Implementing a multi-port system

[NewCreationWoodworks]

Hello Again.

I want to build a small box that has four 4" input ports (blast gates) and a single output port that goes to the Thien baffle assembly. However, I am confused as to the correct order of things.

I plan on using my HFT motor, and most videos I've seen that cannibalize this unit mount it to the wall and mate the intake port to the top of the Thien baffle then down to the trash can. The output port generally goes either to a filter or directly outside. As with many shops, mine is small, so I want to have as minimal a footprint as possible.

If I want to use a multi-port input box, what would be the input/output mapping for such a system?

Thanks!

[alan m]

I don't think the juice is worth the squeeze. it could be done . if you build it with a box you will have a lot of turbulence and suction loss from the rapid change in direction.
the commercial versions wold be a a large reducer  , say 12" to 4" with a blank on the 12" end  and then put 4   4" flanges on the blank plate . this means that the dust has a fairly straight run  but they are very big and expensive. .
you would be better off running a main line  with a few runs Td (with Y fittings) 

[Tacuabe]

Hello:

I've had very good results with a 4 blast gate input linked to a tophat separator. All that inside a shop-built table saw. Here's the link to what may help you with your project: Shop-made Table Saw with integral Thien DC.

The saw has now been published in an improved version in our web page www.aw-thinkbold.com. You'll find there some additional photos of a cleaner layout of the blast gates. The original ones were just an addition to the existing prototype and were conditioned by the connections inside the available space.

Please let me know if you need any more info to carry out your build.

Best regards

[Tacuabe]

Hello again:

If the link to the article in this forum fails to work, just search for the text.

[retired2]

Hello:

I've had very good results with a 4 blast gate input linked to a tophat separator. All that inside a shop-built table saw. Here's the link to what may help you with your project: Shop-made Table Saw with integral Thien DC.

The saw has now been published in an improved version in our web page www.aw-thinkbold.com. You'll find there some additional photos of a cleaner layout of the blast gates. The original ones were just an addition to the existing prototype and were conditioned by the connections inside the available space.

Please let me know if you need any more info to carry out your build.

Best regards

Where are the photos of the blast gates?  A better link or more specific instructions would have been helpful.  I spent too much time and never did find anything.  I finally came to the conclusion your post was more of a plug for your saw plans than an effort to help the OP!

[Tacuabe]

Sorry, my mistake. I forgot to check if our website photos included some of the dust collection system. Actuallly they are part of the package to build the machine. I hereby attach several showing the top hat and blast gates. Apologies and best regards.

[Tacuabe]

Failed to include all photos at the first attempt. Here goes the missed ones.

[retired2]

I must say the shop built table saw is a very impressive piece design and piece of work.  I?m not sure I would tackle it because it looks like controlling costs would be a problem, but I have no space for a table saw of this size.

With regard to your dust collection, why are there so many ports?  Do they serve more than the table saw?  Where is the blower?  That porting arrangement has some very high SP losses, but is still very workable if only the saw is being served and the blower is a shop vac which has very high SP, but very low CFM.

The OP was not very clear about what he was trying to do, so it is hard to say if the multi-porting will work for him or not.

[Tacuabe]

Hello Retired2:

Thank you for the compliments. Regarding the saw's size, if you look at Specifications, there is a sketch with dimensions. If you take off the Outrigger Table, it's no bigger than a standard cabinet saw. Reader's Projects is also worth a look.

I think my partner Andre went a bit overboard with too many ports! At most, only two ports would work simultaneously: One  connected to the Blade Cover or Guard (as we like to call it) and the other to a Shroud underneath the table. Obviously, for non-through cuts, just the lower connection will be active.

The remaining ports would serve other purposes. The main use would be a router installed at the right side of the table. In my case, I also have a small jointer (built from ShopNotes plans) powered by still another router. So my total requirements are four ports.
Andre also installed a router on the table at a later date and used a fourth port for an outside hose for genearl cleaning. In his case the fifth port remains as a spare.

The blower is indeed a 1200W shop vac motor. BTW our mains is 220V. The electrical arrangement starts the vac motor when each machine is powered on. If a general cleaning port is  used, then a by-pass switch will allow starting the vac motor separately. I attach 2 pages of the plans showing the general arrangement and the electrical connections.

BTW, I'm also retired. Worked 40 years as Surveying Engineer (Land Surveyor). If you require more information, please feel free to ask. There is quite a story (already written) behind the table saw and I will be honored to exchange mails with you if you want. My email is topocalc@gmail.com.

Finally, let me tell you that I daily visit the forum and your posts immediately call my attention. I've learned a lot by reading your contributions.

Best regards,

Hector (AKA Tacuabe)

[retired2]

About 50 years ago in one of my last carefree summers I took a job with a surveyor.  I was the rod man, but I still learned a lot.  The one memory I will never forget was surveying the centerline for a new road that had to go through a gentleman?s property who threatened to shoot anyone who stepped on his land.  We had to survey a long radius curve through his property.  There was a lot of dense brush which made surveying difficult, but it kept us out of view.  So, to minimize exposure we decided to survey in from both ends.  After a couple days work we discovered our center lines were going to miss rather than join in the middle of the property.  The boss wasn?t too happy, so we had to start over after finding the math error.

So, that summarizes my surveying experience.  I know the technology is so different from then.  That was fifty years ago.  Since then I worked 37 years for DuPont doing Engineering.  Along the way I became a photographer, a golfer, a woodworker, a pool player, a genealogist, and world traveler.  I?ve had a good wife and a good life, so there you have my life story!

Oh, and thanks for the compliments on my posts. 

[Tacuabe]

To be fair, I think a succint recount of my life is in order. I am now 84 years old and happily married too! Between my second wife and me we have 5 offsprings, all married and 12 grand children. I worked as a Land Surveyor from 1962 to 2002. Before that, I had 3 jobs, the latest being with Shell Uruguay Ltd.

My woodworking started early since my dad had a fairly big commercial woodshop and I learned my first tasks there for two years. At that time I started with model aircraft, a passion that lasted 50 years. With my youngest son (also a Surveyor) we competed in the WC for Circular Flight (U-Control as it is known in the States) in Kiev (1988). This was also the start point for my world travelling.

I'm now enjoying my retirement mostly in my shop and turned my knowledge on all those fields into designing what became my brainchild: the Format Style table saw. I started in 1997 with plans and some parts from Gilliom and evolved into a protoype still undergoing some improvements. I never built the final design myself (too much work at this age!) but my partner Andŕe Wagner from Germany enticed me into drawing the plans and built the new version impeccably. That was in 1914/15.

He placed some videos in YouTube and they were so well recived that we decided a partnership and started selling the plans. Then came the website and the rest you know. We now have 13500 followers.

BTW, I live in Montevideo, Uruguay, South America and Andr? lives in Elz in Germany. He visited me in 1918 with his girl friend (now his wife) as they were curious about Uruguay.

[retired2]

That?s quite a story!  You have a few years on me, I?ll be 75 in a couple months.  I just assumed you were from the US because you?ve got a great command of the language.  I suspect there?s more details in your bio that would explain that.  I regret to say that in all my South American travels I missed Uruguay, but I was close, Buenos Aires.  I?ve been to six countries there, working and vacationing.  My work assignment was just a few months long in Salvador, (Bahia) Brazil.  Our best trip was our Patagonian adventure.  Maybe I?ll come back to visit Uruguay and Paraguay!

[Tacuabe]

Thanks for your kind words about my language command. Most of it I owed to my intelligent mother who back in forties decided to send me to a british school. Quite a foresight which I cheris dearly! My span with Shell also helped a lot and I enjoy both speaking and writing in English. Model aircraft bilding and competition was also a means to communicate with fellow modelers all over the world and eventually travel to championships.

I've been in the US (3 times), Canada, Europe (5 trips) and, of course, most of our South American neighbouring countries. Argentina is a beautiful country and Patagonia is a special place. We went there some years ago and were very impressed with the Perito Moreno Glacier. We extended our trip to Usuahia and travelled in the End of the World Train (another of my passions!). Really worthwhile.

You're welcome to visit Uruguay, my home and my shop. But all depends now on the outcome from the Covid19 menace. Let's hope it will be soon and with flying colors!

All the best!

Hector

[Tacuabe]

Sorry about a couple of typos: It's "cherish" (not cheris) and "building" (not bilding)

[retired2]

There was a restaurant in Usuahia called Marisco?s that I really enjoyed.  My wife and I went back several times in the two days we were there.  Flying into Usuahia on a plane is an adventure in itself.  Maybe it isn?t much in the summer, but we landed in very early spring with fog and sleet.  Snow was just starting to melt off the mountains.  The  National Parks of Argentina and Chile are out of this world beautiful.