Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.

Tonight I was standing in my dusty, junked, crowded shop, looking at the DC unit that I have not yet hooked up. I started with a 2 1/2 hp PennState unit with the upgraded bags, then added my own Wood Magazine type cyclone, which I mounted to the basement wall. The idea was to bring air into the cyclone to catch the big stuff, then route it to and through the bags (the unit sits right beside the cyclone. I have delayed because (1) I am slow and lazy, and (2) I have been concerned about the noise moving from the basement through the hvac ducting through the house. Ideally, I would like to get the unit out into the attached garage, but cannot do so and maintain anything close to a "straight shot" into the cyclone; more like a "crazy eight" pattern inside 4' of piping.

Then it hit me: Maybe I don't need the entire unit out of the basement! What if I only move the blower/bag assembly to the garage - leave the cyclone in the basement so I can have essentially a straigh shot into the cyclone, but run the 6" piping from the output end of the cyclone out to the DC. This would require a 90 degree bend at the output of the DC, then a 10' run, then a 90 degree out through the wall, then a 90 degree up to the unit, then a 90 degree into the impeller. Some of this "through the wall" run could be done with 6" flex to avoid true 90 degree bends.

My thinking is that because I am theoretically moving only small, fine particles between the cyclone and the DC, I should still have enough "suck" to move the dust along. I would rarely, if ever, be using more than one machine at a time, so I think the capacity of the 2 1/2 hp unit would more than overcome the turns and drag in the 90 degree bends between the cyclone and the DC. All piping will be 6" except for the drop to each machine, which will be sized to fit 4" openings. Each drop to machines will have 2 6" 90 degree bends.

What do you think? Is this worth exploring? I really would like to move the noise out to the garage, but I want the DC to sort of work, too!