LH Vacuum motors on side?

[David Iannone]

Mark,
Great job, looks good.

Rob,
Welcome and congrats on the new machine. You are about to be having some fun.

I got most of the stuff to finish with today. I will probably tell the electrician Monday to give me the rest of week / weekend to get it all done. The attached pic of plenum is what I am thinking about, planning to cut it tomorrow. The blue it where my ttrack already is attached to table base MDO.

Dave

[bobmagnuson]

Mark, with the motors mounted on their sides, did that change the height of the box at all??

I'm very limited on height (17"), but can go crazy with width and length. But I'm having a problem laying out out the pathways for intake and exhaust in order to cut down on the screaming.

[David Iannone]

Getting close. The electrician just got me hooked up with power........
I am finishing gluing PVC and bleeder boards today. Coming in this weekend to make filter box and put finishing touches on. I am gonna tee in the Gast pump so when I am doing engraving in rowmark I think I will be able to turn on Gast pump and turn off big vacumms. I never cut through the rowmark, and will have all other area in the small zone sealed. I made a small 12x12 zone for just smaller engraving.

Thanks Brady for ova the hump article.

Dave

[Mark Owen]

Mark, with the motors mounted on their sides, did that change the height of the box at all??

I'm very limited on height (17"), but can go crazy with width and length. But I'm having a problem laying out out the pathways for intake and exhaust in order to cut down on the screaming.

Bob, I stuck with the Black Box original configuration and didn't turn them on their side. If you look at the hurricane boxes they have the gate valves coming out of the top of the box. I figured they were able to do this via a sideways motor. However, quickest and easiest route is to follow those that have gone before. That is why I stuck with BB version.
As for noise it is 89db with two and 90-91db with four motors on. The same as my DC. Hearing protection is a must.
for sheet goods this is awesome. Solid wood still requires Raptor nails or screws to hold it secure.

Regards
Mark

[gerryv]

"... for sheet goods this is awesome. Solid wood still requires Raptor nails or screws to hold it secure."

Thanks much Mark; you just answered a critical question for me :-) Do you think two in series would make it possible to go without the raptor nails? I'm wondering if I should go ahead and get one of their Omer nail guns. With the exchange rate being so bad right now I'm trying to not go overboard. That's assuming you're running only parallel - one per zone.

[Mark Owen]

Gerald,
You can hold solid wood but only if it comes directly off of the planer or drum sander. If the finished wood has has sat for any length of time slight differences will allow vacuum to escape.
A couple of options I just read from yellow was to use screwed down blocks for sideways movement or an mdf board with T tracks. The vacuum would hold the mdf board down whilst the T track holds the material.
I hear you on the exchange rate. 20% more since last fall. It hurts and has stopped me buying from the US for a while.
If you do order the gun, but lots of 1.5" nails. You are paying for shipping and import duties anyways so you might as well stock up. I bought mostly 1.25" and hardly use them.

Regards
Mark

[gerryv]

Thanks much Mark. Is it realistic to think that these nails will actually go through hard maple and other hardwoods? I'm assuming it would be less of a concern with western red cedar. One of the products we're going to be producing will require us to start with six quarter rough lumber so maybe 1.25" coming off the jointer and planer. I'm wondering if it could work using your strategy - that's a lot of really hard wood to penetrate so would likely need. It sure would be nice if that could work as I'm really concerned about hitting clamps and such considering my limited skills.

[Mark Owen]

Gerald,
Raptor nails will not pierce 1" hard maple. 3/4" yes but can also cause splitting of the wood. I am guessing oak would be the same. Softer woods are okay. I think T track with the ShopFox clamps from Rockler would be the best bet for Hardwood.
You could also create a template out of mdf to hold the wood as long as the wood was dimensioned exactly the same size each time. Surround the wood and do 1/8" downcut through with material. The chips would fill the void the stop movement.
Unfortunately, there is no one clear answer. Every situation or even piece of board is different.

[gerryv]

Nothing beats good, clear info based on experience. I'm sure there are others now and in the future who will also benefit from your help on this so thanks once again.