Thread: 6" port upgrade for a 15" Thicknesser

Looks good John.

An improvement for anyone thinking of making one would be to make the take off angle of the duct closer to the original.
This will reduce turbulence in the post and improve flow.

Noticeable difference john ?

Originally Posted by Glenn.Visca

Noticeable difference john ?

Sadly midnight is too late to fire up 2 x 3hp motors...stay tuned!

Looks good! Have you moved the switch?
Regards
Ian

No...try again. This is double points after all!

It looks clean?

Yes! I spent over an hour with turps and steelwool

Nice upgrade with the port John.

I've gotten so excited about upgrades that I've upgraded my jointer also. I cut the holes in the 2 layers of 3/4" ply with the router and the included circle cutting jig that comes with the triton TRA001.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422623599.715005.jpg

I also found 2 massive air leaks - 2" x 5" each! 20" squared in total!! A couple of bits of thin sheet good siliconed on seemed to do the trick.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1422623786.563596.jpg

Now to finish the ducting, but I'm covering that in another thread

That's very cool John. Well done. I recently upgraded my thicknesser port as well, from 140mm (it was really 130mm when measured carefully) to 160mm. I can't say that the original 130mm port was really bad and the new port is really good, but I know from what I've learned on this forum that the 160mm port has to be moving more air -- assuming of course that there is not a constriction of flow from the machine itself -- which I know is a big assumption!

Originally Posted by LuckyDuck

That's very cool John. Well done. I recently upgraded my thicknesser port as well, from 140mm (it was really 130mm when measured carefully) to 160mm. I can't say that the original 130mm port was really bad and the new port is really good, but I know from what I've learned on this forum that the 160mm port has to be moving more air -- assuming of course that there is not a constriction of flow from the machine itself -- which I know is a big assumption!

Assuming 150 mm ducting is being used then using a port that is bigger than the ducting does improve flow provided the transition is a smooth one.

The ideal transition is a taper that is at least 5 and preferably 10 duct diameters in length.

To get around the long lengths required and to reduce port turbulence then Bell Mouth transition (BMT) can be used.

This involves opening up the machine port even further and inserting the BMT between the machine opening and the ducting.
If 150 mm ducting is used then r= 37.5 and the hole in the machine will need to be 150 + 2r = 225 mm




These BMTs are really designed to optimise the air flow into the naked ends of ducting but they are also worth doing on larger cavities.
On the underneath of my TS I have a large tapered hopper but where this is not possible due to space or OHS issues then the BMT will do a similar thing.

The BMT should scavenge sawdust from more of the cavity but like any efficient port it must be allowed to breathe so adding addition flow paths in the cavity may be required. Most machines are too choked up up and do not allow enough airflow for these to work properly

Thanks Bob. So from what I take from your message, when I make a bell mouth, using 150mm ducting, make the radius of the round over 40mm. That's handy to know as I'm going to redo the suction port on my RAS cabinet that I made last year, plus I'm going to make one for my mini lathe.

Also, I'm using 150mm steel on my machine ports as it's conveniently the right size for my 150mm flex. I'm planning on using a foot or 2 of flex before going to PVC. What have you found to be the best transition between flex and PVC?

Oh forgot to mention: road tested the thickness and jointer. The jointer is chip and dust free. You can feel a strong suction around the cutters that sucks chips from a couple of inches away. The thicknesser is also chip and dust free. I didn't see any chips or dust on the feed table under the cutters at all. A good result.

Originally Posted by johnredl

Thanks Bob. So from what I take from your message, when I make a bell mouth, using 150mm ducting, make the radius of the round over 40mm. That's handy to know as I'm going to redo the suction port on my RAS cabinet that I made last year, plus I'm going to make one for my mini lathe.

Also, I'm using 150mm steel on my machine ports as it's conveniently the right size for my 150mm flex. I'm planning on using a foot or 2 of flex before going to PVC. What have you found to be the best transition between flex and PVC?

.

It depends on your flexy as they are not all the same size or stiffness. The slightly bigger size (I forget the numbers) can be heated with a hot air gun and they will stretch over the 150 mm PVC. The smaller ones I do differently, but someone has posted here what looks to be an even better way of doing it using 150 mm galv metal ducting joiners available at hardware store. Maybe someone else can point to it.