Norfab Ducting

[Rob Burch]

For those of you that have made the transition to Norfab duct for their duct collection I have a question. Has anyone that had snap lock pipe retained part of it in the new design.

I have an "old" Oneida 2 hp component system and the original snap lock piping I bough with it plus some I have added over time. Fast forward 20 years and the duct has some leaks and is generally seen some wear from the years and a cross country move. (This is mostly in the drops.). I have added machines, changed placement of machines and generally have now got a system that does not resemble what I bought. I still only run one tool at a time so I am confident that my main trunk is big enough.

What I plan to do is upgrade to a 5 HP Dust Gorilla Pro and change the duct to Norfab. Since my main trunk line (7" out of the collector stepping to 6") I would like to keep it and transition to Norfab for the drops. Has anyone done that, If so, how did it work and what specific adapters did you need to purchase. I will likely pay for a new study with the new ducting but if I can I would like to save a buck or two on the main trunk line

Thanks
Rob

[Jim Becker]

While I'm using the Blastgate Company version of the quick connect because it's (slightly) more affordable than Nordfab brand, the scenario is the same. You can easily adapt to spiral or snap lock using "machine adapters" which most suppliers (including Blastgate Company) will form to the exact ID/OD you want to slip into or over your non-quick connect duct. So you can leave in place where you need to and expand as necessary or just take advantage of the quick connect feature at certain drops. For your scenario, I'd use the adapter post 7-6 reducer. Here's a link to the page at Blastgate Company for the "machine adapter"...just scroll down when you land there. Before you order, carefully measure the exact diameter of the component you intend to join the Quick Connect adapter to...I'd use ID of that because of flow direction and make that the OD of the adapter with Blastgate Company or whomever you choose to work with. (The various "brand" of Quick Connect duct are generally compatible with the exception of the "Adjustable Sleeves" you use to make shorter sections of straight pipe...those are more or less brand specific)

[Rob Burch]

Thank you Jim. Appreciate the help

Rob

[Jim Becker]

I think there's good justification for a hybrid approach in certain situations, so it's nice that there can be adaptability. I can see where, say, using spiral out from a big collector outside of the shop area to said shop area and then using the flexibility of the quick connect from there, for example. That wouldn't be as practical in my small shop, of course, but for bigger setups it would be nice and permit easy and fast reconfiguration when necessary.

[Jeremy Treibs]

I recently upgraded from a Grizzly 2hp roll around dust collector with flex hose (moving 1 hose from machine to machine) to a similar setup as you are considering. My shop is a hobby/DIY shop.
I purchased the wall mounted Oneida dust gorilla pro (5hp) and clamp together (CT) ducting from the Blast Gate company.
My approach was to use all CT ducting. I chose this based off of cost and ease of moving it all to a new shop in the distant future. Cost for me came down to shipping costs (it was about 1000 in air shipment from the Blast Gate Company to me in western Washington state) so adding a few more pieces of straight or fittings didn’t change the overall shipping cost enough for me to use a hybrid design.
I went with a 7” CT main trunk line and tried to keep 7” as far into each of the drops as much as possible. I redesigned some of my machine collecting points to maximize usage of the area having 7” of ducting. I used mostly 7” blast gates and when reducing, I tried to keep the surface area as maximized as possible. So with a 7” blast gate, I would reduce down to 2 4” and redesign the dust collection points for that machine to utilize 2 4” suction areas.
Paying 1000 for shipping was a gut punch, but when I priced local Nordfab branded components, an all in price for the Nordfab (with me picking it up locally and not paying to have it shipped) would have been 1000 dollars more than the final shipped/tax price from the Blast Gate Company.
Recently, Grizzly had amazing sales (and free shipping) on some of their 7” Nordfab branded Y connections to add to my system. As Jim mentioned previously, the Blast Gate Company CT ducting is ALMOST completely compatible with Nordfab ducting. The only issue is the adjustable sleeves. This is due to the 2 companies having the same OD, but Nordfab is a skosh thicker in gage so the IDs are different.
I found the Blast Gate Company is very responsive and willing to work with me to franken-cobble certain fittings for me.
If you have any specific questions, I am happy to help as much as I can.

[Michael Burnside]

I used Ducting Systems (https://www.ductingsystems.com) when I setup my shop. Prices are reasonable and even with a bunch of different components, shipping wasn't that bad considering how large some of the components are. I don't have a lot of complex innerworkings, just all Nordfab with a few flex hose connections mixed in for my Oneida 4" setup. The website and documentation was pretty extensive and easy to figure things out, at least for my setup.