anybody got the static pressure for the Harbor Freight 1hp Mini Dust Collector?

[Bruce Seidner]

I have had this little HP 1hp blower for some time and it is collecting dust, but just by sitting on a shelf. Now that my central dust system is taking shape and I am waiting on some parts, I am taking clear aim at my hand tools like the router and sanders that just make a mess of my shop vac. The HF manual states that this 1hp blower produces 914 CFM and it has a 4" inlet/outlet. A recent and silly post about the efficacy of the Thien baffle caught my eye and I had the thought to make what I would buy if I won the Irish Lottery, a Festool vacuum. But seeing as how I have this handy little blower I was thinking of making a follow-me-around-collector for the router and the sanders that need a higher static pressure and are fitted with 1.25" or so ducts. I imagine I could just purchase a little Dust Deputy but I have enough spares around the garage to make a Thien collector and would prefer this over an overpriced milk jug. (No disrespect, I am just say'n.)

What size fittings would one recommend?

I am thinking stay native and go 4" into the Thien separator from the blower and then go 1.25 to the tool. I am debating about what to do about the outlet from the blower and I have a number of surplus bag house dust bags in a large box for a rainy day such as this. They would be far better than the bag it came with, or, my wild hair idea is to exhaust to a 12 foot long 27" round bag that I am using for my ambient dust collector. But the extra hose would surely reduce the static pressure on the collection side. So I will keep filter issues secondary to the main issue of what size duct to the hand tools from the Thien separator that at some point becomes 1.25" and where to transition.

Input and wild hairs welcome.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Bruce, I often used my cyclone for dust collection from a random orbital sander and it worked great because the sander fan already picked up the dust and ejected it at a positive pressure.

The extremely low negative pressure from the cyclone could then pull the dust through to the cyclone.

The same is definetley not true of the router where you will need a large neagative pressure to create enough airflow for chip collection. You will need a vacuum for that task.

As for a filter to discharge the air from a sanding operation into your shop, you need a HEPA filter, not a bag filter.

Regards, Rod.

[Bruce Seidner]

Ron, ever the voice of experience and reason. I do have a sanding station planned and a wye/drop from the central system to take care of it. And my experience with orbital sanders is also that they are relatively house broken. But the belt sander and router and planer are all feral and a mess in a small basement shop. I know you have a Festool vac from previous posts. My question has to do with the design of a Thiel separator that would be maximized to keep the static pressure high and hopefully do a better job than my aging 25 year old Craftsman shopvac. I have all the parts and fittings around the house. I will reconsider the ease of using some of the industrial felt bag house filters I have a box of and opt for one of those Wynn cartridge filters I have seen and admired.

But given the alleged 914CFM of this HF blower (at lord knows what static pressure), I am looking for advise on the height and diameter for the Thien "Hat" and how to manage the ducting to these tools so that it is not an afterthought. I think the Thien site is great but I could not find an answer to my question about maximizing the vacuum or static pressure for hand tools or the issue of using smaller duct which would increase static pressure. Unlike larger machines these hand tools produce smaller wood chips and the length of the hose is going to be relatively short. It will be an R2D2 StarWars side kick. I put in a question about this just a bit ago on the Thien site and will cross post answers as I get them. I think Y'all got some snow this week up North. I am waiting on some 8" wyes for the main system on Ebay that are buried in snow in norther Ohio. I imagine Ontario is fairing the same.

[Curt Harms]

I doubt this would work well. I don't recall a Dust Collector type blower that would generate more than about 12" S.P. A Fein vac is rated up to 99" or so. Sometimes a fire hose works best (dust collector -- high flow low pressure), sometimes a high pressure washer (shop vac -- low flow high pressure) works best.

[Bruce Seidner]

You know, it is funny. I just looked at the stats of some shopvac's and did not realize the numbers I am dealing with. Most of the 6hp vac's produce between 50" and 60" of static pressure and this is something that I think I understood but did not know, as in real numbers. Yowza! Of course a shop vac only produces about 100 to 200 CFM. So your analogy is perfect and I will get off the idea of using this HF blower. It was just sitting there on a shelf and I am between projects waiting on some parts for rebuilding my central system. I think I got the little blower 5 years ago for $20 new because it had a chip out of one of the ducts. I use the little guy when I have the table saw outdoors and I want to direct the majority of chips into the garden and have less clean up on the driveway. Otherwise it just takes up space. But clearly it ain't going to cut it for the job I have in mind.

So, back to the drawing boards and it will need to be a HEPA Shop Vac powered separator. I will start going down the rabbit holes of these archives and see what size Thien hats people are putting on hand tool dedicated separators. I suppose I could look into the ClearVue mini but that is out of my current price range having stocked up on parts for my main system. I want to use what I have at home so I will find, or some kind soul will point me, to the Thien hat optimized for hight SP vacuums using 2" ducts.