Workshop plumbed in waste system

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AndyBoyd

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Heiloo The Netherlands
Very fortunately I bought a set of 8 ecogates http://www.ecogate.com with controller, sensors and relay from a closing down sale last time I was in the US and I've been thinking long and hard about how to plumb my system together. It only cost 80$ but took some explaining whilst checking in on the way home I can tell you!
As these are 4" devices I need to plumb them in with 4" piping which is a little difficult as I'm exiled in the Netherlands where inches don't translate well.

Now here are my thoughts.

I could plumb it all with flexible hoses and the plastic fittings from Axminster - making sure all is grounded (which is easy with flexible hoses). This maybe a little lossy but with the ecogates working they should compensate for that, by isolating the rest of the systems automatically for me.

Is this a sensible approach as the metal fittings seem so expensive?

I even remember someone somewhere praising special 4" flexible hosing with a fairly smooth interior and hence creating a superior flow which is less lossy (pressure wise) than the normal stuff - I am I going mad or does this stuff exist

I'd like to use soil pipe for the main loop but with 8 take offs at 4 inches the 16 soil pipe adaptors from Axminster seems bit steep @ 9 quid a go!
So the loop will be in flexible hose with 8 plastic Y pieces on top of which are the ecogates with more flexible pipe to the machine with the odd adaptor say for the router table for the smaller pipe applications like the router table.

Is this a sensible approach anyone or should I stop being tight walleted about this.

PS I have a DX 500 from Record I bought just before they went belly up! for the sucking side of all this. The main branch length is 7 metres with the P/T nearest due to the amount of waste it produces.

Your thoughts will be much appreciated

Cheers

A
 
Andy, bearing in mind I've never built an integrated system for myself...
Going by what I've read, smooth bore pipe seems to be a must for the bulk of a system. The most cost effective pipe seems to be the 5.5-6" soil pipe; there's bound to be a European equivalent in sizes close to that. Grounding the pipe properly is never a daft move.

To use your 4" blast gates and the larger bore of pipe, you'll need to look into step-up/down adaptors, and place your blast gates as close to the machine as possible to minimise the run length of the flexi pipe.

Ideally, an optimum system would have a step up adaptor fitted to the DC, a short run of 6" flexi to connect to the smooth bore, networked smooth bore to suit your needs making all 90deg bends as large as possible (better a pair of 45's with a short length of straight pipe than a 90 elbow), all "2 into 1" transitions done using a Y rather than a T adaptor, and lengths of 4" flexi kept as short as physically possible; it seems that flexi flows with around 60-70% of the efficiency of smooth bore, getting worse as the run length increases.

One last note, throwing a more powerful DC at a system built with pipe that is too small in bore can't make it flow any better; the limiting factor is the pipe itself...
 
Andy,

Do you mean a DX5000? If so I've one with about 100' of 4", mostly steel with a short run of Storm pipe. If I get a chance this evening I'll post a few details. On first thoughts I don't think you'll have too many problems matching up the Ecogate blastgates with a 4" / 100 mm system. And for my needs (TS, BS, Thicknesser, Jointer etc) no problems whatsoever shifting the waste.

Rgds

Noel
 
Before we get a flurry of anxious Record customers; Record Power are still hale and hearty I believe. It's Record Hand Tools that's suffered under Rubbermaid.

I return you to our usual programming... :wink:

Cheers, Alf
 
Thanks for the tips, I never knew the loss was so much, so I'll need to source some 110 mm pipe that will fit my blast gates and a larger section for the run in to the DX5000

- sorry I had not separated the Record Power from Record/Irwin. But I do remember when I bought the DX500o they were like rocking horse teeth due to 'problems' at the factory.

I'll keep you all posted on my progress

A
 
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