anyone use corrugated drain pipe for dust collection?

talking about the black plastic stuff for gutter drains

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1...atalogId=10053

i can only guess it may not flow very well but i was just curious if anyone had tried it

I would suspect that the turbulence would be very high in the pipe which would significantly reduce the air flow and dust carrying capacity. Also the corrugations would provide lots of places for larger pieces to hang up and cause clogs. Higher air velocities could cause harmonic noise production which could prove annoying. (when I was a kid we used to blow through lengths of small diameter corrugated tubing to make loud noises) The stuff is very flexible and the couplings aren't air tight so you would see lots of losses and the runs wouldn't be very straight.

However, I have never tried it. 4" S&D pipe is cheap and works pretty well for most home shop applications.

And, when my dad and I were trying to find some solid for a different endevor, it took us a while to find some that was not perforated.

Meet someone who tried it once when he had stuff already on hand.

Recall him saying 2 things - the spirals always loaded with crap and he had next to no suction compared to just using a hose to machine setup.
He tore it out and replaced with something different. Or maybe just stayed hose to machine?

4" 2729 is mighty cheap, fitting not bad. Think you'd be much happier going that route.

Read your post and thought, ' I have a partial roll of that out in the shed. Might as well try it seeing as I have a DC and WW machines but no pipe in between.' I'm here to tell you, don't waste your time. Ran it from the DC to the bandsaw and couldn't tell a difference. Pulled the hose off the bandsaw and tried to suck up stuff around the saw. It's still there.

ha! thanks frank. :)

I have a 1 hp grizzly and am using 4" drain tile with success. I had some laying around already so the price was right (Free)

There's a Y right off the machine, one side goes to 10' of PVC then 8' of drain tile.

The other side is strictly 12' of drain tile.

I can't say that it's the greatest but it certainly works with my 6" jointer, my 13" planer, BT3000, sanding station, etc.

I imagine running flex hose would have the same problems in terms of pressure drop, etc. except that drain tile is smoother inside, doesn't turn as tight, and is actually larger diameter.

I had picked up a 25' ft section at lowes for $5 on clearance thinking to use it for DC but abandoned that idea, now I think I'll use it to exhaust my DC to the outside.

Probably would work to some extent, but not too well due to added turbulence and friction loss. Not to mention the stuff would be pretty loud too. I have seen it used with some success but only very short runs (few feet) from a drop to a machine.

The flex hose from lee valley is not much more expensive and is much better.

Scott, I wouldn't even use that stuff for exhaust - remember, a DC is basically an air mover (the dust and chips just go along with the air) - so even AFTER your collection point any air turbulence will slow down the air movement throughout the system. (all that air has to go SOMEwhere, right??)

Steve

Steve, think that's be a problem for a 6' run from my DC to the outside wall? I figure even with the corrugations it is stil a 6" over the 4" PVC I was going to use (and have to bend etc.)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Michael Schwartz

Not to mention the stuff would be pretty loud too.

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Loud does not do the harmonics that this stuff has justice. I can see city hall from my house. They have a tornado siren. My dust collector with the black drain hose seemed louder than the city's siren. I figure I will keep it handy as a back up to the city's alert system.

Scott, I can't answer that with any confidence, not having tried it - IIRC, each foot of flex hose (same diameter) is approximately equal to 4 feet of smooth pipe, so I try to keep flex to a minimum. And, the drain stuff I've used makes flex look perfectly smooth inside :eek:

In my shop I'm doing a temporary system out of 4" HDPE drain pipe, which is almost completely smooth inside - I'm building a cart to hold an Oneida SDD and the pieces of my Jet 1100 RCK Dust Collector, and by necessity (couldn't find cheap 5" pipe/fittings) I'm necking the SDD down to 4" (did I mention this is temporary?)

I have a vane anemometer on order which I intend to use to compare the stock Jet DC to the SDD/Jet combo, but as yet (just ordered it yesterday) I have no data on what the cyclone does to flow.

I also have some of the 4" SUPER-corrugated stuff you refer to, so I may be able to get some relative flow values between different pipes/hoses of the same diameter. I'll bookmark this thread so I can post back when this comes together (most likely after Christmas - not sure which YEAR :o )

I'd like to exhaust outside without the cannister filter, but don't want to pay to heat the outdoors - however, I do plan to flow check with/without the filter to get real world numbers instead of the 1100 CFM (most likely Jet's # based on no restrictions whatever)

There is one possible way you might be able to tell what your exhaust is doing to your flow - set an ordinary box fan up where you can hold an inlet from your DC up against the grill, near the outer edge of the fan blade, and if the blade's not moving too fast get a rough idea of the fan speed - now, change your exhaust temporarily to whichever alternate piping you want to try, and see if the fan turns faster or slower. I know this is crude, but it might at least give you an idea of which is better (faster fan is better :D )

HTH... Steve