Contributor
you can buy 5" 30 gauge pipe at Menards, adjustable ells, etc. wye's appear to be cheapest at amazon. I would check with local furnace supply house for all fittings and pipe
30 gauge will work fine with your dust collector, it doesn't have enough suction to collapse the pipe.
Ron
Contributor
I would stay with the 4". I do not think any potential improvements by using 5" justify the cost.
Contributor
I don't know the answer to that. I remember reading on Bill Pentz web site that you can 'neck down' piping over a short distance - a few inches - without too much reduction in flow/velocity. I don't have a second or more authoritative source for that information. My D.C. does have a 6" inlet, the outlet and hose are 5" ish.Originally Posted by Alden Peterson
[OP]
Contributor
I'm starting to wonder if I should get an anemometer and measure my setup now, then switch it all over to proper 4" (or 6" or 5") and see how much this conversation even matters from an airflow perspective
Member
My system is this:
3 HP Jet cyclone, in a corner, one main line of 4" drain pipe, with connections and blast gates downstream for table saw, bandsaw, jointer. Also two drops with expandable 4" rockler hose for mobile router table, planer and sander.
The Jet is designed with a main 8" outlet attached to a 3 prong metal connector with 3 - 4" outlets (removable), . This tells me Jet designed with the intent of either using an 8" main line or using 4" lines. So far, results have been great. I didn't have time to research all the info available, sometimes you have to use common sense.
Contributor
A fan anemometer is a bad way to measure flow and gives answers all over the place. Doing accurate or even semi accurate velocity measurements is difficult.
[OP]
Contributor
After pricing out various options while traveling for Thanksgiving, I think I'm going to go to Menards and pick up a bunch of 4" pvc -- it'll be a big improvement over my existing setup anyways. And significantly cheaper than other options (either 5" metal or 6" pvc).
I just have to figure out if I want to use the existing cheap plastic blastgates, buy others, or make my own
Contributor
My thought re pipe is try to avoid sharp turns - like you get from most PVC fittings. Doing 6" PVC when making a 90* turn I did 2 45* with about 9" straight between. I expect the best solution at least for PVC is long sweeps like you see in PVC electrical conduit. More of a gradual turn with minimal 'bumps' on the inside of the pipe to cause turbulence. I don't know if you can mix PVC electrical conduit and PVC plumbing fittings. I'm no help when it comes to metal, a tin knocker I am not.
[OP]
Contributor
It looks like you can get 4" pvc sweeps at Menards - https://www.menards.com/main/plumbin...532-c-8571.htm
It's definitely not as long as the electrical sweeps but it might be decent enough?
They also have these which seem interesting - based on how my lines are setup I might actually end up using these to avoid turns in the flex hose (which I assume are far worse than the sweep 90 here) https://www.menards.com/main/plumbin...184-c-8571.htm
Contributor
You might want to look at ABS pipe - at least out here, ABS pipe tends to be used for sewage, and with sewage, you want the gentle sweeps, so at my home depot, I'd have more options for good fittings for a dust collection setup with ABS than I would with PVC. So you might want to wander the plumbing aisle at your local supply store and see what option would have better options for you.
[OP]
Contributor
ooooh that's a really good idea - I'll have to measure the sweeps and see what ones are more gentle
Why is this so complicated, hahahaha.
[OP]
Contributor
I picked up a bunch of 4" pvc (drainage) tonight.
There were better options for ABS but it was a lot pricier (over 2x the cost). There were better regular PVC options too but again they were a lot more.
Now I just need to figure out how I connect my existing 4" flex hose to the pvc in a few places, cut a ton of pieces, and connect it all together. I think I can just shrink the pipe with a torch? I guess I'll see
Contributor
Just coming into this thread now, sorry.
There are some people who say that 5" is not going to be that much better than 4". Here are the area sizes for each pipe:
4" = 12.57 square inches
5" = 19.63 square inches
6" = 28.27 square inches
Most people don't realize that an extra "inch" gives you significantly more area. The 5" has 56% more area than the 4". The 6" has 124% more area, but I do agree with Jim that it may not have enough velocity with that smallish 1.5HP dust collector.
The 56% more area means more overall CFM from your tools and less restriction than the smaller 4" pipe.
It's up to you, but in the end, you get what you pay for.
Contributor
Unless the OP opens up the ports on the machines to 5", going to 5" pipe will make little difference. In addition, given a smaller dust collector and the losses thru the dust deputy , I doubt the 5" will make much difference.
[OP]
Contributor
Well I've started doing the redo already. so it's definitely going to be 4"
I have to mate the cyclone together still, move a table over 4" to fit the trash can under it, figure out a way to connect flex hose on like 4" of gap between the trash can and bottom of the cyclone, and then put away the 100 tools I used in this process.
But it feels good. I hope I like the layout since getting the pvc apart is going to be a nightmare if I even can.
The most annoying thing so far is the 10 foot section of PVC was suuuper dirty inside. So every cut, I had to clean the inside - that 5 foot section in the middle was a giant pain.
The two flex hose drops are because I'm not totally sure how I want to handle the pvc there and so I just reattached some of them.
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