When creating or adding to our dust collection system, there are a great many details we need to keep in mind. Typically, we will have one dust collector connected to multiple machines around the shop. While this kind of works, it can work much better if you could turn off the airflow to all the machines except for the one being used at the moment. That's where blast gates step in. Simply open or close the blast gate to allow or block airflow to a specific machine. Ideally, the way blast gates should work, is that you should have a blast gate setup for every machine in your workshop. When you close all the blast gates to all the other machines, you increase the airflow or suction to the machine being used. This means that you should see less dust on the machine that is being used since it is getting maximum airflow or suction. This also helps reduce the amount of wear and tear on your dust collector.