Yet another DC question

[Rusty Eads]

I finally got my hands on a DC, a little 1hp dual bag collector. After pouring over Bill Pentz's site I am confused. Based on what I read I get the feeling that this collector is too small for, well anything. It has a 660 cfm rating and he recommends at least 800. Does that mean that all little dust collectors are useless or am I missing something. The three machines I have that really need it is my 13" Ryobi planer, my 10" delta contractors saw and my 6 1/8" craftsman jointer. The DC has a 4" inlet and again after researching that doesn't seem to be big enough. Basically my question is, will this DC work for me and what is the best way to set it up? Thanks for any advice

[Chuck Saunders]

Yes, it will work to a degree. It will do okay for chips for smaller chip producers. It may have trouble with planers, jointers and tablesaws.
where Bill Pentz comes in is not chip collection but fine dust collection. The need for high CFM rates fine filtration is where your DC will come up short. Adding filters will certainly improve the filtration, not much can be done to up the CFM.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Yeah - it oughta work OK - you won't suck the paint off of anything with that DC, but that's not what you are trying to do anyway. Put it on wheels (if it isn't already), roll it to the machine you are going to run, and hook it up - get quick-connect fittings for machines + DC, so you don't have to screw around with hose clamps. Keep the connecting hose as short as possible. Setting it up as a central DC, with piping to the machines - well, that'll probably not work too well.

Not sure of the details of your table saw - you need an enclosure that has a dust port. There are a coupla good back articles at FWW on how to improve dust collection on contractor/hybrid saws - helped a lot on my older Uni cabinet saw, even though it was already enclosed, etc.

There is a lot of valuable info at the Pentz site - I just wouldn't get too wrapped around that axle unless you decide to upgrade some day down the road.

[Chris Damm]

A 4" inlet will not get you 660cfm (about 400 tops). If you can open the inlet to 5" it will work much better. If it has the 30 micron bags it is a chip collector not a dust collector. You can increase the performance by switching to 1 micron bags.

[Henry Ambrose]

snipped....

Does that mean that all little dust collectors are useless or am I missing something.

Run any of your machines without the dust collector for 5 minutes, then five minutes with the dust collector. That should answer your question.

Of course, a small DC is vastly better than none.

Keep the collector close to the machine and the hose run short and direct. I would not run a bunch of hose or try to evacuate more than one machine at a time.

The place to look next is how well each machine can be adapted to get best extraction.

[glenn bradley]

As others have answered, it will collect larger stuff better than without. A lot of Bill's site is targeting the fine, invisible dust that gets in our lungs and causes problems. In that respect, many units do more to permeate the air with those 'fines' than to remove them. I wear a respirator most of the time I am in the shop even with a cyclone in one corner and a modified bagger in the other.