Dust collection for turning

[Alan Tolchinsky]

Is anybody happy with dust collection using something other than a real dust collector?
If I go with a full blow dust collection system I'm thinking of putting my dust collector outside my small shop. I was going to drill a hole in the wall so I could put the suction hose through. The question is has anybody put a second hose into the room so the intake air for the DC comes from the shop thus making the pressure balanced and not sucking all the conditioned air out of the shop? Otherwise I would think there would be a vacuum in the room. What do you think? Thanks for any ideas.

[Harvey Ghesser]

Alan,

I've got the Oneida 3 horsepower in my basement and it returns the filtered air via a hepa filter. So I get my air returned so to speak. It captures particles down to 2 or 3 microns. The vacuum is powerful enough that it captures just about all wood particles when I sand. You don't want to mess around with your lungs.

Long story short....check out a hepa filter for your system.

[Reed Gray]

With a good filter, venting the air back into the shop is no problem. I also have the Oneida 3 hp system, and can run 2 machines at one time. The pleated paper filters are superior to the cloth ones if for no other reason because they have several times the surface area to vent through.

robo hippy

[kevin nee]

With pleated filters do you loose or gain CFM in suction

[Tim Rinehart]

Hey Alan, if you have a small shop like most of us, self included, one of the reasons you want your dust collector outside is because of noise. I have a HF 2 HP dust collector with with a 1 micron Wynn filter and it reduced noise a bit when at my lathe, but I've thought about putting the motor/blower outside and keeping the filter inside to minimize loss of ac/heat.
You may find some other thoughts in the Workshop forum. I got ALOT of info on modifying my HF DC there. Good luck.

[Reed Gray]

The pleated filters generally increase flow because there is more surface to vent through. About the same as adding another bag or two onto your collector. I did build a small room for my collector. The noise is minimal, even with 3 hp. Much of the noise comes from the air flowing through the pipes, not the motor or impellor/fan. If you are getting a lot of noise, that can be the fan being not well made/machined/balanced.

robo hippy

[David E Keller]

I've got the 5HP clearvue cyclone, and it's fairly loud. I did build a closet for it, and I'm still considering doing some other things to reduce the noise... Even with the noise, it's better than not having a dust collector.