Pipe sizing for DC

[Rod Sheridan]

It sounds like 6" may be the way to go, Next question though is about grounding. How many/ how often, and where do they need to be grounded? Basic knowledge would tell me in 1 place since they are all piped together, but based on the way every other one of my assumptions have been a little off, I'm left just a little bit curious.

Hi Ramsey, if it's metal duct, it will be grounded when you use screws to attach it to your grounded dust collector.
Otherwise run a ground wire to to a water pipe or a grounded electrical box.

If you use plastic blast gates (I wouldn't recommend them, buy the nice aluminum ones) you need to screw a ground wire from one pipe to the other on the blast gate to continue your grounding.

I used aluminum flex to go to my jointer/planer because I was getting static shocks from the original plastic hose.

Regards, Rod.

[Alan Schaffter]

Comment about blower inlet size-

Without talking to the designer/manufacturer or reading the specs I can't say for sure, but by the size of impeller, etc., it appears many (most?) manufacturers of lower end DC's may sell them with smaller inlets than optimal. The reason for this is to protect the motor-

You should never run a DC with no piping, it can cause the motor current to go sky high, will quickly trip a breaker, and if connected to an oversized breaker can result in damage or even a burned out motor. So, to protect themselves from folks who don't read and follow manufacturers cautions, they restrict the size of the inlet so this can't happen.

[Larry Frank]

It is a good question as to if my collector with the 4" pipes is collecting the fine dust. The answer is quite simple - No. There are very few systems that are designed tight enough to capture the fine dust. The trick is to have a very good collection system at the point where dust is produced so that none of the dust avoids going into the system. It would None that I have observed in a home will trap 100% at the source. I always run an air cleaner in the shop especially when doing something that produces fine dust such as sanding.