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Today I worked on getting the exhaust fan installed for the laser in the craft room.

It’s an inline fan for 4” duct, installed at the end of the line so that all fumes and smoke are pushed outside.
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I jogged the line up and over so I could still get things moved up and down from the loft easily.
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The remote switch is just a Solid State Relay (SSR) used to toggle power via a low voltage (5V) wall wart. The low voltage line runs along side the duct, back to the laser.
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I have some plugs on the back of the laser for 120v accessories, I just plug in the wall wart and flip on the fan switch to toggle the fan on/off.
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I’m kicking around the idea of putting both DC units in my loft area.
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Locations I have for both on the shop floor would require up and over ducting to keep the walkways clear.

Having them in the loft would reduce the duct runs by about 9’ or so, and still allow for connections to the middle and outer walls, freeing up quite a bit of shop floor space.

Only downside, besides lifting them up there, would be having to go up there to empty/change bags.
 
Darren Wright said:
I’m kicking around the idea of putting both DC units in my loft area.
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Locations I have for both on the shop floor would require up and over ducting to keep the walkways clear.

Having them in the loft would reduce the duct runs by about 9’ or so, and still allow for connections to the middle and outer walls, freeing up quite a bit of shop floor space.

Only downside, besides lifting them up there, would be having to go up there to empty/change bags.
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Why not eliminate the bags and just run ducting from the fan directly to the outside? You could just let the chips go, or else collect them in a bin of some sort for shoveling out later. I know of one local shop that exhausts theirs into a covered trailer.
 
That certainly is an option, though I’d have to consider where that discharge would go. There would also be the additional ducting for the exhaust and some of that may reduce storage space on the loft even more.

I guess my thought of just moving them up there would be the easiest to get them in use for the short term, and leave more shop floor space. Disassembling and reconfiguring them also becomes another larger project on my list. I think long term I’d like to replace the two with a larger unit that could work for the entire shop.
 
Jim DeLaney said:
Why not eliminate the bags and just run ducting from the fan directly to the outside? You could just let the chips go, or else collect them in a bin of some sort for shoveling out later. I know of one local shop that exhausts theirs into a covered trailer.
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I was thinking along similar lines, directing a hose or pipe to a barrel or box downstairs to basement level from the shop where shavings and sawdust could become animal bedding. I’m a dust collection novice, but two problems come to mind: in order to work properly, I think the barrel or box setup would have to be air tight (?) and secondly, I’d be venting a lot of heated shop air. I’m now thinking of a more closed setup outside the shop, but providing a return air flow.

Darren, I think up on top would be a good place for the DC, but maybe you could rig an extended hose down to a wall-mounted bag at floor level?
 
Peter Rideout said:
I think the barrel or box setup would have to be air tight (?)
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Not if it's on the downstream end of the impeller, yes (ish) if it's on the upstream end. The way Darren has it setup it's downstream so in that case basically no. The way you'd have it setup with a cyclone or something like the thien top hat the collection is upstream.

The problem with the primary collection being downstream of the impeller is that all your stuff has to go through the impeller, which can be a bit .. loud.. when a big chunk hits it and isn't necessarily good for the impeller. It is simpler though.

If you have a cyclone or equivalent and there are leaks in the cyclone/tub/connections then it won't separate nearly as efficiently and you get a lot of bypass back into the filters.

Here are the two basic layouts which might make more sense than my meanderings..

  1. machine==cyclone+bin==impeller==filters <- cyclone+bin must be airtight, filters can be just open to the air optionally.
  2. machine==impeller==bin+filters <- bin can be whatever outside

Peter Rideout said:
secondly, I’d be venting a lot of heated shop air. I’m now thinking of a more closed setup outside the shop, but providing a return air flow.
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Yeah this is the big problem, wouldn't be to bad in the summer but winter might be a touch brisk.

I've seen a few setups where they put in a box outside or outside equivalent with a convolute pathway back to the shop and just used an array of furnace filters to clean up the air. You want to make that so it has a fair bit of "dead air" for the dust to drop out though which can be tricky - basically the bigger and longer the box the easier this is to do.
 
Peter Rideout said:
Darren, I think up on top would be a good place for the DC, but maybe you could rig an extended hose down to a wall-mounted bag at floor level?
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I had thought about doing a super dust deputy mounted high with a couple of 6” elbows doing a long sweep into the impeller housing, then connect a 30-50 gallon container for the dust bin. That may be phase 2 of this if I feel it’s working for me. The bin and cyclone won’t take up as much floor space as the DC, which would be a plus.

Still thinking about venting outside, but I have the camper on one side, and mini split outdoor units will be on the other two. I can’t vent out the front, so that option may not be feasible. I could make it work, just has some obstacles.
 
Darren Wright said:
I had thought about doing a super dust deputy mounted high with a couple of 6” elbows doing a long sweep into the impeller housing,
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I hate removing the bag from my little dust collector - it's not hard to do, but it's a dusty pain in the tuckus.

I bought a clean 45gal plastic drum, and installed two 90 degree ABS elbows in the removable top, opposite to each other with one end of each pointing straight up and point in the same rotation on the inside. I connected it between the equipment and the vac (4" flex hoses), and I haven't removed a bag since ..... but I've emptied the drum (about 3/4+ full) several times. It's easier to do ..... unclip the band, lift the top and wheel the barrel out on the two wheel dolly .... no dust, no mess, no holding the bag up while trying the tighten the strap.
 
Well, the first attempt resulted in not enough clearance make the last couple of feet onto the loft.
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I ended up taking the impeller/motor off the base, and hoisting it up. I then could lift the base and pleated filter sections up and re-assemble.
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Its hard to get a good perspective, but there is about 1 1/2’ above the filter. There’s plenty of room to stand and change out the bag, even for me.
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Best part is the 8 to 12 sq ft of space I gained on the shop floor.

I still need to run the circuit to power it. I may pick up some s&d pipe and fittings next week to get it all connected up.

At some point I may try doing a super dust deputy on the wall below, connected with a couple of elbows, but this gets another thing off the list.
 
Many of my pack-out boxes have been sitting on the floor in front of my tool bench, which wasn't convenient. I found a set of double wall standards in my stash, so ordered some 14" brackets. I've now got most of the pack-out boxes on the wall at the end of the bench.
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The last one is a bit high to still allow access to the wall outlet. above the first box.
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Still working on getting the bench organized.
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I was able to move most of the photo albums over to the house along with much of the kids toys, freed up quite a bit of space in the craft room. The attic, not so much. :)
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Had a great sunset this evening too.
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Darren, do not forget, none of us are getting younger. To insure you can continue woodworking at older ages, make things easily accessible as well as easier to maintain. Gymnastics now might not be a problem, but 5 to 10 years from now? Sawdust will not flow out of a gravity wagon, nor will an auger wagon auger out sawdust. Dump style works best. If you use cherry or walnut, it is toxic to horses so remember that if selling or giving away for bedding. Cherry actually toxic to most animals, the walnut will cause founder in horses just from them standing in the shavings. Blow it right out the back of the barn where once or twice a year you could take your loader tractor and maintain the pile or remove it or redistribute it. Nice to have for organic ice solution. Horrible for tracking in the house though. Just my rambling thoughts.
 
Jonathan Shively said:
Darren, do not forget, none of us are getting younger. To insure you can continue woodworking at older ages, make things easily accessible as well as easier to maintain. Gymnastics now might not be a problem, but 5 to 10 years from now? Sawdust will not flow out of a gravity wagon, nor will an auger wagon auger out sawdust. Dump style works best. If you use cherry or walnut, it is toxic to horses so remember that if selling or giving away for bedding. Cherry actually toxic to most animals, the walnut will cause founder in horses just from them standing in the shavings. Blow it right out the back of the barn where once or twice a year you could take your loader tractor and maintain the pile or remove it or redistribute it. Nice to have for organic ice solution. Horrible for tracking in the house though. Just my rambling thoughts.
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Long term I’ll probably do a super dust deputy on the wall below that is easier to empty or a larger central unit in a lean to outside.
 
I got the CNC back on its stationary feet and leveled out. I used the rotary laser with a story stick and square to get all 4 corners to my mark.
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Then 12' 2x4 across the bottom of my overhead door tracks to allow me to hang the dust duct from, then connected up to the CNC.
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I think there will actually be enough cfm for the table saw as well, but I’ll test that once I get more s&d pipe.
 
I had today off and I was planning to go to the Habitat Restore to see if they had any donated or salvaged doors for my shop, but had a change of plans. I ended up picking up the rest of the insulation and osb to finish the outside of the office and craft room.

Having only outlets at 48” made putting up the osb go fast.
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I still have the end wall to insulate and skin, after moving all the boxes and wood lathe. ;)
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