Impressions of Rockler wall mounted DC

[Michael Merrill]

I just recently upgraded from a shop-vac to the Rockler wall mounted DC. I have it mounted between my band saw and planner, near my table saw. I'm Using Rocklers expandable 4" hose but most of these tool are within 8-9' so it isn't a long run.

I've used it mostly so far with the bandsaw and planner, on the planner which is a 6" Delta open stand model it doesn't seem to work all that much better than my old shop-vac. I do suspect that the DC setup on this entry level planer is less that stellar and maybe with some home engineering I can tighten up the path from the planer base to the outlet.

I'm curious of other folks impressions? Is the standard bag working OK or have folks moved to the 5micron bag? Also curious if people are putting a home built cyclone separator in front of it?

I have very limited space and without this wall mount size DC I would have to stay with a shop-vac system. Just looking for impressions and ways to maximize performance.

[Josiah Bartlett]

I have a Harbor Freight 31810 dust collector mounted on my wall that I use with the Rockler 5 micron bag and a Delta 22-580 planer. It seems to be similar to the Rockler unit. I find that mine works fine as long as you keep the bag emptied out, and I have removed the grates on both the intake and the output connections. I use a smooth wall hose, though.

I feel that the Rockler unit itself is a bit overpriced but I do like the 5 micron bag. If you use it in concert with a separator then you should get all the air flow the 1 hp fan can provide. It does a good job collecting fine dust.

[Michael Merrill]

Actually I posted this incorrectly most of the testing has been on my Delta Jointer, this has the "chute" that travel down to the edge of the base and I think that chute is not very tight fitting which probably diminished the effectiveness of the roughly 600cfm I'm starting with.

YOu mentioned about keeping the bag clean, so far I've only had the new DC in use for about 20 minutes of very light work so I think it practically brand new.

[Josiah Bartlett]

The bag works a lot like a vacuum cleaner bag- the CFM will diminish once the bag gets more than about half full, but the bag will filter smaller particles as the pores clog up with fine dust.

I don't even bother with dust collection on my jointer- its easier to sweep up whatever falls out of the chute than it is to empty the DC bag. Jointers with sharp knives create chips but not dust.

[Mike Reinholtz]

I have the Rockler wall mount unit with their 5 micron bag. The 5 micron bag was a huge step up in filtration, with the 30 micron bag I could actually watch dust come out of it when it ran or if I bumped the bag. These machines lose suction VERY quickly once the bag gets more than 1/4 full. I found at at 1/2 full they don't pull much at all. The problem you are having with the planer sounds more like an issue with the planer. I haven't had any suction issues with this machine yet, just capacity.

As mentioned by others, the metal grates on this unit get irritating quickly, although any kind of separator would fix that as well. I've had them get plugged just from cutting dados in plywood.

Overall it's a nice unit if you don't have the floor space, which is the reason I bought it. It will NOT work with any ducting, I tried this and found even with sheet metal duct that was all pitched properly and sealed it still lost a great deal of suction. I went back to moving the hose from one machine to the next.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I would definitely get the 5 micron bag,and add a "Phil Thein Baffle" ahead of the blower. The baffle will catch almost all your chips. Google "Phil Thein," and look for my post "Another Vote for Phil Thein's Baffle" over at NC Woodworker.

[Mike McDonough]

I had a jet,suppose to be 1100 cfm,it was a POS,IMHO.I bought a Dust Gorilla and sold the jet.OMG,you would not beleive the difference,this DC sounds like a 747 when it starts up and its designed to run all day long.If your serious about dust collection check em out.

[Michael Merrill]

I had created a Phil Thein separator of the 5g can variety for my shop vac but now I will need to create a new one of a different size considering the 4" hose. I've looked for some kind of a 12-15g bucket/can/etc but have not found anything to start that project from as yet, Ideas?

Once again due to limited space I can't really go up to a 30+ garbage can size as that starts to take up the same space as a full size DC like a 1100 CFM type and If I had the space for all that I wouldn't have had to go the wall mount approach.

I figure if I get the 5micron bag and come up with some separator design things should work pretty well.

[Josiah Bartlett]

How about a tall kitchen style garbage can? Those are about 30 gallons.

[Michael Merrill]

Yes, something like that is what I'm after. In my office restroom the waste can is a typical gray industrial looking hard plastic thing about 15" dia and 32-36" tall. Given that it is a hobby based shop, just having a separator that would hold 12-15 gallons would be fine.

It mostly about making the most of the space I've got. I've looked at some plastic and fiber drums at us http://www.usplastic.com/ , but hope I could find something locally.