Square ducting melamine?

**pellcorp** · 27th September 2010, 10:13 AM

Hi,
while reading bill pentz he mentioned that square ducting made out of melamine is efficient.

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyc...uctingMaterial

I quote:

"Another inexpensive option is building square or rectangular ducts from Melamine coated particleboard. Particleboard ducts can be quite inexpensive and are very efficient."

He is often recognized as the expert - melamine would probably be cheaper than 6" PVC and less static build up too perhaps!

Thoughts and or experience with this as an option?

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**malb** · 27th September 2010, 06:53 PM

Haven't been there but it seems to be reasonble option if you need to scale up beyond 100mm. However you would need to fabricate bends, Y's, T's the same way for it to be effective through the whole system. Simply holesawing into the wall and sealing a PVC pipe or header into the hole would not be appropriate because it will create a very abrupt direction change, and high flow resistance.

**BobL** · 27th September 2010, 10:59 PM

Fabricating bends is quite easy. The curved component of corners can be made from sheet metal or even plastic sheet. Same for Y's - important thing is to have as smooth a change in angles as you can.

Attachment 148689

**GraemeCook** · 28th September 2010, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by BobL

Fabricating bends is quite easy. The curved component of corners can be made from sheet metal or even plastic sheet. Same for Y's - important thing is to have as smooth a change in angles as you can.

Attachment 148689

Good idea, Bob.

Or laminated 3 - 5 mm melamine, or even kerf-bends in the original melamine.

Cheers

Graeme

**QC Inspector** · 29th September 2010, 04:52 AM

I will someday, eventually, down the road

make square ducting for my shop. I wasn't going to use the melamine because I don't want to buy it and I have a lot of solid wood I got from crates at work. I intend to place the duct about 4 feet high along the wall as it can serve double duty as a shelf too.

If you think about it you can combine a blast gate where the machines connect, in the duct. By extending the top and bottom of the duct over the side a bit with lips attached, the board with the hose on it can be slid over the hole in the duct when you want to use it and slid to the side to close it off. Hose attached to the slider by a plastic pipe section glued in at an angle in the direction of the airflow.

I had a link to an online calculator for duct losses on another computer that got a virus in it leading me to get this Mac. At some point I will get the address off it and add it to this discussion (without the virus of course

). The calculated differences between the round and square wasn't very large for a small shop.

Pete

**Doc0055** · 30th September 2010, 06:02 PM

So what size would you make the ducting to be compatible with 150mm pipe.

With the cost of 6 inch pipe and fittings putting me off at the moment, I would be keen to try square ducting as I can get malamine for nothing.

Which would be better, square or rectangle.

Cheers Scott.

**QC Inspector** · 1st October 2010, 04:50 AM

Did a search and found the calculator.

On-Line Duct Friction Loss

150 diameter pipe is a square of 133 x 133 on the insides. Just round up to 135 x 135 to make it easier on the brain. In inches 5 3/8.

You can add a little bit if you like and it shouldn't hurt anything.

Pete

**zelk** · 1st October 2010, 11:12 AM

Regarding wyes and blast gates, this may be of interest

https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/c...t-gate-111062/

Zelk

**INVENTOR** · 3rd October 2010, 12:30 PM

Another solution is keep your eye out for second hand metal ducting. the amount of dirt cheap ducting that I have seen on eBay is amazing. Joinery shops and the like going out of business etc. I recently bought approx 2 box trailers full ( with blast gates elbows etc etc) for $200. Not gloating, just saying, there are alternatives to buying new.
Another possible source is metal downpipe and flues/casing from old oil/wood heaters, the amount of those that get thrown away is unbelievable.

**pellcorp** · 5th October 2010, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by INVENTOR

Another solution is keep your eye out for second hand metal ducting. the amount of dirt cheap ducting that I have seen on eBay is amazing. Joinery shops and the like going out of business etc. I recently bought approx 2 box trailers full ( with blast gates elbows etc etc) for $200. Not gloating, just saying, there are alternatives to buying new.
Another possible source is metal downpipe and flues/casing from old oil/wood heaters, the amount of those that get thrown away is unbelievable.

What categories on eBay do you normally find the used ducting listed in ?

**INVENTOR** · 5th October 2010, 08:59 PM

Try doing a word search under 'dust extractor' or 'ducting'. Another source is second hand machinery suppliers.

**Sir Stinkalot** · 5th October 2010, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by pellcorp

What categories on eBay do you normally find the used ducting listed in ?

Jason,

If the Corio school is coming down there would be all the ducting that you need there!

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