Should i keep 4" or switch to 6"??????????

[Josh Goldsmith]

I currently have 4" ridgid pipe ran thoughout my shop. It worked good until i finally got my 15" planer up and running. Now it clogs my 4" pipe quite fast. I believe i have 2 options. Option 1. Replace all of the 4" with 6" to get a better suction and less chance of clogging up. Option 2. Keep the 4" and put in a seperator right off the planer so the large chips go in the trashcan instead of in the 4". Both ways require me to spend a little amount of money which i am not to happy about because it takes more money away from buying more tools . Is the extra cost of replacing the 4" to 6" worth it? I have a delta 1200cfm. If it does make a big difference where can you buy 6" duct. If you think i should keep the 4" and put a seperator next to the planer is there anything i should know before i do that? I hope i am making sence. What i have hooked up to my dust collection are:

22124 table saw
8" grizzly jointer
Router table
G0555 14" bandsaw
15" jet planer
Overarm dust for table saw ( don't have it yet, but i will )

Thanks for you comments

[Dennis McDonaugh]

Josh, you'll find 6" is a lot more efficient since a dust collector needs to move a lot of air and 4" pipe just won't cut it. I don't know enough engineering to recommend anything other than running 6" as close to your machines as you can.

[Don Frambach]

I am not an expert on dust collection. However, I understand that it is important to match the size of the dust collection pipe to size of your dust collector. For example, I bought a 1.5 hp collector from Oneida and they specified 5" pipe for my system.

[Charlie Plesums]

I have a trash can chip separator next to my 16 inch jointer and planer, and it works with my 2 hp dust collector and 4 inch pipes, but not as well as I would like... I plan to upgrade my plumbing.

I would consider the $25 trash can separator solution as a temporary bandaid.

[Josh Goldsmith]

16" JOINTER!!!!! WOW Charlie!!!!! Life must be good! My dust collector is able to do 6". I have checked before. I just want to make sure that it will be worth it. I am mainly talking about the cost of 6" to the performance upgrade that i will get. As of right now my 4" works ok and only ok. Not great. Thanks Josh

[George Kretschmann]

I'm in the process of changing mine from 4" to 6". It will do better according to what I have read on and from others fellow woodworker recomendations. George

[John Krumlauf]

I built a cyclone dust collection system a few years ago from the design of Bill Pentz, who seems to be quite the "cyclone expert". I used 6" PVC throughout (and will argue the static comments). Tools connected to it include a Powermatic 66 cabinet saw, 8" jointer, 25" dbl drum sander, planer, etc., etc., and it has worked beautifully. All machines were modified to 6" dust ports. This year I added two stacked filters to return the "valuable" warm air back into my shop. I used an airfoil impeller, being turned by a 2hp motor. I typically open only one gate at a time, but occasionally leave a couple open, and it still functions great. My longest run is probably 45' or more. I'm a firm believer of 6" ducts.

[Tyler Howell]

Josh is 4'' working for you???? I so I'd leave it. The seperator will knock your CFM way down. These are two differennt options as I see it. If you add a seperator then you will need the 6" duct.

[Jeff Horton]

You need to read the information that came with you DC. Changing to 6" duct could make your problem worse or create new ones. There is a lot of engineering involved in moving air (and dust and chips).

When you go to larger duct, and let me add 6" is MUCH larger than 4" duct, your are going to be moving (more or less) the same amount(volume) of air through the duct work. That is unless you went smaller than you were supposed to, to start with. Because of the larger area the air speed is going to slow down. If you slow it down to much then the dust and chips may not stay airborn. To slow and they will lay in the duct eventually clogging. It could just fill the duct up worse than it does now.

Duct size has to be matched to the blower size to create the right air speed so as to keep the the particles airborn. Increase the duct size on a blower that is to small will make matters worse.

Find out what size duct your unit is supposed to run. Also make sure you don't have anything in your duct work for the chips to catch on.

[Josh Goldsmith]

I was doing some research a while ago and i came across a review of single stage dust collectors. My delta was either 1rst or 2nd and they did the test with 6" duct. It has been a while so i need to find that review. My dust collector is a delta 50-850. I just want to try to eliminate as much dust as i can. I have read reviews saying that they upgraded to 6" but they left that piece inside. I forget what they call it. If you take the 6x4x4 wye off the dust collector it leaves you a 6" collar but right inside is a piece of metal or so i have been told. Thank

[Jeff Horton]

When you say "My delta was either 1rst or 2nd and they did the test with 6" duct." do you mean that they did airflow test or did they hook it up to a machine and test how well it 'sucked' up the dust and chips?

There is a world of differnce in the two. You could 'test' any DC with a 6" pipe and compare to another unit smaller or larger using the same 6" pipe and compare the air flows and CFM. But that doesn't mean it could/should/would preform properly with the 6" pipe.

Most DC are sized to use 4" ducting. Bill Pentz was the first I know of that used 6", and I don't think many out there now use 6". Not trying to tell you what to do, just make sure that your's was designed to work PROPERLY with 6" duct. Fromw what I have seen, most are not.