Continuing the workshop build. Been working like a maniac to get this done. Pleased with the results so far.
The ducting came from Oneida along with the dust gorilla (the big yellow thing.) It’s 24 gauge ducting in sizes from 7 to 5 inches in diameter. It comes in approximately 2’ lengths and is made from 24 gauge snap-lock piping. Every joint has to be screwed or riveted together, and every seam and joint needs to be taped or caulked.
It’s hard to get a sense of scale from the images, but this thing is gigantic. The ceiling in the shop space is 12 feet high, and I’m taking full advantage of it. The main line towers over you as you walk under it.
I still have a second line that will go on the side of the shop near where the furnace and drill press are in these images. The will be two lines, the main central line serving the table saw and workbench, and a second line wrapping around the perimeter of one side serving various other machines. I also have a place in the ductwork to install a third line going in the other direction. It’s quite a lot of ductwork to service, but the dust gorilla is so comically overpowered that it just laughs at it.
When I’m running the table saw and dust collector simultaneously, I’m maxing out two 240V circuits simultaneously. The gorilla is on its own dedicated circuit, and the table saw is on a different 240v circuit.
I still have a lot of work to do, but I’m really pleased at the progress I’ve made. The second line is something I want to do, and I do have the parts for it. But the first one is critical. It’s serving machines that can’t operate without a dust collector. I’ve been without a table saw and planer since we moved houses six months ago. And when you use it as much as I do, lacking it really feels like missing a piece of your body.
One of the hanging boxes is a single 240v outlet. The other is four outlets on two separate 120v circuits. I’m installing the ducting, but I had an electrician come in and seriously upgrade the electrical. (The hanging drops are neat. They have a pretty intricate strain relief system built into them that I find pretty interesting.)
There are two 120v circuits running throughout the space. At 8 different locations, they have four outlets (two for each circuit.)
I then also had four 240v circuits installed. One has a single outlet, dedicated just to the dust collector. The others each have two outlets and will service various machines. (Will only ever use one machine at at time, so having two on one circuit isn’t a concern.)
I’m outfitting this shop space in a home garage. So I have also had to plan the electrical to be multi-use. If we ever move, I can take the ducting down. But electrical is more permanent. I laid out the outlets so they could either serve for tool use or for EV car charging. But there’s enough power flowing into that garage to simultaneously charge 3 EVs at level II charging.
Nicely done!
Thanks!
At our previous place, I was on a tighter budget, so when I had electrical put in, it was installed just near the breaker box. I then had long heavy duty extension cords tracing out from there. This time I wanted to spend the money and have it done right .