Introducing Dust Collection

By Ken Schulte

Dust Collection is an integral part of your workshop. If you do not have it, you will eventually want to integrate it into your shop setup.  Along with purchasing the dust collector, you have to start thinking about all the accessories you need to have to start using it.  

Dust ports, adaptors, grounding kits, hoses and blast gates are all some things you might need at one point or another.  Itï's amazing how much a piece of plastic costs.  At one point I thought it would be a great idea to figure out how to make a dust collection system by hand and use materials that you can buy at Lowe's or Home Depot.  If you are thinking this is a good idea, let me stop you in your tracks.  There is a reason tool manufacturers don't make their dust ports on their tools match up to common PVC hardware that you can find at Home Depot, and that reason is money.  

There is big business in accessories.  Granted a plastic mold for a new part is somewhat spendy, but once you sell enough, then you can reclaim your investment.  So finding easy to find PVC and matching it to your tools is pretty tough.  

There is one exception to this rule, and that would be 4" pipe.  4" diameter is the standard for most dust collection units.  Using PVC is not a good idea since it builds up static electricity which can become a fire hazard.  It is best to stick with materials made especially for woodworking.

One thing you will notice when your start integrating dust collection is you will want
every tool to be able to connect to your system.  You basically have two choices, 2
1/2"diameter hose and 4" diameter hose.  When you have smaller hand tools, like a sander, using an adaptor from 2 1/2"to 4" is easier to find then from 4" to 1½.  

2 1/2" diameter hose has a very special place in my shop because it can be connnectedto tools that do not get much use.  I really like the new 90 degree dust port.  You can make many jigs or fences with it.  This makes the assembly of jigs much easier.  If your looking for easy to use dust ports, look for output diameters that easily match up to either 2 1/2" hose or 4" hose.  There are plenty of adaptors that exist to make your job easier.

Hopefully this article has helped you find some better answers and triggered a few
good ideas for your workshop.  Once you see how effective dust control in the
shop is, you will not want to work without it.