Dust collection piping sticker shock

OK, so I figured when I formalize my dust collection for the home shop I'll just go to Grizzly and order all the metal pipe, fittings and blast gates I need. Going all metal I'll avoid the static problems. Going with smooth pipe I avoid the friction loss of flex, yada, yada. Well even with a very conservitive 2 branch run it is a bit costly.

So if I go plastic and religiously run the copper wire, etc. can I just use standard ABS or something of the sort?

BW

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com
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Being a safety nut I'll probably do it. I have seen it detailed so specifically in the Grizzly and other help docs. But I can be convinced with science so maybe I'll research that while I look around for answers about using pvc or abs.

Thanks for the reminder.

Reply to
SonomaProducts.com

I used 4" schedule 40. No ground.

Reply to
Nova

Oh, boy, here we go again. :-)

General consensus here is that the grounding wire is not necessary. Google Groups search will turn up hundreds of posts here on the subject.

Reply to
Doug Miller

"SonomaProducts.com" wrote in news:ec5c1687-a7b7-40c9- snipped-for-privacy@r31g2000prh.googlegroups.com:

Bill Pentz has a recommendation on his site to run two strips of aluminum tape along the pipe. One on the inside and one on the outside on the same spot in the pipe. Then drill a hole through the pipe and connect the two pieces.

Here's the link to the referenced site:

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'm working on setting up dust collection, too. I might be going overboard, but I'll probably go with 6" PVC pipe to the machines. (I'm also planning on a ClearVue cyclone that'll power the whole thing.)

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

I just went through this whole exercise - I didn't buy any of my ductwork from Grizzly because they only sell the top of the line stuff and their price is Out Of This World. Choosing not to use PVC, the only other option I found was galvanized "snap lock". The HVAC industry uses it, and they also carry a measly inventory of it at Lowe's Depot, but good luck trying to find any gauge thicker than 30 at ANY of those places (you need at least 26 gauge). I looked and LOOKED and found that pretty much the only games in town are Penn State and KenCraft:

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bought a significant amount of stuff from both companies, and I can tell you right now - Go with KenCraft for everything you can unless they just don't have what you need. The quality is better and they ship it FAST! Penn State has *some* good stuff (if you can figure it out ahead of time from their mediocre descriptions), but some of it is crap and they take *forever* to ship it. Let me know if you want particulars and I can probably help you out.

Reply to
Steve Turner

You're right that a ground isn't necessary for safety reasons. But think of how much static cling you get when you cut a piece of PVC with your miter saw for example. Now imagine that static cling for the entire run of your ungrounded dust collection piping. It makes clean up a real bitch.

That is the only reason I grounded my system and it works great.

G.S.

Reply to
Gordon Shumway

About 3 years ago I finally added a DC, I have two 10', 4" diameter clear flex hoses connected to it. The 2 hoses form "1", 20' hose that I simply move to which ever tool I am using. IIRC the hose and connectors on sale cost me about $40, 3 years ago. I have never wanted for any thing more permanent.

Reply to
Leon

BTY I used no ground wire but have once or twice gotten a pretty good zap from it. I use mine with a 16' garage door open just in case fumes want to collect high.

Reply to
Leon

"Leon" wrote

Texas chili fumes??

Seriously though, what fumes would accumlate from machining the wood? Sanding, cutting, planing, etc do not seem like the kind of thing to produce fumes.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

"Leon" wrote

Which DC did you buy?

Do I understand that the DC is stationary and you just move the hoses?

How long does that take each time?

How noisy is that to have the DC so close?

Reply to
Lee Michaels

I used PVC sewer & drain pipe, 6-inch for the run up to the ceiling from the DC (a Jet DC-1200CK) and for the horizontals along the ceiling.

4-inch for the drops. Cast aluminum blast gates (the gate itself is steel) mounted using plastic electrical tape as a gasket (the ID of the pipe is a tad larger than the OD of the blast gate flange) and pop rivets to hold them in, about a foot off the floor. PVC flex pipe from there to the machine (no more than a few feet). No ground. No issues. In use for about 3 years now.

The S&D pipe is a thin-wall (lighter than SCH40) with bell ends so no coupling is needed to join straight runs. I found it very easy to work with.

Since I was gluing up plastic pipe, I included a few clean-outs. I figured they would come in handy if for some reason I had a jam. I just used a Y fitting instead of an elbow in a couple of places, and I put a threaded cap fitting on the open port of the fitting. I have to say that I've never had the occasion to use them, so maybe they were not really necessary.

Reply to
Art Greenberg

That is Texas, remember? LOTS of fumes.

Reply to
Robatoy

Art Greenberg wrote in news:U5idnbEUQo6qD1DUnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@supernews.com:

*snip*

Murphy's law says if you didn't have them then a piece would have gotten stuck the first time you used it. ;-)

The way I see it, cleanouts could also be used for additional drops. Just put several of them on the main line, and when you need another drop take the cap off and connect your pipe.

Puckdropper

Reply to
Puckdropper

[snip]

I finished my raised floor this year and put in the snap lock ducting from lowes/home depot. I used the regular stuff they had, it is probably 30 gauge. I did a test by running a few lengths and shutting off the end with a blast gate. I couldn't collapse it. My DC is the old 220V grizzly (I think it is 2 HP). I run it directly out in the back of the shop with no bags because I get extra suction that way. I have had no problems with the thin stuff and I have plenty of suction for saw, planer and jointer (not all at the same time, run through blast gates).

I did have to go to 4-5 different stores to get all the correct fittings. BTW, I ran the 6" size and use 6 to 4" reducers for the hoses. I guess I violated every rule in Bill Pentz's book, but I have absolutely no complaints.

My experience

Montyhp

Reply to
montyhp

Safety has nothing to do with it any more than spreading scraps of paper in your yard keeps the elephants away. Can't happen, and a friend of mine who's at MIT wrote this article a few years ago after conducting some experiments and running some math:

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you can find a single documented case of a home shop dust collection system exploding you will win the grand prize of being the first. No one else has, becuase it can't happen.

All the stories of grain elevators and factories are true. The problem is scale. The conditions in those places (huge volume, huge quantity of fine particulate, etc.) which can lead to static spark explosion don't exist in any home shop--even if you have a 2000 ft^2 out building.

If you want a metaphor to put it in perspective, watch a movie about ships (WWII are fine examples). Whenever it comes to explosions and sinking, they always use models. You can always tell it's a model by the water. Water molecules can't scale down. Splashes and foam are the same size whether it's a model or a real ship creating them.

Reply to
LRod

Applying a finish? Spraying a finish?

Reply to
Leon

Seems that if you use a larger pipe for the horizontal runs the air flow is going to slow down and drop a lot of it's load of sawdust. I used the same type of pipe and glued only every other joint. The others I sealed with duct tape. When I had the wire inside it would snag stuff and start a blockage. Got rid of the wire and no more problems.

Reply to
Gerald Ross

LRod wrote: ...

...

I generally agree w/ the article (and was going to post that a substantial portion was published in FWW a few years ago) but you've taken a liberty in the above statement. I haven't studied it thoroughly to see what changes/updates have been made, but I don't believe the conclusion drawn is "impossible", only "improbable".

It depends on the local conditions and, as noted, size and dust density.

--

Reply to
dpb

That's good to know, but it would be nice if we all knew the exact definition of "thin stuff" - 30 gauge from one vendor isn't the same as

30 gauge from another. I used my micrometer on samples of ducting from practically every BORG and HVAC supply place within a 20 mile radius and I wound up with almost as many thicknesses as there were samples. I even found two different thicknesses of 6"x24" at a single Lowe's because their supplies came from two different vendors. I bought practically every piece of the "thicker" stuff they had because it was cheaper (!) - they were closing it out OF COURSE (bastages!). I wound up using a few smaller forty-fives (and what not) of the "thin stuff" from the BORGs because of easy availability, and I figured they'd be far less likely to collapse; I've had no trouble either, but for the longer straight tubes I didn't want to resort to using it. Some of that tubing is so thin you can literally bend it between the tips of your thumb and forefinger. Knowing how much suction my 2HP Grizzly cyclone pulls I didn't want to risk it.
Reply to
Steve Turner

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