Trent Watts sent in this account of installing a new dust collection system.
I recently moved to a new shop and want to show you my new dust collection system. Two people were instrumental in helping me get everything working. Don Kondra, a local expert woodworker redesigned his system and gave me lots of information about how to set up. There are a few key aspects that make this system so effective. In my opinion the most important aspect is to incorporate some type of cyclone collector in the system. This increases efficiency many fold and makes emptying the dust container so much easier than the bags on a typical two bag dust collection system. Here you can see how the motor and impeller were removed from a King two bag system and mounted high up to allow the intake pipe to run along the ceiling. The General HEPA filter increases the air filtration efficiency.
Ken Rude from Branches to Bowls was a tremendous help in developing the metal piping system. Ken sells the ClearView system so has access to a supplier who will custom make the fittings and pipe. Ken spent well over an hour on a number of phone calls and inspection of pictures I sent to him. With his keen eye for how to set up a system he placed an order for me and it arrived within a week. I was able to pick up the shipment in my car. I spent the next two weeks figuring out the set up and fastening everything in place.
You can see more of Ken’s business on the link below.
I can’t tell you how superior this system is from my old one. From a technical standpoint I think the 5″ pipe right up to the 4″ blast gate accounts for a lot of the improvement. Metal pipe with tight fittings and ‘slow 90’s’ are also a big improvement and much easier to ground than the 4″ plastic pipe in my old system.
You can see in the following pictures the 90′, Y’s, vertical drops, blast gates and flexible hose connectors to the tools.
Once again a big thank you to Don Kondra and Ken Rude.
