Finally ducted my DC

[Bill in Buena Park]

I bought one of those Delta 50-720 DCs at Lowes back when they were on clearance for $99, and knowing it was a 1-tool-at-a-time kinda DC (650 CFM, 4in port), I'd been dragging it (and my attached trashcan separator) from tool to tool. I thought using ducting might cause an unacceptable loss of CFM over the distance I wanted to run in my small garage shop, so didn't give it much thought until I finally got tired of the endless dragging.

So I parked the DC and chip separator in one corner, then bought some of the 4in polyethylene drainage pipe, some fittings, and hung it on the walls, about half way up - hoping to minimize the amount of CFM reduction I might create by hanging on the ceiling - and I didn't have room on the floor.

I hung about ~24 li ft, half on one wall nearest the DC, and half on the adjacent, only 1 elbow fitting, to form an L. I have a door in the way near that elbow, so decided to make a connector hose to couple the two stretches when I need to use tools on the adjacent wall. Because the DC is only 650 CFM max, I only trust it for one tool at a time - so I built "capgates" for the wye branches instead of using blastgates - in part to save $, but primarily because I plan to move my hose from tool to tool as a reminder of the one-tool-at-a-time rule; also, I have to move tools away from the walls to operate, and I won't have to worry about opening and closing blastgates.

My table saw, planer, jointer and router connect on the segment nearest the DC, and bandsaw, radial arm saw, and various stationary sanders run on the adjacent segment. To test the adequacy of CFM at the end of the 24 ft, I ran my RAS there (I have a DC box on it with a wye to a hose pulling from the blade housing) - and the pull seemed undiminished; all dust was effectively collected.

Some pictures of setup follow. Thanks for looking.

[radhak]

Thanks for posting - I have a similar challenge, and I'd sorta given up on a good solution. My biggest problem has been that now my connectors are not leak-proof as they are unable to stand up to the constant movement. I hope to take inspiration from you to tackle it.

The mistake I made was buying the white 4" drainage pipe, and then realized that the green one recommended by LarryG looks similar, but is a far better fit. One of these days I'll get the heart to throw out all my whites for the greens.

The connections at the door beg the question - how 'quick' are they, and how efficient? Maybe a closer picture would help clarify what you have used? I see you have duct tape - for a better marriage between the hose and the tube?

And those capgates are brilliant innovation - blastgates don't work for me either, but I needed you to show me the light!

[toolguy1000]

Thanks for posting - I have a similar challenge, and I'd sorta given up on a good solution. My biggest problem has been that now my connectors are not leak-proof as they are unable to stand up to the constant movement. I hope to take inspiration from you to tackle it.

The mistake I made was buying the white 4" drainage pipe, and then realized that the green one recommended by LarryG looks similar, but is a far better fit. One of these days I'll get the heart to throw out all my whites for the greens.

The connections at the door beg the question - how 'quick' are they, and how efficient? Maybe a closer picture would help clarify what you have used? I see you have duct tape - for a better marriage between the hose and the tube?

And those capgates are brilliant innovation - blastgates don't work for me either, but I needed you to show me the light!

can anyone help me locate the green pipe referred to here?

[Cochese]

Nice job. I wonder if it's worth doing something similar with a vacuum. It's certainly not a big shop by any means, but dealing with the flexible hose is a bit of a pain.

[radhak]

can anyone help me locate the green pipe referred to here?

It used to be sold in HD, but recently I have missed it there, while Loews was still selling it. Slightly costlier than the white, but negligibly so.

Larry posted his installation in this thread :

http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=31019

The discussion before that was in another thread, and one particular post by Tom Miller says a lot :

http://www.bt3central.com/showpost.php?p=242519&postcount=15

[dbhost]

I must admit, I have never seen such as mall DC ducted before. Curious how well it works...

[toolguy1000]

just what i needed. thanks for the links.

[LCHIEN]

the corrugated black drain pipe is horrible for CFM losses because the inside is so rough and causes a lot of restriction.
Compare it to flexible DC hose and you'll see that the inside of the DC hose is much smoother although still not as nice as Straight rigid pipe.

OTOH, if you are satisfied, then it may be good enough. The practical matter is loss of CFMs manifests itself in two ways - one, reduced velocity at the pickup point reduces capture of fines which is the hardest to detect. You won't notice this in your bins but the fine dust will end up in your lungs. Second, and this will be at a more significant loss of CFMs, the velocity will drop so low as to cause large particles to fall out of the stream, clogging your piping.

[atgcpaul]

Someday. Someday. Nice job.

Is this white pipe smooth on the inside or not?

[gsmittle]

Nice job. I wonder if it's worth doing something similar with a vacuum. It's certainly not a big shop by any means, but dealing with the flexible hose is a bit of a pain.

I tried using some 2" DWV as ducting for a run from my Thien Separator/ShopVac about 12' to my miter saw. The suction dropped off too much to be useful. I do have a short run (about 7') to my Shark Guard that works OK. I wasn't able to find any 2 1/2' pipe, which might make a difference.

I'm not going to run any ducting until a) I have permanent power, and b) have a DC. I do have room under the floor to put the ducting, though.

g.

[Bill in Buena Park]

Thanks all for the encouraging comments.

Dave - I'm really pleasantly surprised as to how well this works. I ran the RAS test again on the end of the line with my neighbor present - the one that does period furniture reproductions - and he was amazed.

Loring, Atgcpaul, this pipe is three layers - smooth outside, smooth inside, and the corrugated layer is sandwiched between - not sure why - but it is very lightweight.

Radhak, I ended up adapting short segments of the pipe onto these couplers (because the couplers themselves were smaller than the opening in the wye fittings - then had to make small cuts into the end of the pipe segment to insert the coupler) - so as a quick connect, its a dry-fit of the pipe to the fitting, and goes in with a little twist for adequate snugness. I'm not familiar with the green pipe or how it differs from this particular white pipe, but I'd be interested to know how the green is a better fit. I felt the price was right - 3 of the 10 ft sections for ~19. Fittings were $3 to $4 each. I made pipe hangers from blocks of scrap wood and plumber's metal tape. The "capgates" are endcaps with a short segment of the pipe glued in, and these fit with a twist for an adequate snugness into the wye fittings.

Gsmittle, for applications where I have 2.5in shopvac ports, e.g., above and below my router table, I find that splitting the 4in DC line into two 2in ID black pvc lines performs well, and the 2in fittings have an ID into which cut segments of standard 2.5in shopvac hose fit very nicely.

A couple more photos attached.

[atgcpaul]

Thanks for the reply Bill. So all your RAS chips get sucked up into the small black hose which is connected to your new ducting? There's no box at the back to catch errant chips?

[Bill in Buena Park]

No - there is a box (see RAS photo - box immediately behind blade); its connected to the 4in part of the wye; the small branch on the wye has the hose - between the two, the DC coverage is very good.

[gsmittle]

Gsmittle, for applications where I have 2.5in shopvac ports, e.g., above and below my router table, I find that splitting the 4in DC line into two 2in ID black pvc lines performs well, and the 2in fittings have an ID into which cut segments of standard 2.5in shopvac hose fit very nicely.

Thanks for the info!

g.

[radhak]

Bill, you have done an admirable job of researching, persisting and applying great ideas in your ducting. I can see a lot of things I can be 'inspired' from!

Thanks for the effort, and in allowing us to closely follow your thought process and the end result.