My New Workshop Dust Extraction System

In this video I install my new dust extraction system.

This video covers the extractor machines themselves, the ducting, how I connected all my tools, and installing a pillar to the centre of the workshop from which to run services.

Part 1 - Blast Gates video : https://youtu.be/uAFoXQsx2ZQ
Part 2 - Dust Cyclone Separator video : https://youtu.be/ao2NztU51Ww

My old dust extraction video (featuring detail about the Numatic NVD750): https://youtu.be/_TixC64OCTE

Here are links to all the products mentioned in the video.  As an Amazon Associate I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases:
Numatic NVD750 (Axminster) - https://bit.ly/NVD750
Numatic HEPA Filter (Axminster) - https://bit.ly/HEPAfilter

The extractors I mention that are all the same machine:
Record Power DX1000: https://amzn.to/2CyQn58 (Amazon UK)
Rutlands Extractor: https://amzn.to/33CKxvu (Amazon UK)
Charnwood DC50: https://amzn.to/33C74Z7 (Amazon UK)
Rikon Dust Extractor:  https://amzn.to/2q1xPrA (Amazon USA)
And there may be more!

Charnwood W685P extractor: https://amzn.to/2CzKO6m (Amazon UK)
Metabo SPA1200 extractor: https://amzn.to/33EJwmK

Dust Commander HD: https://amzn.to/2CuyOTI (Amazon UK)

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

10 Minute Workshop (Peter Millard's channel) : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_FksrzP3q-IuoWTiG501LQ

Welcome to a new series of videos covering my new dust extraction system, in this video I'll be covering my extractor machines, the ducting, how I connected all my machines, and installing a pillar in the centre of my workshop from which to run services.  I've added time stamps to the description box below and on screen now if you want to skip to the bits you're interested in.  And I'll have separate videos covering the blast gates and the cyclone.

EXTRACTORS

Starting with the extractors themselves, I'm going to be using two extractors, and I'll explain why...  The main one I'll be using is the one I've had for a few years now, it's the Numatic NVD750 with the HEPA M class filtration unit.  I've already talked about it in detail in a previous video so I'll link to in the description box below.  That is connected up to a large cyclone dust seperator, and I'll be putting out a separate video about how I made that.  And from there the cyclone is connected up to my tablesaw, my mitresaw, my belt and disc sander and I'll also be using it for my hand operated power tools too - like my track saw, circular saw and random orbit sanders and also it's connected up so that I can use it to vacuum the floor. 

Now I had hoped to use the Numatic and cyclone for all of my extraction needs, however I'm going to be using mainly 68mm diameter ducting and that is going in to a 50mm diameter cyclone, and one of my machines really needs to be connected up to larger 100mm diameter duct to deal with the large amount of chips that it kicks out very quickly - that machine is my planer thicknesser.  So for that machine I've just bought a separate extractor just to serve that tool alone.  The one I opted to buy is the Record Power DX1000, although it's worth pointing out that that machine is exactly the same as the cheaper Charnwood DC50 which retails at around £119 and the even cheaper Rutlands DK7109 which retails at around £89.  So they're all the same machines, which no doubt come from the same factory, they're just badged differently, all of them have the same specs.  I was going to get the cheapest one, which is the Rutlands one but there are two reasons why I went for the Record Power - firstly I wanted to buy from Amazon because I had some affiliate money saved up on my account there and secondly at the time I was looking there was a customer returned one listed via Amazon Warehouse Deals that had a damaged box so it was on sale at £108. It's worth pointing out that I haven't had good experiences with Record Power tools or their customer service in the past so this was a little bit of a reluctant purchase, but it was the best option at the time I was looking, and also it's green so at least it'll blend in nicely with my mitre station.  Some very quick opinions about it so far: the machine filters down to 0.5 micron which is pretty good, the suction is great, and the motor is pretty loud, which isn't an issue for me now because I'm in a fully insulated detatched building, but if noise is an issue for you like it was for me when I was in my previous workshop, then you might want to shop around and find something maybe with an induction motor instead rather than a brushed motor.  I did initially look at some larger capacity chip extractor options like the Metabo SPA1200 with it's 65l capacity and the Charnwood W685p with it's 60l capacity, but ultimately I wanted something that was going to fit underneath the central unit of my mitre station.  The DX1000 only has a 45l capacity so I'll need to empty it quite frequently, but that's a sacrifice I'm happy to make because it'll tuck away nicely and take up less space.  I can also use that second extractor at the drill press to clear shavings there after drilling.

DUCTING

For the ducting I predominantly used 68mm PVC downpipe, which is supposed to be used for guttering applications. There are some good and bad points about using this and I'll cover those later in the video.  In my previous workshop I used 40mm waste pipe because my workhop was much smaller, and that worked great but I did occasionally have blockages, so I think 68mm is going to be much better.

First of all I added a quick corner shelf to the so that I could position the extractor right where I wanted it in relation to the cyclone, and I mainly did that because I wanted the flexible hose run that goes to the cyclone to be as short as possible, and that's because solid pipe works much better for air flow than the flexible stuff.  The hose I am using here actually came with my extractor, and I only needed a short bit of the hose so I cut it to length with a knife and wire cutters. 

To connect that hose up to the 50mm cyclone, I bought this, a 90mm to 51mm silicone reducer from eBay, you can but these in all sorts of different sizes and they're usually between £8 and £12 each and this was the closest size I could find to what I needed.  I was expecting to need to use some gaffer tape here but actually I found I could squeeze and manouvre it inside the flexible pipe and it was a really nice fit.  The other end also fitted really nicely on to the cyclone. 

Next I needed to adapt from the 50mm cyclone inlet to the 68mm PVC pipe and for that I got another eBay Silicone reducer - this time a 70mm to 51mm, and that also happened to be a really good fit - but for I am also going to be using some jubilee clamps in conjunction with these adapters just to make sure no air could leak out clamps... So far so good!

The PVC pipe could just be cut to length using a hacksaw.  I have used my mitre saw to cut pvc pipe in the past, but that kicked out loads of static charged plastic shavings all over the workshop which was really annoying so I stuck with the hacksaw this time, and followed up with a knife just to clean up the rough cut edges.

The fixtures that are available for 68mm PVC pipe are pretty limited to be honest, I got some of the 67.5 degree branches, and some 112.5 degree bend, plus the clips that hold the pipe to the wall.   You can also buy 92.5 degree bends, but that steep angle of bend isn't going to be ideal for airflow, so I didn't bother buying any of those, much better off using more subtle bends like the 112.5 degree ones.

But the main problem with 68mm pipe is that unlike the push fit waste pipe I used in the past, this stuff doesn't seal together, the fittings are all pretty loose.

So to fit the pipe to the fixtures and create an airtight seal, I wanted something that was going to be easily removeable and non-permanent, so that ruled out glue or any kind of adhesives as an option.  The best option I came up with was to use a trick which I found out about through one of Peter Millar's 10 Minute Workshop videos, a great channel which I'll link to below in the description box if you're not already familiar, and that is to use bicycle innertube.  I managed to find some of this Nutrak 27.5 inch long, 2.5 to 3 inch diameter innertube.  68mm is 2.677 inches so that sounded like it might just be perfect - so I  took a punt and bought a few of these on eBay, I got three for £8 so they were nice and cheap.  And they fitted over the pipe really tightly, so tightly in fact that there was no need to use hose clamps in addition to the innertube, so it was going to work really well.

Now I'll be totally honest, fitting it to the pipe is a bit tricky and that makes it quite time consuming, so if you're looking for a quick and easy solution then this may not be it, but the way I see it, once this is all set up I'll probably never touch it again so a bit of short term pain now for a long term gain is worthwhile, and it does seal everything really well.  Also like with anything, the more you do it, the better and quicker you get at it.  I also found that using a scrap of wood with a 68mm hole in it and then using my bodyweight to push the pipe against my workbench to hold it in place and that made things much easier.

This first run of pipes along the back is to serve the mitre station and my disc and belt sander which sits beneath it, I cut a piece of pipe at an angle and then I could mark up a shape that I'd need to cut out in order to push the pipe through the top of my mitre station cabinet.  I could then drill a series of holes holding the drill bit roughly at the angle I wanted, and then I removed most of the waste using some auger bits.  I could then come back with a rasp to refine the shape and eventually I got the pipe to fit through there really nicely.

I could then add pipe to where I wanted it and add one of my blast gates.  I already had lots of different vacuum connectors and hose and for this machine I decided I'd make use of what I had. 

I found some fittings that fitted on to a hose to go straight in to the macine, no problem, but at the other end I didn't have anything large enough to connect to the 68mm pipe.

So I took the largest fitting I could find, mixed up some epoxy and then smothered a piece of string in to the adhesive.  I could then wrap the string around the fitting, waited for it to set and then wrapped it in gaffer tape.  That screwed directly on to the vacuum hose and it then fitted nice and snugly inside the pipe.

Next was the mitre saw and I needed to get that through the hood at my mitre station so I used my 68mm hole saw bit to cut a hole that the pipe to fit through.  I bought some 50mm flexible hose to connect up the mitre saw, but the fittings that came with it were too big to fit the outlet of the saw.  Fortunately though I found another fitting that I already had which fitted nicely and that fitted the new hose too, but I did use another jubilee clip just to make sure it had a good seal.   For the other end of the hose I found another fitting but it was a little loose so I added a jubillee clip and then I used hot glue to add a piece of pipe to the inside to seal any gaps, and then wrapped that in gaffer tape too, and then I could connect it to the 68mm pipe using another 68mm angled fitting

The second of my pipe runs needed to go up and over to the centre of the workshop via the ceiling, so I secured it to the side of one of my metal cabinets with some nuts and bolts.

Mounting it to the ceiling was pretty tricky so I got Ria to lend an extra pair of hands while I secured it in place.

And this one basically goes up to the ceiling, and then avoid all of my light fittings, and then comes down to serve the middle of the workshop for the tablesaw and I also added a couple of other blast gates and I'll talk about what I'll be using those for a little bit later in the video

So I got this 4 by 4 from my local timber merchant which is only about 5 minutes away, the cost was about £12 and it's a 3m length.  Aside from this being useful for mounting my dust extraction pipes too, but it'll also be used for running power to the centre of the workshop, I can run power in to the loft space and down to it so that I don't have to have a trailing  power cable to the wall from my tablesaw. I'll probably talk about electrics in more detail in a future video.

This pillar was a rough sawn so I went over it with my electric hand plane to clean it up.  And then I added a roundover to the edges using my router.  The pipe mount connectors were too wide to fit on to the 4 by 4 so I  went and found another piece of timber to mount on to one side, and I found this 2 by 2, so that got glued and secured with screws and then I wanted to round over the edges of that piece too but as I was doing it, the bearing flew off the router bit, which kind of messed up the cut, but I'm glad it happened here rather than on an important commission!  I didn't have another roundover bit so I reverted to a spokeshave and block plane.

Next I measured the ceiling height using my lazer measure, and then I added on another 120mm, for reasons which will become apparent shortly, and then I could cut the pillar to length using my circular saw and a speed square guiding the cut.

I marked up where I wanted the pillar to be situated on to the ceiling and then drilled a hole up through the ceiling and then I ventured up in to the loft where I could lift the insulation to find the hole.  Using the offcut of the 4 by 4 I marked up the square that I wanted to cut away and I did that by drilling a few holes and then using my multitool.

I could then bring the pillar in, orrder it up to the ceiling at an angle and then feed it through the hole.

And from up above, I filled the space between the joists and the pillar using a piece of timber, and then drilled pilot holes through the pillar, the spacer and the joist so that I could add some threaded rod to secure everything in place.

I needed to temporarily lift the floorboards to get access to add the bolts and washers.

I then spent some time making sure that the pillar was plumb using my spirit level, and once it was, I marked around the bottom of the pillar with a marker.

I then cut a mitred frame from some 2 by 3s on to the floor around the pillar, I used my SDS drill to drill in to the concrete, and then secured with cocrete screws.

I could then secure the pipes on to the pillar.

To hook up the tablesaw I bought some 63mm diameter pipe, and this was the perfect size to fit the dust port on the machine.  It also fitted over the angled pipe fittings really nicely, and again I used more jubilee clips to attach them.

Below the blast gate for the tablesaw I added two more, one of them I'm going to use for hooking up to tools like my circular saw, track saw, random orbit sanders and routers.

And the bottom one I'm actually going to use to vacuum the floor with, and I can also use these different attachments to vacuum dust off my workbench and things like that.

I also had my friend who is an electrician set up the extractor to run on a remote control, just like I had before at the old workshop.  I have two of these remotes and I put one at the table saw and one over at the mitresaw so they are always within reach when I need them.

I wasn't sure how good the suction would be because the pipe run is quite long, but actually it's really good, in fact it's even better than the suction on my old system which had a shorter pipe run, and I don't know loads about this sort of thing but I guess it could be because a) I kept flexible pipe to an absolute minimum, opting for solid pipe for the long runs which apparently is best for air flor and b) maybe because of the bigger diameter pipe?  I don't know, but one things for sure, the suction is really effective, so no concerns there.

In terms of using 68mm diameter pipe, and whether it's a good option for other people, there are some good things about using it and some bad things about using it.

First, the good:
It's inexpensive compared with other ducting options - I paid about £50 for everything, in comparison the dust pipe kits available from the likes of Rutlands and Axminster retail at well over hundred pounds and they don't even have enough of the specific components I needed to set up my system

It's solid pipe and it's smooth, which makes it really effective in terms of air resistance in comparison to flexible ducting

The 68mm diameter is a really nice size, in the past I used 40mm pipe and I did have a couple of blockages over the years, so I'm confident that 68mm is going to be a big improvement and it should easily deal with any of the dust that my machines create

The bad:

There are risks associated with static build up in PVC pipes and some people recommend grounding it. There's a good video by Marius Hornberger about that which I'll link to below. However having done some research on it and having used 40mm PVC pipe in my previous workshop for a few years, it's not something I'm concerned about, but please do your own research if you're considering using PVC.

It's not transparent, so if you were to get a blockage you won't see where it is - but that's not an issue for me because like I say, I don't think I'll get any blockages because I'm only going to be using the system for dust and small shavings.

Thirdly and perhaps the biggest issue is as I mentioned earlier in the video, the 68mm pipe doesn't self seal, unlike the 40mm push fit pipe I used in my last extraction system which had rubber O rings inside that create a really good seal but could also easily be pulled apart and pushed back together again. So you can either do what I did with the innertube, or you could glue it all together and hope you never get a blockage, or you can just use it as is and hope that the air leakage isn't a problem, but I expect it would really let you down in terms of suction unless perhaps you're pipe runs are much smaller than mine and you only need a few fittings to set it up with your machines.  You could ofcourse just use gaffer tape to seal up the gaps, that's another option, but I'm pretty happy I went with the innertube option even though it took quite a lot of time to fit.

That's it for this one, I hope you enjoyed the video, let me know in the comments what you would have done differently, I am quite interested in this stuff!

If you'd like to receive early access to my videos, free project plans and cut lists and a name credit at the end of my videos, you can support the channel on Patreon and there'll be a link to my page in the description box below.  Thanks for watching.

One other thing I could use this pillar for was to run my air compressor hose alongside the dust pipes, and I connected it using a few cable ties, that means my air hose is going to come from above which means it won't get snagged on things or drag on the floor while I use it, and it's going to be right in the middle of the workshop where I need it.

Marius Hornberger's video about grounding a PVC system: https://youtu.be/xsW4J09_RxA

Grounding PVC and other Dust Collection Myths article: https://www.woodcentral.com/articles/shop/articles_221.shtml