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My dust collection system

Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2019 11:42 am
by matthew
You know one of the things i’m most proud of in my workshop is my humble dust collection system. This has now been in operation for three years and we have very little dust problem in the workspace which adjoins the showroom. I don’t remember if i posted this already but the system has had a few refinements over time so i’ll post more pics here.

It is powered by a decent shop vac running through a cheap cyclone dust separator. Piping is just 50 mill drain pipe, plumbing fittings and flexible vacuum hose.

The jewel in the dusty crown is the manifold which I put together quite simply. This allows me to direct the suction to the tool manually very simply and without loss of suction. One blast gate centrally located instead of many. It is simply a box with four i inlet holes, a well-fitting MDF sliding gate, and a box with one outlet pipe.

Obviously the dusty tools have to be located close together for this to be practical, but it’s a great system and by capturing dust close to the source we have very little dust problem in the workshop. In three years I have never needed to empty the shop vac and we don’t use a shop air filter.

I expect some people will make a noise about static electricity, microfine dust and HEPA filters and so on. I know about this and in an industrial setup would address these issues. We do have and use P3 masks while hand sanding and other operations. But for my small but busy repair shop, i’ve deemed this adequate.
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Re: My dust collection system

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 8:47 am
by RodC
very nice - I especially like the safety notes, cause I would definitely put a coffee cup there.
:-)

Re: My dust collection system

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2019 9:23 am
by matthew
i might add that the engine behind the system is the cheap ozito shop vac with power take off under $100. In a sturdy box to reduce noise. i have a power board running off it and any tool turned on will power the dust collector up.

Re: My dust collection system

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2019 1:48 pm
by kiwigeo
Me too....I mean that coffee cup sized hole is just asking to have a coffee cup jammed into it!!
RodC wrote:
Wed Jun 26, 2019 8:47 am
very nice - I especially like the safety notes, cause I would definitely put a coffee cup there.
:-)

Re: My dust collection system

Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:47 pm
by jeffhigh
Just out of curiosity, why two disc sanders?

Re: My dust collection system

Posted: Sun Mar 29, 2020 4:00 pm
by kiwigeo
jeffhigh wrote:
Fri Jul 12, 2019 8:47 pm
Just out of curiosity, why two disc sanders?
One for dark coloured woods and one for light coloured woods....or different grits?