DC hose - what to use?

[Sawatzky]

I got a HF DC for Christmas - yeah! The salesman said they didn't sell hoses and said to just use a dryer vent hose. I never thought of that before. Would that work?

[LarryG]

Dryer vent hose, at least the kind I'm familiar with, wouldn't work well at all. It's way too rough on the inside, which would hinder performance and make it prone to clogging. It's also awfully fragile ... chips and knots would tear it up in short order.

HF sells a DC accessory kit that many of us have used either as a complete solution or as a starting point:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=93601

Two lengths of comparable hose alone would cost almost as much from most sources, so this kit is a pretty good buy if you can find one. (The picture shows only one piece of hose, but there are two in the kit.)

[messmaker]

DC hose

I have found this place to be great for DC fittings.
http://www.outlettools.com/

[ironhat]

Watch Woodcraft for sales on hose and fittings. Hose will go about $10 on sale - down from $19. That's when I can justify the shipping expense. BTW, however much you think you'll need buy more. I thin oly have one gate and a wye left from a big buy a couple of years ago. I'm also wondering if that dryer hose might just want to accordian together under vacuum.
Later,
Chiz

[John Hunter]

I used the HF set as a starting point and added two 4" diameter X 10' long flex hoses from Woodcrafters plus special fittings and additional gates. On my runs I used 4" S&D pipe.

[drumpriest]

As to flex hose, I really like the clear, wire-reenforced stuff over the black. Holds its shape better, and is much more flexible. You should use this for tool drops, or runs that are fairly short. I don't have a run longer than 15' in my shop, but if you were doing longer runs, better to use pipe.

[Garasaki]

Shop Vac has a dust collection kit for sale on the website for 40 bucks that seems like a hellava deal.

[Sawatzky]

I will not get a dryer hose then. I actually have the smaller DC unit (1 HP) which is great becasue I don't have room for the bigger one and do not have a jointer or a planer or a band saw. It came with a converter to run a 2 1/2 shop vac hose off the main port. I have that hose but was wondering if that would cut down on the amount of suction. If not I will just use the 2 1/2 inch hose since my tools already have that size port anyway and I am only hooking the DC up to one tool at a time. will this work or do I need to use 4 inch hose?

[drumpriest]

You should keep the hose as large as possible for as long as possible. So you should to the reduction right at the tool if possible. A 1 hp DC can work well given that the runs are short, and you do nothing to further constrict air flow. A DC moves air, doesn't create a vacuum, so you need to keep the hose at 4" for as long as you can.