In order to collect dust I now needed to devise methods to activate each of the machines to the duct work. Sone of the activations were very simple, others took a deal of thinking and searching for the right material.

I started with the table saw so that I could use it to work on the remaineder of the project without a lot of dust to clean up later. The 7" T from the main duct extended through the floor in a rough hole I cut through the 3/4" plywood. I cut a 1/4" piece of plywood to a close fitting hole and screwed it down to provide support around the duct and to seal the floor against the duct.

Inside the table saw

I did not have a solid plan beyond this so had to do a little planning at this point. I remembered from my earlier dust control system for the saw that the dust would hang up around the flange created by the manufacturer where the cabinet met the base of the saw. They had installed a slanted metal plate to direct the dust towards an opening in the side of the saw and I removed ti for my dust control. I decided to extend the 7" duct another 4" so that I could install an 1/2" plywood floor on top of the flange.

Extending the duct under the saw

I cut two pieces of plywood for the new floor and a close fitting hole around the duct extension. I knew I would not be able to get a single piece of plwood through the opening in the side of the saw and hitting the duct perfectly would be a real challange as well.

New plywood floor under saw

It was at this point that I needed to spend some time thinking about how to seal this hole to the duct work with the tight working conditions. I was working through a 20" square hole in the side of the saw with the large motor hanging down about half way in the opening. I knew that duct tape would not stick to the wood surface so that was not an option. So a trip to the DIY center was in order. What I came up with was a flu thimble. This two-piece device is used to isolate a flu as it passes through a wall. In my case, I will use half of it to provide a seal between the end of the duct passing through the plywood floor. I used a strip of self adhesive felt around the bottom of the duct piece which produced a perfect fit between the 7" duct extension and the thimble. I cut the collar to 6" inside diameter and predrilled 4-holes to screw it down. I applied another felt strip under the coller edge to provide a seal between the metal edge and plywood floor. When screwed in place I had a finished edge around the open duct.

Modified wall thimble

I temporarily blocked all the openings in the duct work and tested the sysem and was very pleased with how well it worked. I had a box of saw dust removed from the jointer when I started the project so opened the blade insert on top of the table saw and dumped the entire box through the opening as fast as I could. The dust control took 90% of the dust as I dumped it and by the time I turned around from getting rid of the box the remainder of the dust was gone! With the table saw back in operation and the dust control system removing the dust very well, it was time to get the floor patched back in. I cut 3" strips of scrap plywood and installed them under the cut edge of the 3/4 plywood floor. I used construction adhesive and screws to provide a solid ledge to hold the plywood removed to install the duct.

New plywood ledges to patch the floor.

I needed to patch the floor to finish activating the jointer, which was the easiest activation of all. I had constructed this base in 2009 with a solid plan for the dust control so had cut a 6" outlet in the botton of the cabinet with a slanted floor in the back side of the cabinet. With the floor patched in I used foil duct tape to seal the 7" duct T to the painted floor that surround the duct. It was then a simple matter to center the jointer outlet over the T and screw the cabinet to the floor.

Jointer activation was simple.

I had one more piece of duct to install, it was from the vertical 8" duct coming out of the floor on the south wall. I had installed an eight-inch T and reduced it to 5" to make a run along the south wall. I continued this run next and rounded the SW corner of the shop to end beside the new location of the lathe bench. I had originally located the lathe bench on the west wall to the north side of the entrance door. I realized that this location was not going to work and have dust control for the lathe. Most on-line references to dust control and the wood lathe indicated that this is a tough place to control dust, but with no access to dust control except a long piece of flexible duct I would have more trouble. I assembled the duct complete with a wide turn elbow for the corner prior to installing it under the bench.

Final ductwork installation.

I hung the completed ductwork section under the counter that is located under the windows in the SW corner of the shop.

The duct is hung under the counter.

This duct made a final turn up thorough the counter where I installed a 5" X 4" reducer and taped it prior to pushing it down against the strap. This gave a more finished appearance and kept the blast gate to control the air flow a lower profile above the counter.

Blastgate for lathe.

I will complete this project on the next page.

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