Tour of the shop

[Terry Hatfield]

Very nice shop, looks to be about 50% larger than the building I'm in the process of remodeling. Looks like your building has about 3 courses of block above grade, and then 2x4 framed walls, with 8' ceiling?

Any chance of adding a few more pictures of the ceiling, or maybe a diagram of your DC duct system? I'd be curious to know how you have this layed out. This is in my future, unless the chief carpenter has a better idea .

That's the one Joe. 3 courses of blocks with the 8' wall makes for a 10' ceiling. Works great.



I don’t have a diagram of the ductwork but let me see if I can explain I well enough with a few added pics…

It’s all 6” PVC with as much on the ceiling as possible. The main runs down the west wall coming from the cylone and splits off at a 6X6 wye to run diagonally across the ceiling to the table saw drop and then to another 6x6 wye to the bandsaw where it splits into 2-4’s right on the saw. Here you can see the main with that first wye and the next wye going down the wall to the drum sander. That run continues on down the wall along the shelf where the blocks meet the framed wall to the lathe hood.



Here’s another angle of the first branch that goes to the tablesaw and then onto the bandsaw.



Here is a shot farther down the wall. You can see the second branch that goes across the ceiling to the planer, jointer, router table, floor sweep and continues to the edge sander. The main goes down the wall from the corner and services the mitersaw station and the spindle sander.



Here’s a better shot of the tree that services the planer, jointer, router table.



Overview shot again showing the branches….



Straight on shot…



And the final overview shot again…



Hope that is clearer. Hard to believe that I've never taken the time to diagram the thing but perhaps I will in the near future. I'll post it if I do.

t

[Joe A Faulkner]

Thank you for going to all of the trouble. This is a fantastic tour. More than I had hoped for. This gives me great ideas and inspiration. My building has 8' walls, with a true rafter framed roof system. I put up 14' 2x4 across the rafters, so I have 10' ceilings over the center 14' of the building, and sloped celings on the north and south walls.

What size motor do you have on your DC? Are you pleased with the performance you are getting with your long duct runs?

[Joe A Faulkner]

While I'm picking your brain, what wall surface do you have? Looks like sheet rock. Did you finish the interior yourself. It looks great.

[Terry Hatfield]

Joe,

Always glad to help how ever I can.

My cyclone has a 5hp Leeson compressor motor with a 16" Cincinnati Fan straight blade impeller. It does great in my configuration. Tested a bit over 2000cfm...for real....so the longer runs are no issue. Your mileage may vary.

The walls and the ceiling are sheetrock even though if I had it to do over again I'd probably opt for something different on the walls like plywood or some other wood type product simply for the ease of hanging'/mounting shelves etc.. I did roll about a thousand gallons of primer and paint on all the walls and ceiling my self. It doesn't look that great in person.

t

[Joe A Faulkner]

Thanks Terry. Tell me about how you are running power to your floor machines. I thought I saw the table saw cord snaked around your anti-fatigue mat. I'm wondering whether or not to go to the trouble of tearing into the concreate floor to run cords. I've been living with drop cords to the table saw for 25 years. I've only recently added a planer and jointer to the collection.

[Rich Aldrich]

Nice shop. I like the width and ceiling height. My shop is too narrow and the ceilings are only 8 feet high.

[Kel Tremblay]

Thanks for posting Terry. I am envious of your shop. Mine is about 1/2 the size (25 x16) in our basement, but it is a huge improvement over sharing the garage in our last house. Did you use the 5 hp motor as per Bill's design and how difficult a project was building the cyclone?
Thanks again

[Alan Schaffter]

Terry, really nice shop!!

My only criticism is your DC installation and duct work- too neat- but too orthogonal. I realize with 5 hp and 16" impeller you have a real sucker there, but why reduce efficiency- like clamps, you can never have enough CFM. Two things I would have done since you have a lot of mid-shop drops:

1. Raise the DC so the inlet is at ceiling height- better flow into the DC. That would require the motor to be up in the attic a bit.

2. Run the main from the DC straight on the diagonal into the shop with no joggles, dips, bends, or runs along the walls. Your mainly orthogonal layout requires too many 90's and actually requires more pipe. It would be better to branch off at 45's from the main. Remember the hypotenuse of a triangle is shorter than the sum of the two other sides. Doing it that way you can eliminate all horizontal 90's and T-wyes and a number of other CFM robbing fittings. You still will need 90's or 2 45's when you transition to the vertical drops.

Another suggestion since it would be convenient to do where you have your cyclone located, put in a diverter valve on the outlet of the cyclone so you can discharge outside instead of into the filter during mild weather.

Other than that, what a great shop!

[Kevin Gregoire]

im so envious of you guys with big shops! and that one is really sweet,
you should be proud to own it.
i have a very small 11x22 shop but it would be hard to trade up since my dad
built it back in mid 80's but only got to use it for six months before having a
series of strokes that left him paralyzed. life just isnt fair.

anyway, congrats on a great shop

[Terry Hatfield]

Joe,

I am running cords along and in between the mats. Not ideal but a necessary evil since there are no floor plugs and I'm not about to create any. I used black duct tape to secure them to the floor.

[Terry Hatfield]

Alan,

A better configuration could improve performance but is unlikely to happen. This one is done and certainly works well enough to capture the fines. I'd love to take it all down and start over with 8" mains but that's hard to justify considering how well this system works with the undersized mains.

t

[Terry Hatfield]

Kel,

It is Bill's design. I along with some others here were part of a test group several years ago that worked with Bill to tweek the cyclone and the blower. It is not a difficult project to build but is one that takes some patience and practice with the forming and the soldering. Well worth the effort in my book.

T