How Have You Grounded Plastic Dust Collector Ducts?

[lshuck]

Sometime back I asked for comments re Dust Collector Ducts and all agreed the metal was best. In the end, I did not go that way but I found the costs to be a little less than ABS and PVC at KencraftCompany.com. So if you are interested, I found these people to be very responsive and prices great. But, I had a wholesale source for plastic and with shipping, it put it out of reach for me.

So, now to the question to all you plastic Dust Collector Duct folks - How did you ground the plastic and how well is it working for you?

[Gary Campbell]

Les...
In my FL Keys shop I had a couple hundred feet of 4" pvc installed. Here is what I did: I used a wire embedded flex hose to the ShopBot and grounded that, and only that section away from the machine. This section was grounded so that static generated by it would not affect the ShopBot.

I did not ground the rest of the plastic, nor did I need to. All of the equipment had grounds, as did each of the 3 Delta collectors that I used. The "dust explosion in plastic ducts" is near an urban myth. Just "aint" never happened in a home shop.

My new system is metal duct and I was happy to get some very unique wyes from Kencraft. On this system I grounded the flex drop to the Bot to the metal duct.

[lshuck]

Gary: Thnx for the info, it really simplifies things.

Les

[bleeth]

I did some diggin around as running new ducting through the shop is the next step in my shop and found McGill-One of the largest manufacturers of ducting around. They have an office near me so I got in touch for pricing. Spiral 4" 10ft at $17 and change, 5" $19, elbows and saddles around 17 each and connectors under $5. For us, the shipping is from Carolina but for what I need for the whole place they estimated around 125. I have a feeling though that shipping will end up more like 200 by the time I put it all together. The lower rate is assuming 1 pallette.

Here's their website: http://www.mcgillairflow.com/textDocs/aboutUS_PG.htm

I was surprised at the diffference in pricing when I stopped searching for dust collection ducting and started searching for HVAC ducting and sheet metal.

[benchmench]

I have the wire embeded hose from the Shopbot dust boot connected via alligator clip to bare copper wire that runs throught 4" PVC and grounded to the frame of the dust collector (via alligator clip). This is mainly to provide a grounded path away from the Shopbot for any static that may develop.

[butch]

I ran a braded copper wire around the outside of the pipe to drain as much static as I could. I both screwed and taped the wire every 10-12 inches to maintain contact between the wire and the pipe. This was tied to the equipment frame (earth ground) - ShopBot/Planner/Sander and the other end was tied to the earth ground. This makes all grounds equal and prevents any buildup.
Between this and making certain that I have no data lines parellel to each other and a seperation between data and AC lines, and I have had no problems.

[lshuck]

Thnx Dan - I have something like that now as it goes directly to the collector, as I am now configured, without any extended duct work.

I now assume that if the dust collector is grounded (as well as all other equipt) and if the bot is grounded to the dust collector via the wire in the flex duct (as per ShopBot directions) then in case there was any static electricity build up, that it would be discharged via the grounding - A prior comment mentions that the "fear" of explosion is not founded.

Les

[lshuck]

Thnx Butch:

Seems like you are well "grounded" and I assume no hint of trouble.

Les