workshop dust collection advise

[bobby milam]

I ran out of room and started remodeling my 3 car garage into a wood shop. I have the 2 hp HF DC. I have positioned the tools as close together as possible to keep the runs as short as possible. I have a cabinet saw, router table(on the saw), a shark CNC enclosed, a drum sander, jointer, sliding miter saw, sanders and planer at the moment. Everything is on wheels but the only tool that will move much for use is the drum sander. I will probably pull it out by the jointer when I use it. I have built a closet for the dust collector to help with dust and noise. The CNC will just have the DC connected to the back of the enclosure. I have 8 foot ceilings. I plan on using a trash can and thein separator with the DC. The tools themselves, have 4" dust ports built in. My idea at the moment is to come off with one main line from the separator and wye off of it with drops for the different tools. I plan on using 4" drops and gates at every tool. The main run will be 10-12 feet from the DC at the furthest point.

My question is would 6" be ok for the main or do I need to go down to 5"?

Also, I plan on in the future to upgrade the DC with a Wynn filter. Since it is in an enclosed space which is approx. 10"x4', I will have to give the air somewhere to go. I had 2 ideas on that. I just had a new roof put on and had them install several extra vents. What if I was to run a pipe, say 5 or 6" to one of those vents and allow it to push the air out that way? Since the DC has a separator and filter, I figure nothing but air is really going to go up it and and dust that makes it past the filter will just settle inside the closet. The other option is to add the same pipe through the interior wall back into the shop and attach a filter onto that pipe. Do either of these sound like something that will actually work?

I understand about forcing air out of the shop and the need to replace it as well as removing the heat or cool air. My shop is not heated or cooled and I usually have all 3 garage doors open when I am working in there so it really isn't an issue. I am going to attach a not to scale layout of my shop as it sits right now. I still want a bandsaw and have room to add more equipment and work stations later.

SHOP DIAGRAM.jpg

[Ole Anderson]

You are going to like all that space and extra rooms in your shop, I am envious!

I think you are asking a lot of a 110 volt dust collector that is at best really 1.5 hp. That said, there are a LOT of folks that lean on the 2 hp HF unit for dust collection. I personally believe it and similar units are best suited for a short hose connection to a single machine, not as the workhorse to serve a distributed dust collection system. I will probably got a few comments disagreeing. It really doesn't have the chops to really keep up with anything but a small drum sander with your proposed setup. As for a CNC machine, don't have one but I understand they need lots of inches of suction. Your other machines, while they may have a 4" connection, benefit from lots of air movement. And if you put any kind of pre-separator or dust collection duct system in front of it, you will loose even more suction. Add a filter and you might loose even more.

Venting into the attic is a novel approach, although as long as you are going to use a good filter, I see no reason to not just vent it back to the shop through a joist cavity.

As far as the main run, bigger is better up to a point. If you will never upgrade your dust collector, to say a 220 volt 3 hp unit, go with 6". Otherwise bumping to 7" hits the sweet spot of velocity vs pipe losses at 800-1000 cfm. But in the meantime you might get some settling out in a 7" unless you open a few gates at the end once in a while to allow enough velocity to sweep any settled chips and dust to the separator.

[Dave Novak]

I also work out of a three car garage that also park's my wife's car every night. I've got fewer large tools, a minimax CU 300 Smart Combo, router table, and a Luguna 16 HD bandsaw. Only the router table gets moved around. My DC is a Jet 1100 1.5 HP unit. For years I've used it with a 10' hose (4") and wheeled it to the machine or vice versa, which has always frustrated me to no end. Negotiating tools around workbenches, scrap on the floor, sometimes needing to move a car, etc. was awful.

Just this weekend I added a Super Dust Deputy and permanently parked both close to the combo machine. An 8' hose (5") reaches every duct on the combo. I also ran a 4" PVC pipe down the wall next to the SDD, across the garage through the attic, and back down about 20' away where another 8' hose (also 5") reaches both the router table and band saw. Now every tool is stationary and I only need to swap the hose from the SDD between the combo and the pipe to collect everywhere. Breaks many of the "laws" I've read in countless threads here, but I've lost nothing in terms of quality collection. The SDD works so well I may never need to change bags on the Jet again. I went with 4" pipe simply because the Fernco fitting I use on the combo ports fit it precisely.

[bobby milam]

The plan for now is to run with the HF and see how well it works. Changing the hose from machine to machine is not an option as I will get lazy and just not switch it for small things. I am hoping that keeping the main around 10', this might work for me. If I find that it isn't sufficient, I will look for a 3-5 hp later. Most of my work is on the CNC machine which is why I located it to have the shortest run of all the tools. Since I have enclosed it, I am not so concerned about it. The enclosure and DC will keep the light dust from floating around the shop. I still have tools on the wish list so I am trying to get by for now with the HF. Will a 6" pipe used for venting the DC room into a filter be sufficient?