Well, it seemed like a no-brainer to build a crawlspace so I could run ductwork under there. At this juncture, I need opinions from y'all. Here's what Ed at ClearVue Cyclones said:
As a suggestion, there are several reasons for not putting the pipe in or under the floor. Putting the ducting in the floor has several inherent problems. Most importantly, I don't see a lot to be gained. You would end up with blast gates coming up from the floor where they are hard to reach. As you have to turn them on and off a lot, blast gate placement is an important consideration. They are best installed at 4 - 5' off the ground where they can be easily operated. The next problem is versatility. I don't care what layout you start out with, it most likely won't be the one you end up with. You will add machines, decide you want to move machines and change your layout and an in-ground or under floor duct system will be difficult or impossible to move. I already built my "dream" shop and I glued all of my "4" PVC pipe together because I thought it would never have to be changed. Within 6 months I was cutting it and throwing fittings away because I had glued it together. Now, I have a 6" PVC system and nothing is glued
together. Hope I've given you some ideas.
Okay, I'm not going with 4", it will be 6", and I will not glue PVC. I'm chatting with the nice folks at K&B in G'boro about a metal pipe system, and I got this back today:
- Are you sure you want to run it under the building. It always sounds like
a good idea but I don't know anyone that was glad they did it 3 years later.
I put a good deal of thought into where everything would go before I applied for the permit. I placed it where I wanted it, and after six months, I would change nothing. I'm planning for a future lathe, and I know exactly where it will go.
My crawlspace is 36" to the bottom of the joists, level all the way through. I built it that way. It's reasonably dry, because I put in french drain with socks around the perimeter.
This shop is my toy. I will NEVER make anything for sale or contemplate any sort of production work. The dust collector is for convenience and health. Believe it or not, I do not aspire to have a 66" bandsaw or 42" thickness sander, or any other behemoth gear. My only "need" is a kick-butt planer to replace the 22-580 at some time in the future, but I'm already running a 6" line to the lunchbox that should easily handle a bigger planer.
An overhead system would conflict with my installed lights. It would be a challenge to get the saw exhausted without having a downtube conflict with cutting area. I would have to step around the downtube for the bandsaw all the time based on where the factory ports are located.
I tend to think it would take more piping total, since every port is about a foot off the floor and would need an uptube to the sky, whereas with an underfloor each machine would dump down and there would be only one uptube for everybody.
FWIW, Mr. Pentz endorsed the idea of going low.
So, skilled, erudite and wholly sagacious fellow sawdust makers, who can talk me into or out of going under the floor?
As a suggestion, there are several reasons for not putting the pipe in or under the floor. Putting the ducting in the floor has several inherent problems. Most importantly, I don't see a lot to be gained. You would end up with blast gates coming up from the floor where they are hard to reach. As you have to turn them on and off a lot, blast gate placement is an important consideration. They are best installed at 4 - 5' off the ground where they can be easily operated. The next problem is versatility. I don't care what layout you start out with, it most likely won't be the one you end up with. You will add machines, decide you want to move machines and change your layout and an in-ground or under floor duct system will be difficult or impossible to move. I already built my "dream" shop and I glued all of my "4" PVC pipe together because I thought it would never have to be changed. Within 6 months I was cutting it and throwing fittings away because I had glued it together. Now, I have a 6" PVC system and nothing is glued
together. Hope I've given you some ideas.
Okay, I'm not going with 4", it will be 6", and I will not glue PVC. I'm chatting with the nice folks at K&B in G'boro about a metal pipe system, and I got this back today:
- Are you sure you want to run it under the building. It always sounds like
a good idea but I don't know anyone that was glad they did it 3 years later.
I put a good deal of thought into where everything would go before I applied for the permit. I placed it where I wanted it, and after six months, I would change nothing. I'm planning for a future lathe, and I know exactly where it will go.
My crawlspace is 36" to the bottom of the joists, level all the way through. I built it that way. It's reasonably dry, because I put in french drain with socks around the perimeter.
This shop is my toy. I will NEVER make anything for sale or contemplate any sort of production work. The dust collector is for convenience and health. Believe it or not, I do not aspire to have a 66" bandsaw or 42" thickness sander, or any other behemoth gear. My only "need" is a kick-butt planer to replace the 22-580 at some time in the future, but I'm already running a 6" line to the lunchbox that should easily handle a bigger planer.
An overhead system would conflict with my installed lights. It would be a challenge to get the saw exhausted without having a downtube conflict with cutting area. I would have to step around the downtube for the bandsaw all the time based on where the factory ports are located.
I tend to think it would take more piping total, since every port is about a foot off the floor and would need an uptube to the sky, whereas with an underfloor each machine would dump down and there would be only one uptube for everybody.
FWIW, Mr. Pentz endorsed the idea of going low.
So, skilled, erudite and wholly sagacious fellow sawdust makers, who can talk me into or out of going under the floor?
