which dust collector

[dean moser]

i have a small 20 x15 shop...craftsman contractor tablesaw with biesmeyer fence...jet 14 band saw...delta 12 portable planer...dewalt chop saw... and am currently using 2 shop vacs for dust control...switching hook ups to tools like crazy!...which DC willbe best for my small shop with this criteria?...thanx

[glenn bradley]

What is your weather like? Can you vent to the outside? If so a bag unit with a slight modification would probably get you the most bang for the buck. In a small shop if you will return the air to the shop, you really want it clean. Otherwise its like sand-blasting the captive atmosphere. A bag unit with a good filter can do quite well.

I worked with a 1HP unit for quite awhile. It was very inadequate for anything except minimizing the floor sweeping. A Layer of fine dust covered everything (including my lungs). I added an over-sized American Fabric Filter bag as I had the headroom to go up quite a ways. This really brought the unit to a usable state; no more fine dust. It now serves my planer and jointer exclusively with a cyclone handling the rest of the shop.

In your space I would spend the money on a pleated filter. This will give you the surface area to keep some good airflow while minimizing the footprint. Many more will chime in I'm sure. All food for thought.

[Greg Peterson]

What is your budget? For most of us this is the primary factor. Every other decision is subservient to this limitation.

[Anthony Whitesell]

Second to budget, how much juice do you have (volts and amps)?

[Jeff Springer]

I have a 2 car garage and have 1.5 hp penn state
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/DC2V3.html
I ran 4" pvc with blast gates to my machines and just added the Thien cylcone to the inside of the dc http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm. This set up does a good job of dc for my 20x20 shop. tablesaw, jointer, planer, bandsaw, drum sander, lathe, miter saw

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

See the Harbor Freight 2HP thread.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=123985

You can order the Nov back issue of Wood Magazine and get a coupon for it for $139). The magazine back issue is $11. The coupon is good 'til Feb. 6, 2010.

[David Hostetler]

As noted above, to chose a DC system, you have to decide #1. How much are you willing to spend, and #2. How much power in volts and amps are available.

I happened to have a reasonably dedicated 20 amp 110v circuit available for use (It is shared with the clothes washer, I just have to plan around doing laundry). This powers my HF 2HP #98769 just fine.

There are a LOT of excellent dust collectors, but they all have some serious shortcomings in one way or another. But shy of spending $2,000.00 or more for a full on cyclone that most of us simply cannot afford, your best bet is a 1.5HP or better dust collector that is fitted with a 1 micron pleated filter.

A good setup would be a Harbor Freight #97869 2HP dust collector (buy it with the coupon, it goes for $138.00 or so...) and fitted with a Wynn 35a Canister filter. I opted for the spun bond poly version, but you can get the paper element version for about $40.00 less... Spun Bond cost me $175.00 to my door. ($147.00 + freight).

A better setup, would be the Delta 50-760 ($379.99 with free shipping from Amazon currently), fitted with that same Wynn 35a cartridge filter. The lack of the hose from the impeller to inlet ring offers some nice airflow advantages. This is probably one of the few dust collectors with a reasonably honest rating...

Build yourself a Thien pre separator, or put it in the inlet ring for either one, this will keep the big stuff away from the filter, keeping it from being damaged, AND keeping it clean longer, meaning the DC maintains proper air flow longer. Again, the design of the 50-760 lends itself very well to this. You can place a 30 gallon trash can based separator under the impeller inlet, and run a straight piece of flex line to the Thien lid / baffle, side inlet the can and you have a great start to your DC system... This is going to be the smallest footprint impact I can think of...

It sounds like you want to plumb your system instead of moving hose machien to machine. You need to make sure your machines support 4" dust collection hose. Your contractor saw will need some modification to baffle the back while allowing the belt and motor to pass through, I am not sure, I think the Jet bandsaw, and Delta planer have 4" ports, and your miter saw... Ugh... Miter saws are a pain to collect dust from. You will need a BIG hood to collect all that sprays off a miter saw blade... I am still experimenting with that.

[Yitah Wu]

I have a PDF of the coupon from the online version I can send..

[glenn bradley]

What is your budget? For most of us this is the primary factor. Every other decision is subservient to this limitation.

Second to budget, how much juice do you have (volts and amps)?

Before budget and before electrical . . . how much is your co-pay when you go to the doctor? My budget increased slightly each day that I had symptoms of working in a poor environment. Seriously though, Greg and Anthony are right; money and power are strong contributors to your decision making process.

I can say that I only wasted money by getting something inadequate that I had to replace later BUT, if your budget is small, go small if you can afford adequate filtering. Otherwise, hold off. Blowing 5 micron particles all through your shop is worse than leaving it alone (cigarette smoke is about .03 microns). Wear a mask and sweep up often while saving your pennies. I have had to save long and hard for some items and am glad I did (painful as it was).

[Gary Gleave]

I am currently thinking about this one.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Cycl...-2-Stage/G0703
I'm no expert, but, it sure looks the part

[john clanton]

I have a Grizzly 3hp dust collector with a 30 micron bag and 4" line. If I had it to do over again I would have bought a clearvue cyclone from the start and run 6" line throughout the shop. Check out Bill Pentz site, lots of information. Now I get to save up for a cyclone and try to get rid of the dust pump that I currently have. I have a fine layer of dust on everything when I use the bag dust collector I have now.

[Todd Moody]

I was also curious about the Grizzly G0703 DC. It is designed for low height situations, is ~$825 for cyclone DC. It seems like the perfect equipment for my basement shop situation..

Note, though, that to operate it at 220V will cost you another $78 +s/h for the 220V mag switch (I've been checking into this..) And both the DC & the switch are backordered last I checked.

-Todd

[rob mclaughlin]

Dean,

Your setup is nearly identical to mine - same TS, BS, chopsaw! My planer is a Jet, though. I also have a 6" jointer, 3hp shaper and a belt/disc sander. I just installed a Shopfox 2 hp (220 v) DC which I upgraded with a Wynn pleated filter. I used a 6 inch pvc trunk line with 4" branch lines to the TS, band saw, jointer, sander, and chop saw. I connect the planer and shaper as needed. This setup, along with a Jet air cleaner, works superbly. I can use 2 tools at once without closing the blast gate, and my shop is now 95% dust free.