Lesson Learned from Installing my CV1800 (Part 3 of 3)

wesno1

New member
This is part 3 of a 3-part post. It was broken into 3 parts to meet the requirements of the forum.

Ducting

Pipe and Fittings
I had to do a lot of researching and calling around to figure this all out so hopefully this saves you some time. First, if you’re going to use plastic ducting use ASTM D-2729 “thin wall” solvent weld sewer pipe. Don’t use the “gasket” variety. Don’t use schedule 40 or 80. You can use SDR35 if you can’t find D2729. Where do you find D2729 pipe? I found some online at Ace Hardware. They had 2 pieces left and they shipped it to my store for free. They may not have it anymore. The remaining pieces I got from Ferguson Plumbing Supply. I think they are nationwide. Be aware that they have different stores. Some carry just fittings, other carry pipe and others carry things like faucets. Just make sure you get “thin wall” sewer pipe and specifically ask for D-2729 pipe. If they don’t know what you’re talking about, go elsewhere.

For the fittings, make sure they are designed to work with D2729 pipe. The fittings you normally see in the big box stores will not work; they will be too big. I got almost all my fittings from: https://completeplumbingsource.com I was able to get some 45 degree elbows from a Ferguson plumbing supply store as well. The only fitting I needed that completeplumbingsource.com did not have was a 6” to 4” reducer with beveled sides. They had a reducer but it had the “step-down” style of reduction and to minimize turbulence, I wanted the reducer with beveled sides. I was able to find that one piece by going to Home Depot’s online site and ordered it and had it delivered to the local store for free. Again, be very sure that the fittings are for D2729 pipe.

Hangers
Since I wanted to put my ductwork close to the ceiling, I decided to fasten large screw eyes to ceiling joists and then used zipties to attach the 6” pipes to the screw eyes. I used a combination of smaller ties as well as some as long as 24” to get the job done. If you need even longer ones, you can just put the male end of one into the female end of the other and it’s locked for life. Using this technique, I could install a ziptie “loop” in an initial state where the loop was extra large. Then I could feed the pipe through it, allowing the large loop to act as a second person holding up the pipe and then move it into its final position. I could raise the pipe into its final position simply by tightening the loop. While not exceedingly cheap, I had no issue with discarding a loop if I found out something needed to be repositioned later. A photo is attached to show how the zipties are fastened to the ceiling screw eyes and then to the plastic pipe. Note that, in this case, I actually have 2 large zipties attached to each other to form a larger loop.​IMG_0864.jpg

Flex Hose Transition
As mentioned previously, ClearVue sells flexhose-to-PVC transition pieces. I don’t know of any other place to get these and they are a godsend. They offer one version that is designed to slip over a 6” D2729 pipe and another version that is designed to fit inside a D2729-compatible fitting or the bell end of D2729 pipe. The other end is tapered to make it easy to slip your flex hose over it. While it’s a tight fit, it's easily doable and you don’t need to heat up your flex hose to make it slip over the tapered end.

Flex Hose Clamps
ClearVue makes some 4” and 6” offset flex hose clamps that work like a champ. I suspect other folks sell them also. All I know is that the clamps just plain work. They are a cinch to put on and they fit perfectly, even on Rockler 4” pipe. For flex hose, you really need the offset clamps to make sure you have an airtight seal.

Quick Disconnects
Because my large tools move around in the shop, I need a way to quickly disconnect the flex hose ends from the ports on the machines. I’m using 6” flex hose to make the final connection and I have 6” dust ports on the table saw and miter saw. To allow for quick disconnect and a “good enough” airtight fit, I used the technique described above in the “Collection Bin” section to make a 6” dust port for each of the big tools. In particular, the dust port is sized to act as the female end of the connection. At the end of the flex hose that attaches to the dust port we have a Clear Vue 6” flex-to-PVC coupler of the “inside” variety. The only variation when I made the dust ports for the machines is that I made sure the ducting did not extend “into” the dust collection box because I didn’t want any obstructions inside the box. So, the collection “pipe” ends just at the inside edge of the box and we still use corner braces to secure the pipe. Except the corner brace is attached to the box face on the inside and also to the inside of the dust collection pipe.

Grounding
I used the info from this video to ground the PVC ducting. The theory is that the bare wire around the piping, along with the screws that barely stick into the interior of the ducting will act as mini “lightning rods” to attract the static electricity generated from the swirling material. The charge is then carried along the bare wire to the ground wire on the motor of the dust collector. The video says to attach the wire to the metal portion of your dust collector but I don’t have that so the best thing is is to attach it to the motor frame, which is grounded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjEt25FH95s

I’ve not been able to find any instances where a fire was caused by static electricity in a DC but my brief experience with my unit revealed that the static buildup was significant and quite an irritant. It just feels weird plus it causes all kinds of small particles to be attracted to the piping once it builds up. For the comparatively small amount of work and money, if this setup keeps the charges down to a minimum, it will be worth it.

Dust Collection Boxes at Large Machines
There are a ton of designs to insure that, at the dust producing machine, you keep the dust flowing towards your collection port. I found some designs that produced good results for me. I will say that many of these mention using dust port sizes of less than 6”. I ignored that information and went with 6” dust ports all the way to the machines; no reducing down to 4”. This is possible for larger machines but may not work for smaller machines.

This design shows how to build a collection box at the bottom of your table saw. The key takeaway is the slanted bottom:
https://youtu.be/J9fjFcyHLho

This video shows how to cover up the back of the table saw almost completely to minimize air loss out the back and also to close up other gaps. He mentions putting a dust collection port at the bottom of the saw, which is an alternative to the previous video. He also talks about an overarm dust collector.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyqj6jn-EY0

This is for a miter saw. It’s an enclosed box with sliding sides. This is the basic design I used except: I use the “slanting box” design from the first video and thus directed my dust collection port out of the bottom of the unit, I used 6” ductwork and, instead of making sliding channels for the doors, I simply glued long lengths of magnetic strips to the edge of the doors and the frames to let me position the doors and they would “stick”. This version looks a lot smaller than mine because the miter saw in the video does not have rails that protrude out the back, as mine does, and, which I believe is a common design. So, my box is considerably larger than what you see in the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SfgSIekuos

Auxiliary DC Device

Rockler 4” Quick Change Shop and Tool Set plus 4” Collapsible Hose
Since the CV1800 is such a beast, I felt it should be used as much as possible. I only had a small portable shop vac before and it had a pretty small hose (less than 4”). So, to make it easy to pick up all the loose junk on tables as well as the floor, I found what I think is a really good multi-use product. Rockler sells a set of tools called the Dust Right 4” Quick Change Shop and Tool Set. It has a quick change handle that makes it easy to attach either a floor vac or a shortie scoop/brush style end for use on the workbench. It comes with some brackets to mount the pieces on the wall. I also sprang for the 28’ collapsible hose and some brackets to keep the hose on the wall when not in use. A photo is attached. The shop and tool set, combined with the hose just makes it so easy to keep the shop clean.
IMG_0863.jpg
 
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