Cyclone Ducting

[Joseph Fronio]

Have a 3hp laguna mobile cyclone and want to run permanant duct work in basement.
Was going to try Home Depot hvac duct. Any suggestions on sizing? The cyclone has an 8" iinlet and
15.8" impeller. Can I run an 8" main line across the basement ceiling and come off with 6" for tools?
tools being hooked up are 3hp pcs sawstop, powermatic 8" jointer, kapex miter saw, seperate router table,
And 5hp woodmaster 4in1 planer. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I can't-stand connecting/disconnecting/connecting, tripping over the hoses, or smashing my head into the 3 way 4" inlet any longer.

[Jim German]

Don't use Home depot HVAC Ductwork, the dust collector will collapse them. If you find a good HVAC supply store, the heavier gauge ducting from them (at least 26 gauge) would work. Other folks have used PVC with good success. Running an 8" truck with 6" or 4" to individual machines works well.

[Joseph Fronio]

Thanks for the advice. I may do that. I saw a thread where people are using hd pipe with no problems.

[Joseph Fronio]

Any other suggestions?

[Jamie Buxton]

I have a 2 1/2 horse cyclone with ductwork from HD HVAC snaplock parts. Dunno the sheet metal gauge -- whatever the standard stuff is they sell. The ducts have been in place for seven years now, and they haven't collapsed. It is all 6" round.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks for the advice. I may do that. I saw a thread where people are using hd pipe with no problems.

I have also read threads where this is the case.

I have a 2 1/2 horse cyclone with ductwork from HD HVAC snaplock parts. Dunno the sheet metal gauge -- whatever the standard stuff is they sell. The ducts have been in place for seven years now, and they haven't collapsed. It is all 6" round.

There's one now ;-)

[Michael W. Clark]

I would prefer running 6" throughout, and increase the port size as much as possible at the tools.

The reasoning I say all 6" is because you need to pull about 1400 CFM in an 8" for the recommended duct velocity. In a 6", you only need 800 CFM. Granted, if you use 8" for the main, then neck down to 6", you are likely to pull more than 800 CFM in the 6", but I doubt you will have enough fan to pull 1400 CFM through the 6" branch. Remember, your cyclone pressure drop also increases with higher flow.

Additionally, 6" duct and fittings will be a lot less expensive. I checked prices at a local HVAC store, and their prices were comparable to HD (maybe a little higher), but had much better selection, and they delivered. I am going to use some register fittings for hoods, some horizontal take-off, some vertical take-off in 5" and 6". They also have 6x5x3 laterals (TS connection) and 5x4x3 laterals (Router Table and BS). You can also order from HD and Amazon on-line. Some fittings were cheaper there.

Mike

[Mark Engel]

Oneida Air and Penn State Industires both have a good selection of duct and fittings. Oneida offers free shipping for orders over a certain dollar value.

[Ole Anderson]

Go with a 7" main and 6" main drops, you will hit the sweet spot for 800-1000 cfm. 6" is good unless you sometimes have more than one gate open. Home Depot snap lock is fine as long as you get the 26 gauge, yes, the cheap 30 gauge will collapse. Not all stores carry the 26 gauge stuff. And like Michael says, check with your local HVAC supplier and also look in the YP for a local specialized tin knocker shop.

[Brett Bobo]

Timely post as I'll be pulling the trigger on purchasing the "premium" ductwork today from Penn State. Being in the Houston area and having access to a number of spiral duct fabricators, I was certain that sourcing locally would be a cheaper option and avoid the shipping charges as well. I must have literally called about a dozen fabricators all over the Houston area and received estimates from about half of those. Given that spiral duct is commonly used for commercial or industrial applications, some of these fabricators wouldn't sell retail or to an individual and in turn, wouldn't provide me with an estimate. Also, my preference was to single source everything to avoid purchasing items from several different places and none of the fabricators could provide me with everything. As much as I wanted to purchase locally, all roads ended up leading back to Penn State for both a competitive price and the quality of the product/gauge of material for duct and fittings.

Just a note about estimates, it's imperative that you do an apples-to-apples comparison (or understand the differences and possible value added) as I found differences in the specs for the fittings between several fabricators. The 24 gauge spiral duct was straight forward/comparable; however, the gauge and fabrication process of the fittings varied considerably. I'm not well-versed with the SMACNA specification but regardless, the gauge of the fittings quoted ranged from 24 to 20 to accompany the 24 gauge spiral duct. Also, depending on the type of fitting, the fabrication varied from gore-locked, spot welded, fully welded, etc. and depending on the process, the gauge of the material to be used was effected as well.

All that to say just do your homework and understand exactly what you're purchasing so you don't have any surprises.

[Peter Kelly]

Grainger for snap-lock 26ga duct and hangers: http://www.grainger.com/product/DUCT...In-Dia-6EKF0?s http://www.grainger.com/product/DUCT...p-Hanger-6PFZ3
Kencraft for fittings: http://www.kencraftcompany.com/Dustindex.htm#pipe
Blastgate Co for gates, flex hose and spiral pipe should you go that route: http://blastgateco.com


All of the above retailers accept credit cards and ship nationally. I spent a long time researching steel duct and this seemed the best route. Blastgate Co has decent pricing on spiral pipe but the fittings and shipping get a bit costly.

Penn State's pricing is outrageous. Onieda is also pretty expensive but they do have metric to English adapters.

[Brett Bobo]

Penn State's pricing is outrageous

As a generalized statement, this is simply not true based on my experience. In fact, they were the second lowest quote I received for the entire ductwork package, even with shipping costs included. Sure, no one particular manufacturer will have the lowest pricing for every component for the ductwork system but even when doing an itemized comparison, they were competitive when you factor in everything, not just base cost.

[Michael W. Clark]

I'm not well-versed with the SMACNA specification but regardless, the gauge of the fittings quoted ranged from 24 to 20 to accompany the 24 gauge spiral duct.

Hi Brett,
I’m only familiar with SMACNA as it pertains to industrial dust collection ductwork. There are five SMACNA duct classes. The duct class is usually specified by the engineer, but SMACNA does offer some guidance. Spiral duct is only listed for classes 1 and 2 (fume and light dusts), and class 5 (corrosive fume). Most industrial wood dust applications are classes 2, 3, or 4. The higher the class, the heavier the construction requirements, (gauge, stiffeners, flanges, etc.). In industrial, the fittings are often made heavier gauge than the duct.

I would think that spiral would serve a home/hobby shop and some commercial shops very well. Be wary of the fittings, since alot of this is used in HVAC. Many of the HVAC fittings are not good for DC.

Mike

[Jim German]

Well if you're still skeptical here is the 30 gauge 8" duct I got from HD. That was on my Clearvue CV1800, and that was downstream of a 4" branch.

You might be able to get away with it for 6" ducts, but why risk it? The 26 gauge stuff that I got from a HVAC supply house was only like 5 bucks more for 10'.

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[Michael Mahan]

Well if you're still skeptical here is the 30 gauge 8" duct I got from HD. That was on my Clearvue CV1800, and that was downstream of a 4" branch.

You might be able to get away with it for 6" ducts, but why risk it? The 26 gauge stuff that I got from a HVAC supply house was only like 5 bucks more for 10'.

photo.jpg

did that happen as soon as you started up the ClearVue ??