help me with ductwork?

M

maldoror

New member
Well, this is my tiny little shop where i'm putting my huge giant clearvue cyclone.
It's 18' by 15' with a jumble of partitioned walls in one corner. On the other side of this wall is our picture frame shop. i'm setting up a lutherie in this little space. The square in the lower right quadrant is a 6' loft on top of which we sleep. when i get this cyclone hooked up i'll be able to start using some of these machines and i can start restoring the vintage camper trailer we're going to move into.

from the cyclone to the back edge of the tablesaw is 17'. could i put 2 wyes right together coming out of the cyclone to go straight down to the sanders and over and under the loft to the planer, lathe and jointer? since i'm not going to really have a production shop i was thinking i could use one flex tube between the 3 machines under the loft and one tube between the 3 sanders. then one more wye for the bandsaw run...an elbow down and split into 2 4" flex tubes. then an elbow down to the tablesaw and router again split to two flex tubes.
can anyone make sense of this? i guess a sketch of the duct layout would help, but just want to make sure i am on the right track?
thanks a lot,
andy

shop.jpg
 
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Andy,

Your workspace is only slightly smaller than mine, and probably better organized. Especially at present.

I tried to maintain the 5 ft (10 diameters of the 6" pipe) straight inlet to the cyclone's transition. To reach a desired drop near where my transition is required me to branch off and come back around in a giant circle. Now, whether that's any better for flow is debatable, I haven't done the math. It is a tradeoff between shorter piping versus a smoother path. Frankly, in shops our size, it probably doesn't make much difference.

The only other thing I can recommend is that when you make your corners, use two 45 els separated by a short piece of straight pipe. I've been cutting mine at 9", 3" each for the fittings plus another 3" in between.

I answered you private message, hope it gets to you.

Regards,
DWD
 
help With Ducting ...

help With Ducting ...

Andy,
This is one time I would recommend using some flex. I think you're on the right track. It looks to me as if you will be moving machines around some, especially whenever you want to handle longer stock. I would trade off the straight run into the cyclone because it is so tight. Mine separates well with a 67.5 deg fitting pair right at the cyclone. You can use pipe and fittings or couplings to make quick disconnects to switch between machines. You may find some interesting combinations of 4" and 6" fittings on all the machines. Good luck.
bababrown
 
i found some fittings and pipe at lowes but the fittings and pipe are nearly the same diameter and they don't connect. it's all s&d. is this normal or different manufacturers' sizes?
 
pipe and fittings

pipe and fittings

The fittings and pipe will work regardless of manufacturer. Make sure you have SDR-35 pipe and the slip on fittings for it. At Lowes they have them in the garden center, not in the plumbing section.
bababrown
 
sdr-35

sdr-35

Yes it is alot cheaper! If you cannot find at lowes; try a plumbing supply house or a culvert and pipe place. Also mcmastercarr.com is reasonable but higher than buying locally most of the time. astm 2729 pipe is even cheaper than sdr-35. (both take the same S&D fittings)

Matt
 
Pipe and fittings

Pipe and fittings

I realize now I should not have said SDR-35 but that is all Lowes carries. And it is only at some Lowes, not all of them. In Nashua, a masonry supply place also carries it. Look around your area and ask for the thin wall S&D pipe. It is marked D-2729 and is cheaper if available. The fittings are the same for both the SDR-35 and the D- 2729. Don't use the gasket type fittings, they are hard to install.
bababrown
 
Maldoror,

You don't mention where you are from, so it is hard to recommend vendors in your area. I purchased D-2729 fittings from Lowe's (in most of the southeast US, they are stocked in the Plumbing aisles with corrogated drain pipe) -- do not buy the 90's as they are tight radius -- you'll want 6x6x6 and perhaps 6x6x4 wyes, 45's and slip couplings. I found 10 foot lengths of D-2729 bell-end pipe at a plumbing distributor (McRey's in Spartanburg, SC), but try Irrigation, landscape or John Deer facilities. Menards in parts of the country have pipe and some Ferguson Plumbing distributors carry it as well. I paid about $1.50 per foot in 2007, but you should get it for under $2.00 now. Do not glue joints together; these slip together and will stay put very well. Make 90's out of a pair of 45's and a short section of straight pipe.

Added Note: You can get good PVC Flexible Duct from McMaster-Carr as well. It is about $2.50-3.00 per foot.

Good luck -- if you need a bin sensor to detect when the bin under your cyclone is filled and don't want to ruin your filters, PM me!
 
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so i've got the 3040 and lots of fittings and i'm ready to start laying out...getting this pipe cut down so i can get it out of the way etc.

what are my options the first transition from the housing to the pipe?
is flex a good option here. i'll need to order some 6" flex anyway...is the most economical way to go still...this thinner stuff from mcmaster-- # 56355K34
for 25ft it's $75+shipping. probably need some 4" as well

i'll need 2 or 3 blast gates i guess. best place to find them?

anything else?
 
Best and cheapest thing on the blast gates is to build your own. If you are interested let me know and I'll point you to a tutorial I did at Saw Mill Creek forum. They are really easy to build. I even built one 4" one out of some 3/8" plexiglass and a piece of PTEG that Ed sent me to play with. Works great!! Jim.
 
I installed the leevalley.com self cleaning blast gates. A little expensive, $18.90 you get a break for 4 or more, but they work real well.
 
If you don't care about maintaining the 5 ft of straight inflow to the transition, or due to shop size need to convert to horizontal fairly quickly, there are two or three ways, best I can figure. First, as you suggest is to use 6" or a foot of flex. Has been done successfully, and for a small shop, any losses will probably not be noticed.

Second way would be to use a pair of 22.5 or 45 deg angles. This will result in an offset from the CL of the transition, but you can make the upstream pipe horizontal via twisting the pair relative to each other.

The third, haven't tried but have seen some write-ups, would be to heat and bend a straight section. The prime caution is to heat it outdoors as the fumes are a bit toxic. Somewhere in here is a discussion, Dave Zeigler maybe? Used a pot of water on a gas grill, heated a section (called his experiment PVC soup, I think) to make sort of a square shape for a tool adaptor. Might also be some photos in the gallery.

Regards,
DWD
 
i've got a ducted air conditioner in the rafters of my shop...does anyone foresee any problems with me running a pipe directly over the top of the unit...not touching it?
 
One thing that Bill Pentz pointed out to me was that if the ducting is going to be hidden above the ceiling, you should use metal for that, just in case there is a fire, you have a little more time to take care of it. When he pointed that out, I made a "tunnel" so that my pipe is visible from the shop, but not open to the attic area.
Other than that, you shouldn't have any problems with placing the pipe up there. Jim.Jim.
 
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