DC install about done, finally.

[Rick Potter]

Well, it's been only 10 weeks since I got my spiral ducting, and I am about to finish the final drops tonight. Only got a few hours at a time to work on it, and I am pretty slow to start with, so it took a while. I am jealous of some who said they got theirs in over a weekend.

I ended up with the 3HP super gorilla hooked to twelve 6" gates, and four 4" gates, although some of the 6" gates have reducers to 4" for now, right at the end, with just 4' or so of 4" hose. These go to bandsaws, small sanders etc., until I decide if they need to be bigger.

The 6" hose goes to the drum sander, two table saws, jointer and planer.

I still have to make adaptors for the tools with new 6" lines. Probably take me a while to figure that out.

In my old shop, I had a single drop going to several machines which I clustered together. I just switched the hose to the proper machine using one of those bell mouthed adaptors. For example, the hookups for the table saw, jointer, floor sweep, and saw mounted router table were all within a foot of each other in a sort of manifold. I could switch the hose to the desired machine in about 5 seconds.

I plan to do the same with the new 6" hose, just have to decide and design it first. I will post a tip on this later today.

Rick Potter

PS: I got a great deal on my spiral pipe and there is some left. I can return it, but if anyone local needs it, see the classifieds. Sorry if I am not supposed to say that. If there is a problem, dump it.

[Don Bullock]

Rick, that sounds great. I hope that you plan to post some pictures after you're done.

[Mike Heidrick]

What size main line did you run?

[Rick Potter]

Mike,

The main line is 8" for about 20', then it breaks down into 6" for everything else. Six inch gates, some of which have 4" reducers, at least for now, depending on what machine it serves. There are three 4" wyes, coming off the 6". One is for a overblade guard I will someday build. Another is for the top pickup on the RAS. The third is just there because it looked like it might be handy some day.

I have some blast gates I may never use, but I didn't want to take the system apart if I move machines.

Rick Potter