Dust Collection for a newbie

[Brent Romero]

Been a while guys. I have been involved in a remodel/update of 3 bathrooms and so my woodworking time has been null. As I recently acquired a Ridgid jointer and a Delta 22-590 to compliment my collection and I am finally getting around to firing them up, I am quickly realizing that I probably should invest in a dust collection system.

Any tips and pointers would help. Not looking for something incredibly sophisticated but rather something that I can connect to one or two pieces of equipment at a time to allow for dust/shaving collection. Would prefer a wall mounted unit..looking at the one below.

Thanks in advance for the help.

http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-HP...ollector/G0710

[Ryan Wood]

Hf sells a realy good 2hp dust collector. I have one and i have a whole pvc pipe dust collection system. On sale it is only around 150. THe one upgrade most people do to them and what i want to do to mine is add a canister filter. The wall mounted dust collectors tend to be under powerd.

[Michael W. Clark]

Hf sells a realy good 2hp dust collector. I have one and i have a whole pvc pipe dust collection system. On sale it is only around 150. THe one upgrade most people do to them and what i want to do to mine is add a canister filter. The wall mounted dust collectors tend to be under powerd.

+1. You can also find used single stage machines as well. Check CL, local WW clubs, etc. I bought a used 1.5HP jet with canister used for similar price. However, the wall mount would probably be a step up from a shop-vac, at least in terms of material capacity.

[Chris Parks]

It will leak dust as it only filters down to 30 microns. It needs to be mounted in an area where the dust is not returned to the workshop.

[Myk Rian]

I have had my HF 2hp collector for several years. I put a 1 micron bag from JDS, and a trash can separator on it.
The 2 micron bag it comes with isn't bad at all.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I would forget the wall mounted unit. The should be called "dust distributors" as that's what they do. All the junk is in the filter bag, and fines are returned to air in shop. . You either have a zipper, or use the throat of bag to empty it. Both of which equate to a PITA! Look for a "two stage" (HF is one) and add a Thien Baffle before DC unit. Google "Another Vote for Phil Thien's Baffle" to see how I made my "Top Hat." Upgrade filter bags to 1.0 micron or less.

[Chris Parks]

To add to what Bruce said, anything that returns air to the shop needs filters, good ones and any bag type dust collector should never be placed where the air will return to the shop, end of story. All they do is save you using a broom to sweep up with at the end of the day. The absolute best way is to exhaust the dust extractor to atmosphere but that is not always feasible.

[Bill White]

I got GOOD bags from Highland Woodworking. They are felted, and work very well on my HF collector.
Bill

[David Kumm]

Check the fan specs on any collector you buy. Some HF collectors have blades that are forward inclined rather than backward. Those units deliver great cfm at low restriction but if you put a tighter bag and flex they will underperform in comparison to a BI fan. Hard to tell by feel but get the fan info. Dave

[Ryan Brucks]

I have the HF collector with the Nano Wynn filters. A good improvement over the stock filters. I think the HF unit is ok for jointers and planers, but for a table saw I don't think it is powerful enough. Bill Pentz's research backs this up, according to him the 2hp HF is more like 1.5hp achieving 600cfm tops. The thing has a rather small 10" impeller compared to other 2hp units like grizzly and jet.

I modified mine to use a 6" inlet but still the power draw is only like 10 amps so it's really not doing what I hoped. Not even close to enough cfm for a downdraft table with a 6" line for instance.

I am currently upgrading to a 5hp clear vue cyclone. I will be keeping the HF around just to help clean the filters of the new cyclone.

I'd also echo what others said about that tiny 1hp wall unit being a waste of time. If you add filters, it'd be underpowered. Without them, it's dangerous.

[Ryan Wood]

Is there anyway to increasse the propeler size or anyothere ways to get more suction from it because I was planing on buying a cartiage filter for mine withing the next couple of months but I dont want to waste my money. I did take a look at the 2hp canister dust collector grizzley sells but it runs on 220 and i would have to add a sub panel which I want to do some day but i dont have the 800 it would take to get a sub panel added. I may trie to save up for a sub panel this summer because school ends wensday and I think i am going to be doing some work for this painter I know. Sorry if my post got off topic

[Ryan Brucks]

I once read about someone who succesfully fit a larger Rikon impeller to the HF motor. I tried briefly but couldn't find a way to order the parts. I emailed rikon a few weeks ago but never heard back from them. Maybe you will have more luck. One small issue is the vanes on most of the impellers face the wrong direction for the HF (I forgot which direction to be honest). So you get some gains, but not as much as if the impeller were made larger with the correct vane direction.

I also read of a separate attempt where someone tried to put a larger grizzly and it was just too big to fit.


The biggest thing you can do is probably to change the motor mounting design. People usually do it in order to fit a thein separator under the inlet, but you can build a frame for the motor so that the motor is vertical, and located righy by the inlet to the HF ring by the filter. So then you have the blower connected physically right to the bag/filter with no 4" flex hose 90 bend. That 4" flex 90 is sure to choke down the CFM a decent amount. I know there are some photos of this change floating around, but it should be easy enough to wing it.

Would it get you the 800-1000 cfm needed for fine dust collection at the table saw? I doubt it, but it can't hurt!

[Ryan Wood]

Thanks I am going to have to try mounting the motor up higher

[Carl Beckett]

You could pretty easily run into problems changing impeller size.

The motor is designed to run at a certain loading condition. If you change the impeller - housing - it affects the load on the motor. Ultimately you could burn up your motor. If not damage - you would want to check to see if the new load was going to change the speed of the motor - thus losing any gain in the first place.

If you look at commercially available combinations, you see pretty consistent relationship between rated motor size and impeller diameter.

[David Kumm]

Generally a 2 hp motor is mated to a 12" impeller, 3 hp to 14", 5 hp 15-16". there is some variation due to design and system configuration. HF was running a smaller diameter which is why some were successful in swapping it out- besides being backwards. When you saw impellers within the same housing you may see less benefit than if the housing and fan were designed for each other. Dave