Picked up a trick from an old timer in Ohio about dust collection

I was at a local cabinet shop expo last month in Cleveland, and this guy who's been building kitchens since the 70s told me something that blew my mind. He said most folks hook up their dust collection with the main trunk line too small, so it chokes the whole system. He showed me his setup where he ran a 6 inch main line and only reduced it right at the tool. I tried it on my own rig last week with a 2 inch drop to my table saw, and the suction difference was night and day. My chips are actually getting pulled away now instead of piling up under the blade. Has anyone else messed with upsizing their main line like that, or is there a better way to get the fine dust under control?

2 comments

2 Comments

alex_taylor101mo ago

That seems like a lot of work and money for not much gain though. I keep hearing people rave about bigger lines but my setup runs on 4 inch pipe and I pull plenty of fine dust with a decent cyclone and a good filter bag. Half the time people blaming their dust collection are just using undersized filters or letting their bags get clogged. @victorbutler your buddy's bin filling up faster just means he's moving more air but not necessarily catching the fine particles that actually get you in the lungs. The real trick is sealing every joint and keeping the filter clean not upsizing everything.

victorbutler1mo ago

My buddy Dave out in Delaware tried something similar last year after his shop vac setup just couldn't keep up. He ran a 5 inch main line across his whole garage ceiling (like 30 feet or so) and then used these reducing fittings he found at a surplus store down to his planer and jointer. He told me the first time he ran a board through the planer after that, the dust bin filled up in like half the time it used to. Said he actually had to empty it mid-project for the first time ever. That convinced me, though I still haven't gotten around to redoing my own setup yet.