Typical metal ductwork can dissipate this fairly easily, as it is often attached to metal building structure parts. Jeff used a pair of hose clamps and a short piece of flex hose to connect the collector to the dust bin. Cut strips of metal strap, bow it around the pipe, bend up end taps, and screw the strap and pipe in place. Would love to see a pic once you are up and running…. The motor and coloection sit atop a barrel. Look for small shop dust collection layout 30 full review to come.

I think the Oneida Air System cyclones are probably the worst choice that someone can make today due to terrible separation, poor filtering and way too little airflow in all but their 5 hp and larger units. She was very complementary about this web page and the need for dust collection at the source. She goes on to say "I am sorry to see that you have given a forum to Bill Pentz and his anti-Oneida rhetoric.

I would ask that you remove his negative comments and understand that he has no foundation for them. Trying to understand the battle, I have done some more research Despite the clean appearance, he ended up hospitalized with lung and heart damage that was traced to shop dust, bad enough to require full time oxygen. As a professor he started researching the problem as a one-time professor, I know that is a very natural thing to do.

He became an expert and found most commercial designs didn't hit the target. He offered consulting services to vendors, and testing services to magazines. He pointed out that most sales claims and magazine tests were not meaningful in practice.

His testing showed that most commercial designs were inferior to what he felt necessary. He designed a cyclone to meet the needs of a small shop, and offered the plans free to individuals to make one for their own use. Today only ClearVue manufactures a cyclone following Bill's design and pays him a royalty for the design , but you can build one yourself for personal use without royalty sounds like a professor to me.

I don't know the details of the Oneida - Pentz battle. I don't know who was right or wrong. I am not sure I could judge the case on it's merits, so all I can do is report a battle between Bill Pentz, one of the world's leading experts on wood dust collection, and Oneida, one of the leading vendors in that field. Over the years I have talked with numerous users of Bill Pentz's cyclone design, either home-made or bought from ClearVue, and they have universally been happy.

I have talked with numerous Oneida customers over the past few years, many of whom have given good reviews as users of 2 and 3 hp Oneidas, as well as 5 hp but don't expect the tiny Oneida systems with small hoses to compete with a "real" system. I have recently talked to a couple users with large shops and smaller Oneida cyclones who had less than great results - so don't get a unit that is too small for your shop, from Oneida or from anyone else.

Although I still believe Oneida can be an excellent vendor if you get a big enough system, I recently chose a ClearVue for my own shop. Effective dust and chip collection depends on a very large airflow.

That requires large pipes I had a huge improvement in my dust collection when I went from 4 inch to 6 inch ducts. You may be shocked to spend as much on ductwork as as on the cyclone. That large airflow requires a large fan impeller , driven by a powerful motor.

The squirrel cage fans often recovered from old furnaces probably won't be adequate - I don't think they will maintain the necessary speed and volume to carry relatively heavy chips through pipes. Your dust collector motor may be the hardest working motor in the shop - hp or more, running under full load moving lots of air for hours at a time, not just intermittent brief periods of heavy load while a tool is cutting. Be careful And a 5 hp cyclone creates a lot of heat - not only from the motor and noise, but also from stirring a large volume of air through ducts, fans, and filters.

These are basically a low efficiency cyclone that is put "in line" prior to the primary single stage or cyclone dust collector.

Any separator like this constricts the airflow, dropping the pressure, which reduces the air volume, so experts normally say they should NOT be used. The inefficiency of a simple trash can separator helps here - the large chips are dropped, and the fine duet goes on to the main unit. As a result, people are often willing to take the chips for garden Small Shop Dust Collection Layout Js mulch or animal bedding. The really ugly dust at the dust collector has to be disposed of far less often.

When I had a single stage collector, I made a real effort not to open the plastic bag any more than necessary to get it out - it is really ugly fine dangerous dust. I probably got over 20 bags of chips for each bag of dust. Now that I have the more powerful cyclone, it pulls medium size chips to the cyclone, and only drops the largest at the separator, so I only get about 5 bags of chips for each bag at the dust collector.

I am experimenting with opening additional gates to reduce the suction at the separator, so more chips stay at the separator rather than going on to the cyclone. Also, with a single stage, there is positive pressure on the collection bag it inflates. With the cyclone there is negative pressure on the collector in suction so I cannot collect directly into a bag without taking exceptional steps - I have to empty the collection can.

A fellow named J. Phil Thien tried the usual Rockler, Woodcraft, and Lee Valley trash can lids as separators, and didn't like the results - too many chips got through, and chips that had already been dropped were sometimes picked up and carried out of the separator called scrubbing.

He also has a small shop and uses a shop vacuum for dust collection. But his design of the Thien Separator appears very effective. In a few minutes I can make as much dust as he used in his demonstration of a "week's worth" of dust and chips, so I don't expect to go back to a shop vacuum driven dust collector. His design has been extended to versions that work with or inside conventional dust collectors.

He also supports a forum to discuss his design - accessed from the link above. More on chips: Walnut wood chips contain a chemical that prevents seeds from germinating and can reportedly kill horses when mixed with horse urine don't use it for horse bedding. Not good for mulch? On the contrary. I have people asking for walnut chips for their flower beds.

Since most weeds are spread by seeds, and it doesn't do anything to established plants, it is great for weed control It doesn't help with unwanted growth spread by runners or roots, but it sure cuts back on the weeds. Other chips that don't include walnut are taken by people who are making compost, reportedly ideally mixed with grass clippings. You buy a high power cyclone, and connect it to your machines with large, efficient ducts. Is everything okay now? Sorry, but the answer is no. You are certainly far better than you were before installing a good cyclone dust collector with fine particle filters, but testing shows that too much of the fine dust still escapes uncollected - the fugitive dust.

To be really safe, you should still wear a respirator, and continuously exchange the air in the shop with outside air. Living in the South now, and previously living in the North, I like heating and air conditioning - personally I am going to sacrifice some measure of health for comfort. Years ago I had a "wellness" doctor who carefully analyzed my diet, weight, activities, etc. How much longer? His analysis said 4 months longer. I made the decision to continue my wild life.

I am starting from a very healthy level, but I have still made a major investment in collecting as much of my shop dust as I can at the source, through dedicated vacuums and a large, efficient cyclone. A large professional shop may have truckloads of dust and chips - not me. Small shops typically have to bag their dust and chips, even if they go into a dumpster. If you separate the chips see above the total volume of dust is dramatically lower, but you still have to get rid of the ugly stuff.

But I have found the 3 mil "Construction site cleanup bags" from Home Depot and other stores quite adequate at about 35 cents each. Can you just blow the dust out of your shop and forget all the ductwork and filters? Yes and no. Where is it going outside? Next to your shop, where it will blow or be tracked back in?

Into your neighbors yard? Probably not good options, unless you only do it with the air coming out of the cyclone, after most of the chips and dust have been removed. The other very real problem with venting to the outside is the "make up" air. If your dust collector moves cfm, all the air in a typical one person shop will be removed in a few minutes.

Replacement or "make up" air has to come from someplace, ultimately outdoors. It may need to be heated or cooled. And a good inlet needs to be provided - blowing some air out may suck the replacement air and fumes down the furnace or water heater chimney, or fumes accumulated in the garage. How do you spell poisonous carbon monoxide? One reader even suggested that the reduced air pressure in a basement shop, caused by exhausting the dust, would potentially increase the radon gas sucked in through the foundation.

I am not an expert on radon, but I am much more worried about the bad air sucked in through the vents and windows than I am about a minute increase through the foundation. Some people swear by the shop air filters, either from tool vendors or home-made from an old furnace fan and various furnace filters. They typically collect a fair amount of visible dust, and make the shop appear cleaner. However the relatively open filters in this type system don't collect the dangerous small dust particles.

Some experts argue that they stir up the fine dust, and make health conditions worse. If you have a good cyclone dust collector that moves or more cfm and removes fine dust, that means it filters an amount of air equal to all the air in your shop every few minutes.

Rather than use a separate air filter, how about just running your efficient cyclone dust collector more, even after Small Shop Dust Collection Layout Key you turn off your major tools? The ideal is to catch the dust as it is generated, at each tool, before it gets into the air. Some people have invested in a number of smaller dust collectors hooked directly to a machine, reducing the cost and losses in the ductwork. In some cases this may be the most effective solution, but in order to get the best out of it, you have to use a high quality filter, and you have to get great collection at the source.

The problem with high quality filters on a single stage collector is that they tend to get damaged with wood chips larger than dust, and they need to be cleaned frequently so that the pressure drop across the filter doesn't get so big that the airflow drops, or the fine dust is forced through the filter medium, damaging it at a microscopic level. I saw one shop that appeared much cleaner after converting from a distributed collector, at each machine, to a powerful central system.

The cleanest one-person shop I have seen has a 5 hp Oneida cyclone, good ducting, and proper collection at each machine even machines reputed to have poor dust collection. In both these cases, the central system seemed far better. Some hand tools especially those hand tools with a power cord, like sanders have been designed "from the ground up" for efficient dust collection - especially the Festool line.

I have a vacuum attached to my Festool and other sanders. I use a high volume shop vacuum on my sanders and other hand tools; it is a big help but isn't a complete solution. Further, my hand sanding still leaves my work and my clothes covered with fine dust. Some shops use a downdraft table Nice idea, but collection isn't very efficient, and it takes a lot of space.

What is the most dangerous tool in your shop? A saw that can cut off a finger? A lathe that can throw a large bowl at you? I believe it is the small air gun you hook to your air compressor. Blow the dust into the air - mix it up really well so that you can breathe it.

That tool can kill you. Here are the links to what I used:. I picked up a starting collar and a crimped coupler from my local HD. The heart of any dust management system is the dust collector, and Delta was kind enough to send me the Delta The snap in bag ring is really convenient for quickly swapping in a new bag too. Look for a full review to come. This is a single-stage dust collector which means that everything goes through the impeller and into the collection bag, and the top filter collects small particles.

A two-stage collector is even better because it separates the heavier bits and pieces first which improves efficiency, and it has the added benefit of protecting the impeller from damaging debris. As you might expect, two-stage dust collectors also carry a higher price tag and have a larger footprint. If you ignore differences in price and availability, the argument boils down to safety.

Combustible dust like sawdust creates the potential for flash fire and explosion, and the National Fire Protection Association NFPA states that anything less than microns is cause for concern see source here and additional reading here.

In short, a dust cloud is quite flammable and only needs an ignition source to cause trouble, and that source could be anything from a static shock to a hot motor. Furthermore, air and particles moving through the PVC or ductwork build static electricity.

One solution is to ground the entire system which is easily done with metal ductwork. However, PVC is an insulator and so grounding the pipe is out of the question. So the real threat is an ignition source starting a fire in the dust collection bin. Lastly, I plan on running a ground wire on the exterior of the pipe because I want to avoid shocking myself should enough static charge build up.

The goal of any dust management system is to preserve suction at the tool, and properly routing the pipe can make a big difference. Here are some tips:. Somehow I managed to finagle the PVC in place, supporting all the pipe with metal hanging straps attached to the roof trusses.

Also, you go through PVC cement very quickly. It has two 6 x 4 wyes and a reducer at the bottom. I secured my blast gates with two screws and sealed the edges with silicone. Originally I had planned on using double-sided tape to secure the floor sweep. It actually works just fine without so I may nix that idea. It had adhesive and predrilled holes for screws. Just make sure the screws are short enough not to damage the impeller fins. With a couple of screws a hose clamp and bunch of foil tape, I connected the flexible hose to the PVC.

I fired up the dust collector and listened at all the joints for air loss and found a couple of spots that needed some silicone. Otherwise, it was very tight. Let us know if you find a good solution to the mitre saw problem — I have the same issue. It is awesome, loaded with storage. The great thing about the plan is it modular and can be built to adjust to any configuration of shop size. The design lends to great accessibility for dust collection as well.

It was my very first attempt at any type of cabinet construction and while I would not say it is of resale quality, I think it turned out very well and gave me loads of storage for tools, supplies, etc.

I would recommend anyone to check it out for their shop. Woodsmith just had an e-tip this afternoon on this very thing. Very jealous of your system. Sweeping gets tiring indeed. Do you have a price estimate for how much you spent on this? Thanks and great post. Keep us updated on how it works in the long run! How did you seal around the pipe penetrations in the ceiling? I was only able to source locally from Rockler. I have dust collection on my TS too but I still get some above the table even though I always cut with the guard on.

Maybe a ZCI would help. There is some slight movement so whatever I do will need to be flexible. Any suggestions? I got all my odds-n-ends including the reducer off Amazon. I get a very small amount of dust above the saw too. Perhaps a ZCI is a good move. Great DC system Ethan! I recently sold a unit I had for a while before we moved. Good use of PVC and the grounding wire to protect you from shock. Clever solutions!

Wow, this is a serious system. Dust collection is quite important, in my opinion, regardless of how much you use your shop. Protecting your lungs is priority one. Really nice setup. It feels like have a dust collection system takes you to the next level and commits you to a shop floor plan layout.

I have never seen the floor sweep but that sounds like a really handy idea. Should we be expecting any plans or knowledge sharing of shop pneumatics? Thanks again.

Running pneumatic is best to run a 1 inch line or larger for the main trunk then reduce coming off of that if necessary.

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