Cynthia Killed Procrastination

I looked at what I had written in response to Cynthia’s question about Dust Collection. First of all my first dumb response ignored the words quick, easy and inexpensive. OK that wasn’t too bad.

However, I explained how I had not connected DC to my belt sander. Looking at that in print made me realize how stupid I have been about that. I lived with it until reading my response to Cynthia’s thread. Therefore, I killed procrastination and actually built a box and installed a DC connection.

This is the area where the plumbing will go.
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This shows the semi-finished product. I did not have enough parts so I stuck in a temporary 10 ft of four-inch flex.

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I had already started construction. This is the first photo I took showing the “Dust Plenum” (or whatever you want to call it) sanding platform combination. There is an opening into the box at the end of the belt. The belt is almost always in the vertical position. The top is aluminum and has a miter gauge slot. Maple leaves (no I’m not Canadian) will extend both ways from the slot.

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I fell and hurt my back over a month ago. I get in some strange positions to keep from reaching---thus the eighteen inch phillips screwdriver shown in the pic. I am putting on one end of the plenum.

View attachment 49993This pic shows the business end of the plenum with the pink foam gasket I made. As an aside: I started out with foam over four times this thickness. It seemed like really wimpy foam; at the original thickness using my fingers it compressed to nothing. Well it was way too thick. I band sawed it into one-half that thickness. It was still too thick. So I cut one of the halves in half and even that was a bit too much.

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Here the outlet port has been added over the pink foam gasket.

View attachment 49995Meanwhile, outside, the 20 ft stick of six-inch PVC gets shortened. Notice the three-fourths dia. dowels. There is another pair on the other side. Their purpose is to keep the PVC corralled while Myrna rotates the pipe while I hang on to the hand jigsaw.

View attachment 49996You should have seen me getting that horizontal piece out there and then hanging on to it until I could get the support chain hooked around it. The adjustable height table was purchased used in 1914 by the doctor I went in with. It is a jewel of a thing to have in a WW shop.
Anyway I used it and the blocks of wood to hold up the last section, the two els, their coupler and the vertical drop. I adjusted the height of the wood stack and the height of the table to get my final measurement for the six-inch drop piece.

View attachment 49997This pic shows the relationship of the two sanders (12in disk and 4 x 36 belt). They are positioned so neither one is in the way of wood being used on the other. However, the dust exit ports for each machine are in the most awkward position for the DC ducting. There might be a better way to mount the machines. However, that is a ways down on my current priority list. If I reversed the two machines it would be a lot better for belt sander dust collection, and a tiny bit better for the disc dust collection.

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Thanks Cynthia for making me be a good boy and hook DC to the belt sander.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
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Well Jim, good one for you, BUT Mryna, now there is a partner!! :thumb::thumb: How is it collecting? :huh: Does it "suck"?:eek::dunno::doh::rofl: How many test runs have been completed?:huh: Great work Jim, hope the back gets to feeling better soon, back aches are a pain!!!:eek::doh::thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
I had the same question as Jonathan but didn't ask thinking I'd sound dumb. How does it work exactly?

Hi Mohammad,

There is an opening in the plenum at the end of the sanding belt. The opening is just a trace wider than the belt on each side. The vertical part of the opening starts (at the top) at the bottom edge of the aluminum. It extends downward until it hits another piece of foam. This foam surrounds the power switch on the sander (This stays in the "On" position).

I have a magnetic switch on the edge of the counter top that is used to turn the sander on and off. The DC operates from a remote switch that is hooked to my belt loupe.

Summary:
The top of the sanding belt runs towards the hole in the plenum when the sander is in the horizontal position. The sanding belt runs down towards that hole when the belt is in the vertical position (where it is most of the time).

In either case the sawdust from the belt is being carried towards the opening in the plenum. A large volume of air is drawn from the belt, through the opening, through the plenum and into the DC plumbing.

The opening in the plenum is like the intake end of a VERY powerful shop vacuum. The volume of air and the velocity of that air makes a shop vac seem like a puny relative.

Since my fall on the fifth of last month, my back dictates a lot of what I can and cannot do. I pushed harder than I should to get the unit functioning. I turned it on and let it try to suck my hand into the opening. Then I gave my back a break (bad choice of word there). Tomorrow morning, when I get back from the gym and physio-therapy, I will shove some wood into it.

If it does not work perfectly you will hear me crying even though it is over a couple miles to your place.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
Hey Jim,
Being a backwoods kind of a guy, I looked at the pictures before I read the post and on the 4th picture I was going to be a smart aleck and ask "why didn't you use a long screwdriver?"... then you answered the the question in your caption and spoiled my joke...or lack of .... I like your DC box and think I'll try to hang onto the reference for the day when I can afford to get a drum sander... for now though it's more economical to use my friend's... it's just not quite so convenient to my shop since he lives on the other side of town... 12 miles away.

Take care of the back... that is the foundation of our being.
 
Jim, thanks for the explanation. Though, I am still somewhat confused.:huh: But let's leave it at that. I guess I will only grasp the concept when I see it while it is running. Looks like it worked according to your expectation, as I haven't heard you cry.:rofl:
 
Answer to Questions, "Does it suck?"

Hi,

Yes indeedie, it does suck!

What I did was to vacuum the top of the sander cabinet, the sander table (with the miter square slot) and cleaned the sander belt. Then I sanded off all of the fuzzies from a piece of rough sawn cedar.

I saw a cloud of dust going through the clear flex DC hose. After sanding I did not see any dust on the sanding belt, the sander table (the one with the miter slot), nor on the top of the cabinet that holds the sander.

I did not see any dust in the air while using back-lighting. Of course the dust collection guru, Bill Penz, says that it is the stuff you cannot see that kills you.

If you decide to build one of these consider:
In my case the opening into the plenum was in the correct position whether the belt was in the horizontal or the vertical position. Will it be correct with your sander?

I can tilt my belt into all positions between horizontal and vertical with the plenum in place. Will you be able to with yours?

Can you change sanding belts?
Can you reach your controls to adjust the sanding belt to run true?

Mohammad, the business surface of the sanding belt is running towards the opening into the plenum (regardless of horizontal or vertical position of the sanding belt). The grit on the sanding belt as well as the slight current of air caused by the moving belt plus LOTS of air moving over the top of the belt as the dust collector gulps air move the dust particles towards the plenum opening.

The dust and the air move into the plenum and then are sucked out the exit hole in the plenum, through the dust collection plumbing (flex and rigid pipe) into the dust collector and its bags or cyclone.

Just think of the plenum as another piece of dust collection ducting. It just happens to be different than a piece of pipe in this instance because I needed to put the sanding table (the piece with the miter slot) in that location.

Dust collectors, vacuum cleaners and all of their cousins do NOT suck. They just move air. The moving air will pick up dust and other things (depending on size and shape) and carry it along. Think about a windy day and a construction area where the soil has not been dampened...you see dust moving...a tornado or hurricane can move larger particles such as house roofs, cars, and tree limbs.

I repeat, the plenum is just a different shaped piece of duct pipe.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
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hey, Mr. Jim Bradley, might I ask you something?

I keep reading places not to use pvc for dust lines as it builds friction and all that jazz. Whats your take on this, any problems so far? Is it standard pvc piping your using in your shop?
 
Allen, PVC doesn't have a friction problem (it's nice and smooth inside), but it does have static electricity issues when wood chips and dust are going through it. You can add a ground wire to the inside of the pipe (or wrap the outside with bare wire) to dissipate the electricity. As far as I can tell, the primary reason for grounding the PVC is to avoid the annoying shocks you can get when you touch the pipe. Some folks do it to reduce the risk of a spark causing an explosion (because of the fine wood dust), but I've seen good evidence that there is virtually no chance of a home DC system having the right combination of dust density and air flow to cause an explosion risk. (There is a LOT of debate on the subject, so I'm sure others will disagree with me on that point.)
 
Im leaning towards running one main pvc pipe, 5 inches, from the dust collector,then just branch off a few plastic lines to each machine. Everything is within a 10 foot area.

Allen,
For the past five years or so, I've had my 2hp DC plumbed with 6" and 4" PVC piping. There's about 60 feet of it overall, in two separate routes, although I typically only connect one route (about 30 feet) at a time. The 6" goes up the wall, and transitions to 4" across the ceiling, which then transitions to 4" flex to drop to the individual machines.

It's been completely trouble free, and static hasn't been a problem, although it is more noticeable in the winter.

BTW, you don't need the Sched 40 PVC. The much cheaper S&D (sewer & drain) pipe works very well.
 
. The top is aluminum and has a miter gauge slot. Maple leaves (no I’m not Canadian) will extend both ways from the slot.
Enjoy,
Jim

Ok this Canadian has been looking for maple leaves and i aint seen any yet. Am i missing something?:rofl:

Oh Mohammad you aint the only one still puzzled. So dont feel bad you got me to keep you company:D Jim i think you need to show us a pic of from the sanders side looking down the runway so to speak. Then you keep calling this a table. Are you actually going to run a mitre gauge in the slot:huh: What for if you are? I can see the plenum entry and figure out some of it but what made you use the specific piece of aluminum?

Could you have cut a slot in some pvc pipe and mounted it at the end of the belt sander and achived the same? I saw a friend of mine make a fountain and he did that with pipe to make a weir. (cut a slot and let the water flow up and out the slot. I was thinking in reverse connected to a dust collector it could work on a sander like a sweep. I am thinking of this for the drill press.:dunno:
 
hey, Mr. Jim Bradley, might I ask you something?

I keep reading places not to use pvc for dust lines as it builds friction and all that jazz. Whats your take on this, any problems so far? Is it standard pvc piping your using in your shop?

Two or three years ago I read everything I could find on dust collection. I worked with all of the formulas for pipe size. I learned how much efficiency was lost by size of pipe, flex pipe, 45* turns, 90* turns, etc. You name it, I read it. Bill Penz has dedicated a bazillion hours to research on the subject.

I read all of the controversy on metal vs PVC---on static causing fires in DC systems, etc., etc.

First thought: There was an excellent technical (yes you will not be able to understand all of it, yes you will be able to make good sense out of it) report on SMC or FWW. It might even be far enough back so that it pre-dates FWW.
Summary: The engineer, using chemistry, air flow, temperature, and all that jazz, could not come up with a combination that could create a fire in a normally functioning DC system. It did not matter if the ducting was metal or PVC.

Therefore, I chose to use PVC. PVC is much easier to work with. It is not cangtankerous; it does not cut you. You can use WW tools to work with PVC. However, PVC sawdust does love to stick to bandsaw tires.

One forum member said that he did all of the things that I did and became thoroughly confused so he ran six-inch PVC for all of his mains with four-inch drops (solid or flex). Flex duct REALLY reduces the efficiency of a system. Use the minimum possible. He/she had no problems.

I did the same...six-inch mains with four-inch drops. I have never had a problem. I dismantled part of the system last week when I added more ducting for a belt sander (see my thread. I can't remember the title...something about Cynthia White made me stop procrastinating).
Anyway I photoed the inside of the system. Except for a little dust at junctions at els, there was NO dust (no static cling). I worked with four 45* els in six-inch and several in four-inch and about 15 feet of horizontal run and about 15 feet of vertical. I collected about one-fourth of a cup of loose dust.

I have not run wire along my system to prevent static build-up.

Pardon my being vague about how long ago the engineer posted. My long time sense of time stinks. My short period of time perception is great. That was developed when I was a disk jockey and did the news on the Radio in San Bernardino, CA. When you are used to it, you can accomplish a lot during a 30 second or 60 second commercial.

Oh yes, I used that particular piece of aluminum because I had it.

I really opened a can of dusty worms here. I will try to do a thread on what I did in developing my DC system and why. I have already posted some pics and some B.S. in Cynthia's thread asking about DC.

It is past my bedtime for nights when I work tomorrow. (Lousy English, but you get the idea.)

Good Night and Enjoy,

Jim
 
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