# Looking for Non-Leaking Blast gate



## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

I have a 2-1/2" plastic Blast gate on my router table that leaks so bad, that I think its useless. I'm thinking about ordering an Aluminum one, but before I do I need to know if it has some sort of seal or if its tight enough to seal itself. 
I'm actually going to need two because I want to put in a 2 1/2" Y-Connector so I can also connect up my new spindle sander. So I really need it to seal properly.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

I've never seen a gate with seals on it. They all leak to some degree.

Unless you want to empty your wallet a bit..

http://www.blastgateco.com/Positive-Seal.php


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

Leo G said:


> I've never seen a gate with seals on it. They all leak to some degree.
> 
> Unless you want to empty your wallet a bit..
> 
> http://www.blastgateco.com/Positive-Seal.php


Wow oh my I'll just unplug my hose and plug it up with something before I spend that much. LOL.

Well Thanks anyway. I guess I'm not in such a hurry after all to buy a new one. I wonder if I can coat the plastic one with wax or maybe grease.


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

I just get my aluminum ones from Oneida-air.com They work nice enough, have a little screw to hold the gate closed and tighter. I rarely use the screw because I'm lazy, I don't want to have to undo the screw every time I want to open the gate. 

They don't have a 2 1/2" gate, they have a 3" gate for about $15.00


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

I have a couple of 4" aluminum gates but I don't want to run more 4" pipe plus it takes up too much space.
I'm now thinking of just using one gate and move a 2-1/2" hose around between 3 machines that are all in the same area.


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## ChipperOfWood (Oct 18, 2012)

Leo G said:


> I've never seen a gate with seals on it. They all leak to some degree.
> 
> Unless you want to empty your wallet a bit..
> 
> http://www.blastgateco.com/Positive-Seal.php


I just got a 5" gate from this company. http://www.blastgateco.com/Cast-Aluminum-Full-Blast-Gates.php It looks like a nice one but seal tight, I doubt it. As was said they all leak a bit unless you throw a lot of $$$ at them. If it leaks a little I don't really care.

Charlie


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

ChipperOfWood said:


> I just got a 5" gate from this company. http://www.blastgateco.com/Cast-Aluminum-Full-Blast-Gates.php It looks like a nice one but seal tight, I doubt it. As was said they all leak a bit unless you throw a lot of $$$ at them. If it leaks a little I don't really care.
> 
> Charlie


 It’s funny how they don’t sell 2 1/2" Blast Gates. :smile:

I want them to seal better then they do because when adding them all up, my HF 2HP DC system just can't handle it.

Anyway I tried adding wax to the Blast Gate and I can’t tell without measuring it but I can hear it pretty loud when it’s closed. I can’t take it apart but I’m going to clean the wax up and glue some thick paper on to what I can of the suction side and see if that works. I believe my aluminum gates do come apart and if the plastic don’t seal than I’ll order an aluminum and see what I can do for it.


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

Why don't you just get the http://www.blastgateco.com/Cast-Aluminum-Self-Cleaning-Blast-Gates.php self cleaning gates. I bought 6 from blast gate and the are far superior to the plastic. No more wood shaving jams.


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

Bob Willing said:


> Why don't you just get the http://www.blastgateco.com/Cast-Aluminum-Self-Cleaning-Blast-Gates.php self cleaning gates. I bought 6 from blast gate and the are far superior to the plastic. No more wood shaving jams.


Thats the same place Charlie posted. They have 2", 3",4" on up but no 2 1/2". 

I have boxes of dust collection fittings that don't fit together as is and I don't want to buy any more that don't fit. :smile:


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## Leo G (Oct 16, 2006)

You're probably not getting adequate dust collection using a 2 1/2" gate anyway. That gate is made for a shopvac which has a high static suction. DC on the other hand are low static pressure devices which require a lot of air movement but little resistance, ie: bigger ducting.

Most DCs are designed to work with 4" ducting or larger. I have a 2 1/2HP and I use a 6" trunk and 5" drops that go into 5-4" reducers because all my ports on my machines are 4". I can run 2 machines adequately and 3 depending on what they are and what I'm doing with them.


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

The 2 ½” blast gate on my router table works fine. My problem is not with the 2 ½” but at the table saw and joiner where I have 4” blast gates. I believe that there is so much air leaking from the other plastic blast gates that there is low suction at any open gate except for the 2 ½”. I did not have any problem until I added 4 more gates and 30 ft of 4” pipe.

It does seem to help to crack open another 2 ½” when I’m only using the router table or at least it sounds different, but I’m not sure because it sucked up the knob for my feather board and I heard it go up the hose and across the ceiling down to the Dust collector. In fact I always hear hunks of wood that breaks off when cutting dado's go up the hose.

Anyway what I may have to do is put in a Blast gates at the Y-fitting off the Dust Collector itself and use only one line at a time. Th biggest problem is reaching them


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## Sleeper (Mar 24, 2009)

Leo G said:


> You're probably not getting adequate dust collection using a 2 1/2" gate anyway.


 It just occurred to me that you may think I have 2 ½” running all the way but the DC Transition hose to the Router Table is only a short 5ft drop from 4”.


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