miter saw dust hood. I need to do SOMETHING to improve miter saw dust collection!
You may have noticed that I have, well, some cust lengths of ducting here. 5' segments were cut using my Harbor Freight angle grinder with cutoff wheel. Fast, easy, clean cut. I then crimped using a crimper tool that I have no idea where it came from . probably the plumbing department at Home Depot...
Joints are pinned up using pop rivets where they don't need to come apart easily, and otherwise are taped with either Gorilla tape, or foil tape. All seams on teh split lock duct are fully taped and in some places double reinforced and taped again just to be sure...
So what's left to do?
I have 2 items pending delivery. A single 5" blast gate for the band saw, and 2 10 packs of 5" (ish) 2 hole duct U straps. I will tidy up the strapping once those U straps come in, and figure out how to fit the blast gate once it is in. I suspect I am going to spend a LOT of time and effort winding Gorilla Tape around the end of the blast gate flange to make it fit... And of course tighten up the ducting with the strapping, and then remove the plastic strapping that is REALLY not working well for me...
Seam tape the impeller housing, and the inlet pipe junction where it enters the ring on the DC, both are leakage points. Minor, but they do leak. May use clear silicone just to keep the ugly factor down...
Most likely 2 more joints of 5' 5" duct pipe. And at least 2 more elbows plus one more 5" blast gate will provide for the miter saw. but that will be a while...
Once all the kinks are worked out of the system, and have it fully secured, the spare holes in the sheetrock in the ceiling and walls will absolutely need to be patched because man that is UGLY....
And I am not going to assume you have actually been following this, and just go with the idea that you stumbled on this because you want to get opinions on how best to rig up a Harbor Freight 2HP Dust collector.
Before anyone mentions it, yes my shop looks like a bomb hit it, even through it was just a week ago nice and clean, more or less. This is the result of LOTS of packaging, and having to yank things out and apart to get the ducting in place effectively, and remove what old ducting I can. It will be fixed soon.
First and foremost I make no claim to be any sort of expert, or even that this thing will flow ideally. The expert in the field allegedly at least is Bell Pentz, and I followed his recommendations for what I will call a minimum system. This means the following.
#1. Chuck the bag air filter, and use a pleated canister that filters below 1 micron. I am using a Wynn 35A that is rated for .5 microns / MERV15. There are other options out there, but the Wynn is the most popular for good reason.
#2. Upsize the impeller. The Harbor Freight 2 HP Dust collector features a massively undersized impeller for the size of the motor etc... it uses. I upsized mine using a Wen 3403-22 Turbofan. Search this site for that phrase and you should find the thread where I got the pointers on how to order it. And it was cheap. Like $35.00 delivered cheap. I have seen performance curves that don't make much sense. Some folks will post a huge increase, others will post a negligible increase in performance. In my experience the increase was very notable.
#3. I created and installed a nuetral vane for a separator of sorts to try to keep the chunks, and dust as much as possible out of the filter. I do often blow the filter down using compressed air, but the neutral vane helps.
#4. The max size duct that should be used with this dust collector is 5.5". As in 5" doesn't really fully utilize this machine fully, but 6" drops efficiency at least according to what I have heard. Now if I had plans to at some point replace with a 3 - 5 HP machine I would definately go with 6", but I don't, so I didn't.
#5. This was a happy accident but works to keep the ducting shorter, and striaghter, but the DC itself is on a stand that puts it over the 8 gallon air compressor. This ended up putting the main duct more or less around 36" off the floor. While a chunk is taken going back down to the blast gates, it is FAR better than down all the way to the floor, then back UP to the blast gates and over to the machines.
Secondly I KNOW there are those that disagree with me on the determination that 5" is the sweet spot for this dust collector. And I am cool with that. It made sense to me. If it doesn't to you, you do you and we will be good...
Other than the budget issues, what challenges were there in doing a 5" mains upgrade?
Plain and simple, finding fittings. Period. The branch wyes for 5" are available, but they are also expensive at $40.00 each. I was able to find ABS plastic 5" branch wyes for $12.00 each at Woodcraft. So that put them in the realm of the affordable, although I would have preferred to have gone with metal...
Anyway, so I came out of the dust collector with an elbow, set to 45 degrees, a 2ft section of pipe, and another elbow set to 45 degrees the other way. This got me to the wall, A Branch wye aimed up, an elbow and 3' piece of pipe and 2 elbows set 45 degrees each gets me to the ceiling. A second branch wye pointed down, a 5x4x4 splitter and for now 2 4 inch blast gates get me to the hoses for the band saw. A single 5" gate has been ordered.
The band saw has 2 4" runs, the first is split with a 4x2.5x2.5 splitter and pulls form 2 2.5" ports, 1 on the lower blade guide, and 1 on the lower wheel guard. The other is a simple 4" hose that I am planning on affixing to the table top via rare earth magnets. In the pic below you can clearly see I did NOT remove the old floor level run behind here at all yet... That is on my to do list...
Continuing down the main tool wall another wye, a 5x4 reducer and blast gate servces the pull out flip top tool stands.
The extra segment of pipe is for the overhead run to the miter saw, more on that in a bit...
Another short run of 5" gets us next to the lathe, another branch wye, 2 5x4 reducers, 2 blast gates, One serves the lathe, the other serves the drill press.
Back to the ceiling now that we are done with the main machine wall. I come accross the ceiling, more elbows and another branch wye, and of course a 5x4 reducer where I then go into a 4" 45 deg elbow, and down to the workbench where there is a short run of 4" DWV servicing the bottom of the router table and the bottom of the table saw. The run of 4" is attached using 4" 2 hole U straps. I have 5" hole U straps coming for the 5" stuff... And it SHOULD be noted by anyone trying this, that the sheet metal ducting as you are trying ot assemble it overhead,, well it isn't as rigid as you would like, not exactly, but I did get the feeling like I was wrestling cooked spaghetti. Oh and the markings on the pipes saying SHARP EDGES do NOT LIE! My fingers are a little sliced up today...
Finally I come around to another wye, some elbows and reducers. I drop to the table saw blade guard / workbench top line. I need to add a longer segment of hose. The hose on here is ripped anyay and needs to be changed.. You see the port I left for the miter saw is blocked. I am considering this, and honestly moving the branch wye to right where the connection to the ceiling is, and come over directly from there, another 5" blast gate and wide open 5" at the miter saw dust hood. I need to do SOMETHING to improve miter saw dust collection!
You may have noticed that I have, well, some cust lengths of ducting here. 5' segments were cut using my Harbor Freight angle grinder with cutoff wheel. Fast, easy, clean cut. I then crimped using a crimper tool that I have no idea where it came from . probably the plumbing department at Home Depot...
Joints are pinned up using pop rivets where they don't need to come apart easily, and otherwise are taped with either Gorilla tape, or foil tape. All seams on teh split lock duct are fully taped and in some places double reinforced and taped again just to be sure...
So what's left to do?
I have 2 items pending delivery. A single 5" blast gate for the band saw, and 2 10 packs of 5" (ish) 2 hole duct U straps. I will tidy up the strapping once those U straps come in, and figure out how to fit the blast gate once it is in. I suspect I am going to spend a LOT of time and effort winding Gorilla Tape around the end of the blast gate flange to make it fit... And of course tighten up the ducting with the strapping, and then remove the plastic strapping that is REALLY not working well for me...
Seam tape the impeller housing, and the inlet pipe junction where it enters the ring on the DC, both are leakage points. Minor, but they do leak. May use clear silicone just to keep the ugly factor down...
Most likely 2 more joints of 5' 5" duct pipe. And at least 2 more elbows plus one more 5" blast gate will provide for the miter saw. but that will be a while...
Once all the kinks are worked out of the system, and have it fully secured, the spare holes in the sheetrock in the ceiling and walls will absolutely need to be patched because man that is UGLY....
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