• Ducting is a conduit or passage allowing air to be transported from one place to the next. A good example of this would be your air conditioning system in your home, which is sometimes referred to as HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning)

  • Ducting for dust collection is to move dust from a machine to the dust collector. 

    • In a shop there are “Main” ducts which usually refers to the large duct that runs overhead on the ceiling. 

      • Main duct is runs horizontally

      • Main duct has a recommended air velocity (or speed) of 3500 FPM (feet per minute) in woodworking environments

    • There are also “Branch” ducts, which refers to duct that drops from the main duct to the machine

      • Branch duct runs vertically

      • Branch duct has a recommended air velocity of 4000 FPM in woodworking environments

  • Ducting can be made of different materials:

    • Galvanized steel - most favorable type of ducting

    • PVC (polyvinyl chloride) - plastic. Debated to cause a lot of static

    • Flexible or Flex hose - commonly used; least favorable type of ducting

      • Suggested to usually use very short amounts to connect branch duct to machine.

      • Flex hoses are “flexible” so it can cause air to be slowed down when it running into a bend or turn

      • Flex hoses have “ribs” inside the hose which can slow down or cause dust to get stuck in the ribbed section of the hose.

  • Ducting layout is usually calculated at furthest machine from the dust collector

    • Ducting is commonly seen at 4”, 5”, 6” and more.

    • Ducting is very important for proper/efficient dust collection

    • When setting up a shop, Ducting is usually the first thing a person should look into before buying a dust collector. 

  • Shop layout and placement of the machine is an important factor to effectively determine the efficiency of ducting and dust collection in general.

    • Machines that requires least amount of “CFM” (Cubic Feet per Minute; also referred to airflow) should be placed the furthest from dust collector

      • Ambassador C14 bandsaw requires about 400 cfm

      • Alpha HW110LC table saw requires about 470 cfm

  • There are a lot of websites that can help calculate ducting and it’s recommended to have customers reach out to companies that provide ducting products for help setting up a shop. Companies such as: