Help explain this blast gate to me.

Tom Baugues

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2,790
Location
Lafayette, Indiana
I bought these plastic blast gates last fall at Rockler to install on my dust collection system. They may not be the best but the price was right at the time so I want to try to use them. I got one of them out tonight as I'm working on getting the piping all figured out and I don't understand why there is a hole on one side of the "imtake side of the gate. Anyone know why it's there?
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Yeah Tom you might find that plastic is brittle if you try drill through it. My bet is the put the hole there to avoid people trying to put a self tapper directly through the plastic.

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hey jist some redneck yankee lookin fer a solution to a hole in something:)

Larry,
Can you find a reason for the one in my head?

Enjoy,

JimB

I do not like the plastic gates. Many of my gates are not attached to anything but ducting. The plastic gates take too much pressure to open and close under those circumstances. I just do not have any walls handy enough to fasten gates to.
 
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as for plastic gates i had some from the old shop and they are about gone now they break apart in the glue area,, so i had some alumn ones that came with some old ducting i got from a salvage area and they have replced the broke plastic ones and i have seen some good home made ones like stu mentiones.. if i didnt have the alumn ones they would be homemade ones..
 
Stu, I found them at Rockler on sale. I paid $2.99 each. I got 4 of them. I knew they were not the best but I thought they were cheap enough to get me going.

I've still got some 4" Rocklers (among others) in my system that have been running for several years. No problems and on sale, the price was right.
 
Larry,
Can you find a reason for the one in my head?

Enjoy,

JimB

Well I aint Larry but I'll give it a go.:thumb:
Way I sees it is that extra hole is to let off all them smarts. See if'n the hole wernt there your head would explode from all them smarts building up inside. :thumb::thumb::rofl::rofl:
 
Does Rockler sell pipe that fits it? Hole looks too big for a screw to fit in. If they have pipe for it, could it be for a locking tab to fit into? Then push to release it? Just thinking out loud. I never looked at their blast gates. Like Stu, I built my own, the last of which is out of 1/4" plastic (Lexan possibly) and some PTEG scrap that Ed Morgano sent me one time to play with. I've also used left over melamine shelving and regular MDF, both with 1/4" MDF for the slide piece. Jim.
 
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