Thread: Let's see what we can do.....

For clarity, I haven't installed anything permanently yet, I'm new to this space and still researching things.

But with that SCMS enclosure I built, I'm talking that it was blowing a huge flow of air, like a massive hair drier directly to my face. My head was literally white after 10 seconds, so I figured that this was probably not a good starting point. Now I understand that this behaviour would probably change with a strategically placed powerful hose, but I also don't see how improving the design could actually hurt either.

I know exactly what you mean, you don't really want that crap going up your nose - that's a "sino-nasal cancer "in waiting when I think about it.

It reminds me of the time a couple of decades ago I had probs with the spring clip on the crappy little dust bag on the back of the Makita belt sander. I got behind the bag and fired up the sander, The blast from the internal fan blew the bag off and as the insides of the dander was clogged with sheoak dust some of which went right up my nose. I was sneezing for many hours after that one.

Adding at least a 2HP DC should remove most if not all of of that blast.

Thanks Bob, the saw has a high tpi blade on it and I use it accordingly, slow and steady. I do tend to run the DC for an extended amount of time when ever there is a dust making exercise so it won’t be out of the norm to do this. I can always add Spyro’s suggestions into the mix if there are any issues. Cheers

Some new and improved vertical blast gates, they hold in position well on there own for the most part. I have made a pin for one of them as it is a little looser than the others. I added some mdf to the sides of two of the gates (dowelled) which will serve well in keeping the duct in place along the length of the wall, will add an aluminium bracket to the centre where one of the “Y” junctions will be. I added an iron on strip of melamine to the edges of the fixed pieces that the gate slides against to overcome the fluffy edge of the mdf binding.

Nice handles!

I think so [emoji16]
Better than drilling and screwing in the end of the mdf, no splits!

A Little more work done today, all the blast gates are finished and starting to install everything.

Cal you have two blast gates to the right of the one on the left of the clamps. If they are closed why do you need the one on the left?

Pete

Originally Posted by QC Inspector

Cal you have two blast gates to the right of the one on the left of the clamps. If they are closed why do you need the one on the left?

Pete

It's not so quite critical on a horizontal run but if that was a vertical run then not having the one to the left of the clamps would collect sawdust in it from when the sawdust is travelling down through the vertical ducting. Air rushing past an open duct creates a slight vacuum inside the open duct and this will occasionally drag some sawdust into the open duct.

It's best practice to use a gate to seal off the side arms to a system at the closest point possible to a trunk line to prevent this happening.

So much sawdust can collect in the bottom of the horizontal duct that it will compromise the ID of that duct and the DC may not quite have the grunt to lift the sedimented dust up off bottom of the of the ducting.

A touch of overthinking things maybe?
Onwards and sidewards, two more gates are up, hopefully this will be all for now. These two go to the mitre saw and the table saw. I am trying to think of a way to move the line for the table saw up out of the way when the saw is not in use. The TS sits in the middle of the floor so the duct will have to drop down from where it is (right branch in the pic) I have been thinking of a rotatable coupling made from MDF. My thinking is create two or three curved slots in one piece and three holes in another, bolt them together with the duct in the centre like a blast gate and hope that one side rotates while the other stays fixed in place. Will give it some thought and make something up.
Anyway another photo......

Rotating coupling up and running, rough and ready it may be, but it works. Comprising of multiple layers of MDF and the lid off a paint bucket for a smooth shim. It rotates easily and should have close enough tolerance to not leak too. Will have to make up a bracket to hold it all up in the air but happy with the result. It’s butted up against a blast gate, i think I will leave it where it sits.

Cal your pivot is a good idea! I can see it being useful in horizontal applications too. A pipe normally stored up against the wall and dropped to the floor to connect to the base of a machine pulled out into the room to reduce or eliminate flex hose.

Pete

At the mens shed we have a couple of uninstalled ducting gizmos called elephant trunks and they have a 360º rotatable Al flanges on them that look like this in cross section shown below.
We got these for nothing but they needed refurbishment which has happened but I have not installed them yet.
The rotatable flange on one end can be seen on the end of the lower one in this picture.
IMG_1991.jpg

The Grey lines present bearing material - I purchased some 1mm Teflon for eBay to use as this material but less expensive HPDE sheet could be used.

Screen Shot 2018-05-01 at 2.01.43 am.png
Might be useful to someone that needs full rotation.

BTW; Is it just my browser or are everyone else's browsers showing Cal's Photos as supersized?

Thanks Pete, I think it will serve its purpose. It means I can use the same duct for any work I do on the bench too ie sanding. I can hook a sander up to my shopvac (it’s in the DC shed) and any other dust will be sucked up by this duct. Win win!

Bob, that’s an interesting joint, I can only rotate mine 90 degrees with the way I have made it (I don’t need more than that) I can see where the joint in your pics would be handy though. I will see how the paint bucket lid holds up once the dust starts flowing, it’s what I had available. Sorry about the photo sizes, I’m using Tapatalk and just choose the “best quality” size, I can use the next one down from now on.