Dust Collection

[Tim McCarthy]

Go big or stay home!! If you have a business and it's growing, get the biggest DC unit you can afford (then upgrade from there) and start with 6" duct work. Once you have a big system you can always add on instead of replacing. Start big and you will never regret it. I have a 3HP Grizzly unit that lives OUTSIDE my shop and just blows the dust into a pile. I used 4" black sewer pipe for duct and built my own blast gates out of 1/4 PVC sheet material. Each gate has a micro switch wired in series to hold the start relay for the unit motor. When you open a gate, the unit starts. The effectiveness of my system has more to do with the "hook-up" to the machine than the size of the unit. If I were to start over I'd use the same unit but bigger (6") duct pipe.

Good luck!!

[Martin Wasner]

I don't remember the model number, but I've got two Powermatic two bag units. I think 1900cfm, so about 1000cfm usable once the bags are caked up. It was a good choice to start with. We run our main lines in 8". The velocity drops way down, but that's rarely an issue, worst case you open everything and it'll suck the pipes clean of heavier material from the shapers that's just resting on the bottom of the pipe. Originally I just had one, when I moved into the current shop I picked up another. When we got the new widebelt I ended up having one on each head and it's barely enough even with everything else closed down. I've got a 20hp 6500(ish) cfm baghouse waiting to be installed at the new shop that is going to be adequate for a while.

Nobody ever says "I've got too much dust collection". If I won the lottery, I'd add up the hp of all the equipment and that'd be my starting point for dust collection. Worst case you have a gate just open to the shop pulling excess air to keep the pipe from collapsing. It's best to spend the money now and smaller units are pretty easy to dump on craigslist and sell quickly when the time comes.

Good luck!

[Ken Grant]

I don't remember the model number, but I've got two Powermatic two bag units. I think 1900cfm, so about 1000cfm usable once the bags are caked up. It was a good choice to start with.
Good luck!

Are you running these as separate units or are they connected somehow?

To the OP: I am using the blower from a grizzly 3 hp double bagger, exhausting outside. All 6 inch piping, hooked up to 8 machines. Pretty short runs (shop is ~1000 sq. ft) It does a decent job with one gate open at a time, sometimes I wish it was bigger.

[Dave Arnett]

You can crunch all the numbers you want. The bottom line is.....

Go big or stay home!! If you have a business and it's growing, get the biggest DC unit you can afford (then upgrade from there) and start with 6" duct work. Once you have a big system you can always add on instead of replacing. Start big and you will never regret

Good luck!!

If you can work it into the budget, start with 8" duct work.

[Ole Anderson]

You can crunch all the numbers you want. The bottom line is.....



If you can work it into the budget, start with 8" duct work.

Actually, for most 2-3 hp cyclones, 7" diameter main run duct is the sweet spot between pipe friction losses and maintaining a minimum velocity presuming you are shooting for 800 cfm at your TS. 5 hp?, probably 8" would be the right size.

[Martin Wasner]

Are you running these as separate units or are they connected somehow?

Separate. One feeds one half of the shop and vice versa. The widebelt is basically in the center and has separate ports for each head, that's how I run two dust collectors on one machine.

[David Kumm]

Two separate baggers are a pretty good way to run a WB. Cartridges are too hard to clean unless pulse jet and oversize singed felt bags give good filtration and are easy to bang clean. Bags get a bum rap but if you have the room for oversize and need fine dust filtration, they can be better than cartridges. Dave

[mike mcilroy]

+1 for the been there done that.
1 Shop vac to each machine, home rigged hook ups for most= no good waste of time and money
2 1.5 hp 2bag unit with 4" ductwork= no good waste of time and money
3 3 hp grizzly cyclone 6" ductwork. Fantastic wish I'd started with it. I I am happy to run the miter saw and router table where I used to fear how I was going to feel for days after.
My shop is 25' x 25' 8' ceilings can run with 2 blast gates open only the miter needs to be single gate only.
I resisted because of the cash outlay but ended up here anyway. If you can afford it don't make the same mistake we did.

[Scott Welty]

OK! I get it...bigger IS better! I'm now looking at the Grizzly 2 canister unit (It's on sale too). I'll order soon as I'm moving into new shop in a week. Thanks all!

Scott

[David C. Roseman]

OK! I get it...bigger IS better! I'm now looking at the Grizzly 2 canister unit (It's on sale too). I'll order soon as I'm moving into new shop in a week. Thanks all!

Scott

Scott, bigger is good, for sure. You won't regret it. Keep in mind that noise is a big deal with any stationery DC system, especially if you're working for hours at a time commercially. So if you're building a new shop, consider enclosing the unit in a room or shed immediately outside and running an 8" main trunk through the wall, splitting off from there. Also have a look at the older-style 4-bag Grizzly for a lot less $$. http://www.grizzly.com/products/3-HP...eries/G1030Z2P With a unit that size, plumbing your bench machines with 4" PVC or metal pipe and 4" gates will easily let you operate two at once and still collect a whole lot of dust and shavings.