Ball Joint for dust collector

[John J Wang]

After searching through the forum, I settled on a V3000. Factoring in shipping to the west coast, V3000 seems to be the best value for the 2~3hp onieda system.

The V3000 will be connected to a 4"x8" haas sr-100 cnc router and I hope V3000 will be enough to handle it.

At the local community college I noticed the flexible dust collection hose was suspended from the ceiling via a ball joint. I am thinking of doing the same setup but I don't know what size ball joint to get.

I plan on mounting the V3000 to the wall and running a ~15' straight section of 6" metal tube directly to the top of the router table at ceiling height ~11 1/2".

Should I neck down to a 4" flexible hose and go with a 4" inexpensive plastic ball joint from Rocker or go the more expensive 6" metal ball joint and stay at 6" to the router spindle?

thanks,

John

[Neil Brooks]

ISTM that standard DC theory says ... don't reduce from your maximum diameter unless you have to. You'll lose CFM.

So ... since you've bought such a fan-tas-tic system (for which ... honestly ... I'm inclined to hate you []) ... I wouldn't advocate doing anything to minimize its effectiveness.

[Jamie Buxton]

I don't get it. Aren't ball joints used to provide some flexibility in runs of rigid duct? But you say you're going to be hanging flexible hose from the ball joint. Doesn't the flex hose do the flexing you want?

[John J Wang]

I don't get it. Aren't ball joints used to provide some flexibility in runs of rigid duct? But you say you're going to be hanging flexible hose from the ball joint. Doesn't the flex hose do the flexing you want?

You're right, I never thought about it. I was just following what I saw. Maybe the school had the ball joint for aesthetic reasons because the ball joint is flush with the ceiling tiles.

For me, instead of connecting the straight section to a 90 degree elbow then the ball joint, I can just connect the flexible hose to the straight section and let it hang down. The flexible hose will take care of the bend right?

thanks,

[John J Wang]

ISTM that standard DC theory says ... don't reduce from your maximum diameter unless you have to. You'll lose CFM.

So ... since you've bought such a fan-tas-tic system (for which ... honestly ... I'm inclined to hate you []) ... I wouldn't advocate doing anything to minimize its effectiveness.

Thank for the advice. I will stay with 6" all the way. To make you feel better, I don't have a table saw, no bandsaw, no jointer, no planer, not even a drill press. All I have right now is a cnc router and a miter saw with a nonferrous blade for cutting aluminum. A simple operation that take a minute on a conventional machine may take me 15 minutes to get it set up and some operations are just impossible on a 3axis cnc router with maybe 2~3" of effective cutting depth once everything is setup.

[Paul Wunder]

It is poor practice to use flex tubing as an elbow because of significant loss of cfm due to friction particularly when you are already concerned that your cyclone may not be adequate. At the ceiling where you want the drop to the CNC to begin, I would use a metal long-sweep 90 degree elbow and continue downward with straight hard pipe (all should be 6"). If you need to use flex, use the shortest possible length to connect the hard pipe to router. An alternative to the long-sweep elbow would be two 45 degree elbows with at least 18" of straight pipe separating the elbows.

[David Nelson1]

I was thinking this might be an answer to building a swinging down pipe that could be stored out of the way when equipment is moved around a bit. Ha the average cost is close to 200.00 buck. I could use that money somewhere else.

[John J Wang]

Okay, the new plan is I will add a 90 degree metal elbow to the end of the metal conduit and then attach the flexible hose to the elbow. The ceiling will be at around 11 1/2' so the flexible hose will probably end up being around 6' and there should be enough "spring" in the flexible hose to keep it out of the way while the router is running.

Those 6" metal ball joints are quite expensive and I'm glad I don't need to use them

[Chris Padilla]

In a nutshell:

Run as much hardpipe as possible and keep it your max size (6") for as long as possible and run as much straight line as possible. For bends and direction changes, make them as gentle as you can. All my 90s are made from two 45s because a long-radiused 90 was more than the cost of 2 45s.

Run as little flex as you can get away with or that makes things a tad easier. You have a good system...you won't miss the bit of loss if you put a bit more flex in if the flex makes life easier hooking things up or snaking around obstacle or what have you.

[Neil Brooks]

For the record ... since my new, expensive, "smooth-bore" 4" hose is NOT as flexible as the regular stuff (with greater static pressure drops), I just paid $9/each, for two 4" ball-joints -- one for each end of the FlexTube PU hose -- FROM the chip separator, and TO the machines.

Peachtree.

My guess is it'll be better than a 45* elbow, and certainly more versatile.

[David Nelson1]

I would be interested in a review of the swivel when you get a chance.

For the record ... since my new, expensive, "smooth-bore" 4" hose is NOT as flexible as the regular stuff (with greater static pressure drops), I just paid $9/each, for two 4" ball-joints -- one for each end of the FlexTube PU hose -- FROM the chip separator, and TO the machines.

Peachtree.

My guess is it'll be better than a 45* elbow, and certainly more versatile.