How much to add dust collection?

[Greg Magone]

I'd like to install a dust collection system in my garage....three car garage, about 1000 square feet.

I have the basic shop tools that I'd like to add dust collection for: planer, jointer, router, table saw, etc. No lathe at this time.

Am planning on living in this place for a few years, but not forever, so want to make things as portable to new place as possible.

Wondering what a rough estimate of cost might be, especially in the ducting end (which would be hard to reuse). Wanting to keep things simple.

Also wondering how many weekends one would devote to doing the install.

[Jim Andrew]

I took my dust system down last winter, reinstalled it and reused all the pieces. Had to use a few couplings. But I only bought a few new fittings. I have metal, and it is easily reused. Cut as few pieces as possible, use pop rivets and furnace tape. As to cost, I spent more on the piping than I did for the cyclone, but that was 10 years ago. Reason for taking the system down, I built a room on, moved things around and added a new saw.

[david minnery]

With 1,000 sf, that sounds like a 3hp minimum. I would think $500+ for proper duct, gates, etc.
Good luck, I'm in Seattle as well! I'm working in a 190sf shop with a 1.5hp dc. My plans for a new shop fell through, but not before I bought a clearvue cyclone, which is in storage, ugh.

[Rick Fisher]

I agree that 3hp is probably a minimum for 1000 sf.. I would go bigger if the funds allow. DC can be too big and cause no problems. Too small is frustrating..

I would also look at 6" Pipe minimum.. makes all the difference to the performance.

[roger wiegand]

It's been a while, I think I spent about $1500-$2000 on fittings and pipe (heavy gauge snap lock), blast gates were expensive, as were the wye fittings. I got them all from Oneida. I scored a 3 HP Pistorius industrial cyclone DC at an auction for ~$400. It took about three days to put it all up with pop rivets and silicone caulk in all the seams. In retrospect it wasn't worth putting in some of the floor sweeps and a long run to my lathe, as the system couldn't pull heavy chips that far. To the extent you can keep runs straight and machines clustered that's a good thing and will conserve your cfm's.

Most relevant though, was that I took the system apart and moved it when I moved. Not too hard to do, and I readily made up a new system in a different shape using the components I had. So don't assume that moving a system is all that difficult. A bunch of leftover parts at this point need to go to Craigslist.

[Phil Thien]

I'm not sure there is a strong relationship between SF and HP.

The relationship between area (SF) and size (length, width) of the shop is such that small increases length and width can change SF dramatically.

Consider a 500 SF shop that is about 22' square. Let's say we agree a 1.5 or 2-HP DC is required.

But a 1000 SF shop is only 31' square. The SF is doubled, but the longest run is maybe only 9' more (I guess slightly longer on the diagonal, but...).

And that is if you decide to organize machines at extremes. As shop size increases so do bench and storage areas. I've seen very large shops with tooling clustered around a DC in the middle with very short runs to each machine.

I'm not saying I wouldn't go for the 3-HP. But if I came upon an awesome deal on a 2-HP, I wouldn't necessarily turn it down.

[Jesse Busenitz]

I just put in my own DC system in my shop which is about 450 sq ft. I went for the the 3hp Oneida which easily gets the job done and allows me to expand in the future. I also used 6" S&D pipe which saved a lot over metal... took me a while to find it... menards had it but you had to order a ton a one shot. Oh and I made my own blast gates as well. I'm really pleased with it all. as far as price I think I spent 300 on pipe, gates came from scraps. It took a while to figure layout but I did it myself and ran it pass Oneida and they OKed it.

[Jeff Duncan]

Metal ducting isn't cheap, but it will last virtually forever. Some of my ducting is in it's third shop! Some was bought new, though much has been bought used as well. Only thing I'd disagree on is pop rivets, a PITA to put in….and a bigger PITA to take out! Self drilling screws are the standard for this work and make assembly, and just as importantly disassembly, quick and easy.

As for size of collector and ducting, you want to size it to your machines and not the size of the space.

good luck,
JeffD

[roger wiegand]

Started putting my system together with self drilling screws, but found they skated all over the surface when starting and were generally a pain to install without pre-drilling, which kind of defeats the purpose. They also stick out farther from the pipe wall than the pop rivets and seemed like a potential hazard for catching chips as they went by (don't know if thats true or not). I find drilling them out to be about the same speed as unscrewing a screw. So YMMV, as they say.

[Michael W. Clark]

As for size of collector and ducting, you want to size it to your machines and not the size of the space.

Exactly. Collector and duct requirements depend on the machines you are trying to exhaust and length of duct. Not sure of any relation to shop size vs DC requirements unless it is pure coincidence.
Mike

[Jim Andrew]

If you have a local Ace hardware, check the prices on their 26 gauge pipe and fittings. I picked up a few fittings at my local Ace, they were quite a bit less than any other place I have found. They had short lengths of 26 gauge snap lock pipe, if I needed some would see if they could order longer lengths. Did notice the 8" at Menards was 26 gauge, picked up a couple L's reasonable.