Marty Walsh
Member
- Messages
- 1,396
- Location
- Southern Georgia
Those of you that follow my Birth of a Shop thread know that I just purchased spiral pipe to install for my dust collection system.
For those of you that don't follow my thread, I've spent quite a bit of time going over the various options for piping the dust collection system for my shop. I wanted spiral metal pipe, but the cost was a problem. I considered using PVC, but the cost wasn't much better, and PVC introduces the problem of static electricity/sparks/etc., that I won't even go into here.
I even considered learning to weld so I could use salvaged/recovered pipe which I can come by.
What I wound up doing is finding a Spiral Pipe Manufacturer that has pricing that is far less expensive than any other vendor I've looked into. In fact, their pricing puts spiral pipe on par with PVC!
One of the real nice things about this company is, since they're manufacturing the pipe, they can and will make whatever thickness you need. Since I'm using a rather large blower (7.5 hp three phase), I chose to have them make me 22 gauge pipe, with welded 20 gauge fittings. But the pipe and fittings are available in 26, 24, and 22 gauge. I'm sure they could make it even thicker, but I doubt anyone reading this would need thicker than 22 gauge.
The company is "Impulse Air", and they're located in Jacksonville Florida. Luckily for me, that's less than a three hour drive from here, so I was able to drive down and pick up my pipe and fittings. But they also ship (frieght) pipe anywhere in the US.
The owner of the company is Bruce Hampton, and he can be reached at 904-475-1822. I told him I was planning to post information here so he might be getting calls from forum members. He's a really knowledgable and nice guy to work with. He's been in the business a long time, and really knows his stuff!
The only thing he doesn't do is design dust collection systems. You'd need to provide Bruce with a take-off of your proposed system, showing the lengths and diameters of pipe, along with whatever fittings you require. He can then work up a quote for you.
The way he normally does his quotes are on a 'system basis'. Since he's a manufacturer, he actually prices the system based on the amount/weight of steel, not the length of pipe. But for comparison purposes, he gave me the following rough ballpark figures:
For comparison, Onieda offers only 24 gauge spiral in their catalog. Their charge for 10' lengths of 10" 24 gauge is $48. Impulse Air charges about $36 for the same thing.
If you have a look at this post in my Birth of a Shop thread, you'll see the amount of pipe and fittings I purchased from Bruce. That trailer load of steel cost me a total of $1090. That's less than half what an inferior product would have cost me anywhere else.
I highly recommend calling Bruce if you're in the market for dust collection pipe. It may not work out for everyone, but it's certainly worth the call.
Good luck...
- Marty -
For those of you that don't follow my thread, I've spent quite a bit of time going over the various options for piping the dust collection system for my shop. I wanted spiral metal pipe, but the cost was a problem. I considered using PVC, but the cost wasn't much better, and PVC introduces the problem of static electricity/sparks/etc., that I won't even go into here.
I even considered learning to weld so I could use salvaged/recovered pipe which I can come by.
What I wound up doing is finding a Spiral Pipe Manufacturer that has pricing that is far less expensive than any other vendor I've looked into. In fact, their pricing puts spiral pipe on par with PVC!
One of the real nice things about this company is, since they're manufacturing the pipe, they can and will make whatever thickness you need. Since I'm using a rather large blower (7.5 hp three phase), I chose to have them make me 22 gauge pipe, with welded 20 gauge fittings. But the pipe and fittings are available in 26, 24, and 22 gauge. I'm sure they could make it even thicker, but I doubt anyone reading this would need thicker than 22 gauge.
The company is "Impulse Air", and they're located in Jacksonville Florida. Luckily for me, that's less than a three hour drive from here, so I was able to drive down and pick up my pipe and fittings. But they also ship (frieght) pipe anywhere in the US.
The owner of the company is Bruce Hampton, and he can be reached at 904-475-1822. I told him I was planning to post information here so he might be getting calls from forum members. He's a really knowledgable and nice guy to work with. He's been in the business a long time, and really knows his stuff!
The only thing he doesn't do is design dust collection systems. You'd need to provide Bruce with a take-off of your proposed system, showing the lengths and diameters of pipe, along with whatever fittings you require. He can then work up a quote for you.
The way he normally does his quotes are on a 'system basis'. Since he's a manufacturer, he actually prices the system based on the amount/weight of steel, not the length of pipe. But for comparison purposes, he gave me the following rough ballpark figures:
10' lengths of 10" diameter spiral pipe:
26 gauge - $30
24 gauge - $36
22 gauge - $45
24 gauge - $36
22 gauge - $45
For comparison, Onieda offers only 24 gauge spiral in their catalog. Their charge for 10' lengths of 10" 24 gauge is $48. Impulse Air charges about $36 for the same thing.
If you have a look at this post in my Birth of a Shop thread, you'll see the amount of pipe and fittings I purchased from Bruce. That trailer load of steel cost me a total of $1090. That's less than half what an inferior product would have cost me anywhere else.
I highly recommend calling Bruce if you're in the market for dust collection pipe. It may not work out for everyone, but it's certainly worth the call.
Good luck...
- Marty -