5" side inlet conversion done... It's ugly but... Pics are posted.

[dbhost]

so far boy does it work very well... I am wishing I had taken a different approach to marking / cutting the side inlet hole, as the main thing that is keeping it together is clear silicone adhesive caulk.

So if I had it to do over again, which I likely will. I will follow Chuck L's great advice, and trim out the pipe piece first, use it as a template, and THEN mark and cut the can... The paper template I made using Harderwoods software was simply too big...

Now after those laments. I have been able to connect the main runs, except for the floor run to the table saw, and test. I do not have any measurement tools to test with, just seat of the pants kind of thing by picking up a measured pile of a mixture of sawdust and concrete dust (long story it was on the floor and handy...) I simply measured the time it took to pick up 4 cups of this mixture from the same spot on the floor. The first time was in my original configuration, with a 20' flex hose, the next was with the hard ducting and new config and only 2' of flex hose... There was a 15 second drop in time for the ducted network over the long flex hose. This would translate to me to mean that I am getting higher air velocities and less turbulence than if I were using the long hose still...

A few more measley steps and I will be completely done with dust collection. This is a HUGE relief!

I bet y'all want to see a picture... It's not pretty, but here it is...