Dust Collection

[William Tanner]

I'm in the market for a dust collection system. I've reviewed past threads on SMC and saw that most are several years old. I'm considering the Jet Vortex unit that is described as having a 2 micron canister kit. How much better would a 1 micron system be? Any recommendations would be appreciated. There is a Jet sale through tomorrow. Thanks

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Ok since no one replied so far, I'll give my $0.02. I don't own the Jet, but I do have a Delta 760, 1 micron bag. Dust still makes it out of the bag. It's a little cheaper than the Jet. BUT given the parts/service problems with the Delta Midi lathe, I would hesitate to reccommend any Delta product right now. 2 micron may not be what you want, since my 1 micron still has a small amount of dust that makes it out.......

[Dan Masshardt]

I'm in the market for a dust collection system. I've reviewed past threads on SMC and saw that most are several years old. I'm considering the Jet Vortex unit that is described as having a 2 micron canister kit. How much better would a 1 micron system be? Any recommendations would be appreciated. There is a Jet sale through tomorrow. Thanks

There are dust collection threads almost daily (or so it seems) in the workshops forum.

[Mike Lipke]

I have an Oneida system.

[Matt Mackinnon]

First off you need to decide if you are looking for Dust Collection or simply Chip Collection. I turn some pretty exotic woods and felt that the dust that comes off when sanding, i wanted to maximize the protection that I can have. I went with a large 5hp Clearvue Max with an 8" trunk. This unit has .3µ hepa filters and it does work.

As soon as you said a "dust bag" you have answered the question of Chip Collection as a bag by design can't filter out the fine dust particles that will cause problems. A bag is made of felt and is designed to cake up with dust particles that will help trap the finer dust. But until it cakes, you are letting out about as much fine dust as you are sucking up. So it's only really catching the chips. You will need a canister that has a fine particulate filter to catch the dangerous fine dust particles.

Next you need to understand CFM air movement. Fine dust is very light and hard to capture. So you need to move an awful lot of air to get it. Also you need large enough pipes to allow that air to move down.

Not to seem off topic... but I have a table saw (yes this is the turning forum) that I hooked up to my cyclone. There is a 6" pipe leading to the Table Saw dust port. That port is 4" but the pipe inside is only 3". On the weekend, I found that I just still getting too much sawdust and fine dust in the air when using my table saw. When I pulled the hose off the back of the Table Saw and disconnected the 6" pipe, it was full of sawdust that just didn't make it over the 9' run to the cyclone. It's not that the cyclone doesn't have enough suction. it can move over 1300cfm, but ultimately the 3" pipe inside the Table Saw reduced the amount of air flow that it couldn't carry the chips/dust along the larger pipe to the cyclone. My point is, you need to overcome the weakest link. I cut a new 6" hole on the table saw cabinet, and now I have no problems.

The question you ask is not cut and dry easy to answer. You need to really define what is it you are looking to get, and then properly design a system from your needs. For me, it cost over $3500 to get my whole shop properly setup for DC. I think it was worth every penny spent. but that is just me.

[Joseph Tarantino]

the votex cone adds to the cost of the jet single stage DC and many of us have retro fitted other DCs with similar modifications that perform the same function. please note that the cone does not increase air flow by itself. it directs more of the collected particulate matter to the collection bag away from the filter thereby maintaining air flow longer providing more effective dust collection over a longer period of time. here's my modification to DELTA 50-850 (same as the jet single stage DC). the DC and canister filter were $150 from a woodnetter and the baffle modification cost ~ $10 (i found a 16" discarded frying pan). for more info on effective dust collection, try phil thien's site (google j. phil thien. links to other forums aren't permitted here). IMHO, a new jet DC with vortex cone, while a good, average DC, costs way too much for what you get. i would post a link to a write up i did on the modification, but links to other forums aren't permitted here. my modification dramatically improved the diversion of collected dust to the collection bag and actually left the filter cleaner than it was before the modification.

[Paul Wunder]

Much of the dust that is harmful is less than two microns in size. More like one micron or less. I would recommend a filter capable of capturing one micron or less. All major cyclones meet that standard and many single stage units also do. I would recommend against a 2 micron filter.