Thread: Dust Extraction - sense check please

Flex on the floor is IMHO a very poor choice. Apart from the safety issues of tripping over long runs on the floor, long runs of flex flex will kill the flow. To give you an idea of the flow losses, 4m of the soft polyurethane flex will reduce the flow by around 50%. Stiffer flex I can be up to 50% better but its still a heavy hit on small DCs.

I assume the floor is concrete? Any chance of cutting a slot in the floor and bring a ducting run up in the middle near the minimax.

As far a fine dust is concerned I wouldn't rely on "natural" ventilation and open slats especially if you are going to enclose a side and a half. I'd install some forced ventilation. How big is the workspace?

Cheers for the response.

The space is approx 6 x 8m albeit not all mine.

Rigid piping is problematic as it would cause head height obstructions. I could potentially run rigid piping along walls such that only a small section of flex is required. This would add a bunch of elbows though, I could probably find long radius elbows to minimise pressure drop. Cutting into the slab is not preferred right now. The minimax is on wheels and will need to be moved for some operations due to posts causing obstruction so it won't have a set and forget position

Ok I'll grab some fans for forced ventilation as well

Originally Posted by vovo

Cheers for the response.

The space is approx 6 x 8m albeit not all mine.

Rigid piping is problematic as it would cause head height obstructions. I could potentially run rigid piping along walls such that only a small section of flex is required. This would add a bunch of elbows though, I could probably find long radius elbows to minimise pressure drop. Cutting into the slab is not preferred right now. The minimax is on wheels and will need to be moved for some operations due to posts causing obstruction so it won't have a set and forget position

Ok I'll grab some fans for forced ventilation as well

Fixed 6" pipe and larger 6" radius elbows will still be more efficient than flexy

Cheers, I'll take that into account and try the best I can for as much 6" rigid piping.

What about the machine? I assume we would still err towards the DC-7?

Originally Posted by vovo

Cheers, I'll take that into account and try the best I can for as much 6" rigid piping.

What about the machine? I assume we would still err towards the DC-7?

The DC 3 and DC7 have the same impeller and as the motors on both turn at the same speed they theoretically move the same amount of air.
The advantage of the DC7 is it has two bags/filters instead of one which means it has a reduced back pressure so this allows it to move more air and not clog up as quickly. Its worth getting teh DC7 if you have the space.

Originally Posted by BobL

The DC 3 and DC7 have the same impeller and as the motors on both turn at the same speed they theoretically move the same amount of air.
The advantage of the DC7 is it has two bags/filters instead of one which means it has a reduced back pressure so this allows it to move more air and not clog up as quickly. Its worth getting teh DC7 if you have the space.

Would a DC3 with a pleated filter be better than a DC7 with 5 micron bags? Claims to increase surface area by 700%. Ends up costing slightly more than the DC7 but with a preferable footprint.