Time to upgrade - need dust collection advice!

[Craig Kalkman]

I've got a 600 sq. ft. home shop with a tablesaw, jointer, planer, sander, miter saw, router table, and a few other small dust making toys. I have a Jet 1200(?) cfm single stage dust collector and hate it. Not enough suction. Want to upgrade to something with a cyclone stage, and I'm looking seriously at the Oneida Smart collector. Does anybody have it that might recommend it? Is Oneida worth the extra bucks? Or if there's something else I should be looking at I'd love to get that advice also. I'll also be upgrading from 4" flexible hose to a 5" or 6" main trunk mounted to the ceiling. Will a good system actually suck the chips up the pipe to the ceiling? Thanks for any help.

[David Kumm]

A good system will suck chips to the moon. I don't think your situation warrants the smart system. Really pricey for a basically a vfd to control the fan speed automatically. Go to at least a 6" main. I would get advice from Oneida and Clearvue and decide what seems best. You need to specify the actual tools and their sizes to determine the cfm needs to determine what you need. Get actual system curves as fan curves need to be cut in half to even get close. Err on the high side a little. I do run a big system on a vfd but you should be fine without. Size the ducts properly and use the correct fittings. They will cost more than you think but in large part determine the efficiency of your system. Dave

[Ken Deckelman]

My ClearVue cyclone really sucks...and I mean that in a good way!

[Ken Fitzgerald]

A good system will impress you and yes...my system sucks the chips up across a 10' ceiling and down into the barrel.

[Bob Wingard]

I've been very satisfied with my ClearVue ... some folks complain that it is a "kit" ... I found that to be advantageous, and it made it quite easy to customize for my application. My cyclone/blower/filters are all in the attic ... all you see on the main floor is piping/controls/return air from the filters/collection barrel, and all of that is high up on the walls & ceiling except the barrel. My entire unit takes up a total of abut 4 square feet of floor space.

[Ole Anderson]

I installed a 2 hp Oneida Super Dust Gorilla 8 months ago and am very pleased. Went with 26 ga snap lock steel duct sized from
7" down to 4". Clearview does make a nice system, but I wanted steel, not plastic and MDF. But that is just me.

[Bruce Wrenn]

First, I don't own a Jet 1200, but have friends who do. I suspect you are suffering from two problems. Stopped up filter bags, and excessive runs of flex. In my shop, I have a Wood Magazine (no neutral vane) Cyclone, with a Cincinnatti Fan 1.0 HP, with 10" blower wheel. Piping is 4" pvc. Often I use my 15" planer and 6" jointer on slab in front of shop. When using them, I have total three ten foot lengths of flex, along with over 25' of 4" pvc, including a nine foot rise to the ceiling, along with an in line Phil Thien Baffle on a 30 gallon trash can. I have no problem with DC keeping up with either machine. Google "Phil Thien" and add one of his baffles to your current DC. You can put unit in blower ring. Clean or replace the top bag (0.5 - 1.0 micron). Use plastic bag for lower bag.

[Paul McGaha]

Craig,

Considering the size of your shop and the tools you have I think a dust collector large enough to serve the entire shop would be the way to go.

I personally have a 2 HP Oneida Dust Gorilla and am very happy with it. I bought the 2 HP machine based on Oneidas advice. If I had to do it again though I think I would get one with a larger motor though just because it dosent cost very much to have more CFM. Just off the top of my head I think the price difference between a 2 HP and a 5 HP dust gorilla was only about $300 for markedly more CFM.

I've read several reviews on the Clearview and they seem to be super good. Grizzly, Penn State, JDS are also good choices.

As for the Oneida Smart Dust Collector, It wouldnt be my choice. I think you would be better off having both a really good dust collector like the dust gorilla and a good shop vac like a Fein or Festool rather than one machine that tries to do both. It seems it would be more cost effective also. Thats just my thoughts.

Good luck with your purchase. Having good dust collection in the shop is a great thing. Both for your health and the pleasure of working in a shop thats nice and clean.

PHM

[David Kumm]

Paul gives good advice. Machine ports are way underengineered. Most 4" ports should be 6 and it isn't always easy to redo. There is no substitute for enough capacity to pull lots of cfm through a small port. A larger system will pull 6000+ fpm through a 4,5, or even 6" port. That equates to 540 to 1200 cfm. Look at your machines and the machines you may have in the future andsize accordingly. 3 to 5 hp will cover you for sure. Less means you have to have good engineering. If you are not limited on budget, rather than the smart system I would spend the extra on a 5 hp 3 phase system and buy a vfd to power it. You can adjust the vfd just like in the smart system- it will never serve as a shop vac as the impeller can't pull the suction a vac fan can, but you will be able to dial in the proper cfm and still adapt if you change machines or configuration. Granted it is not as necessary in a smaller shop as one with long runs but pretty cost effective. I found a used torit cyclone and 5 hp motor for $500 and a vfd from ebay for $350 plus the cost of bags and filters. I got lucky but $2000 new buys high end clearvue and oneida. Don't overlook the filter area. Some of the system performance relates directly to the amount of cartridge included. Opt for more and you will be glad you did. Less pressure pushing fine dust back out-assuming you have to exhaust into the room and I doen't remember if you are but a 3-5 hp system should have close to 200 sq ft of filter. Most come with less but get as much as you can. Dave

[David Hostetler]

just FWIW, I have a HF 2HP DC, and am using 5" duct split to 2 4 inch lines. I pull dust, chips, shavings and whatever is too close to the dust port up to the ceiling, across, and down to the separator barrel no problem. Your Jet should be capable of that. Perhaps your runs are too long..

[Jim Becker]

I personally have had very good experiences with Oneida...DC is their business and they do it well. Both systems I have purchased from them did what was expected. (The first, smaller one, is still going strong in a friend's shop after I upgraded to meet the needs of the larger Euro machines that are now in my shop)

[Aaron Grumbacher]

the system calculations from this pipe manufacturer are very helpfull in determining sizing for your dust collection unit:

http://www.airhand.com/designing.aspx

[David Kumm]

Aaron, that is a pretty neat site and a good example. I would add that 5000fpm on the verticals is an even better target when designing the system due to the fact that dust ports are often poorly designed. It does show how fast SP adds up though. Flex adds even more so when you look at system curves it seems that the cfm at 8-10 sp is the relevant info. A flat curve beats a steep one as real life is usually worse than the calculation. Dave