Any owners of a Grizzly G0441 3 HP Cyclone Dust Collector.....

[clayton sansbury]

I am in the market for a cyclone. I was very impressed with the construction quality, included remotes, dust bin, etc on the Grizzly G0441 3 HP Cyclone. My only concern from spending too much time researching this subject is if 110 sf of filter is enough surface area for long term operation. Bill Pentz's design has 600 sf for example. If any owners of this Grizzly machine can comment it would be very helpful. If I end up having to upgrade the filters at the cost of around $400 then this cyclone quickly loses its value.

Background: I have a small shop (450sf) that I use to build hollow wood paddleboards. One of the steps is thickness sanding 34" x 12' long boards down to the finished thickness of 1/4". I end up sanding 1/16" off both sides of 24 feet of cedar. This is a TON of fine dust but it is only done once a month. The other big dust producer is resawing, ripping, then routing 12' 2x6's into 1/4" bead & cove strips. Most of my work is with hand tools but currently the shop is never free of dust.

My decission is really just between the Grizzly G0441 3 HP Cyclone and a Bill Pentz/Clearvue. I have been quite hesitant to buy or build a 5hp Bill Pentz/Clearvue as it might be overkill 99 percent of the time. I have considered venting outside for these two dusty days a month through the cyclone with no filters this doesn't seem very responsible for the neighbours.

Thank-you!!

[Jim Andrew]

I have a 2 hp cyclone, and it is good enough for planing, sawing etc, but for the sanders not so good. I'm sure if it was vented outside when sanding would be much better. If you have enough room might be a possibility when sanding, as most of the dust would still end up in your bin, just the dust that would wind up in the filter would be blown outside. Filters seem to be the limiting factor with dust collectors. A filter with a layer of dust actually cleans better than a clean one, but it restricts the air flow. Some machines are designed much better than others regarding their ability to pick up the dust with your dust system, the Woodmaster planer I had was lousy, but when I got a Grizzly 453 planer, found it is easy to collect all the chips. I have increased the opening size on my edge sander from 4 to 6", and ran 6" pipe right up to the opening on my bandsaw, even cut the flange off my widebelt sander and increased the opening size. Some manufacturers just keep doing what they always have, others actually spend some time on dust collection. My new Hammer tablesaw has a shroud around the blade, that makes a huge difference. They also include over the top dc, the opening is only 2" but surprising how well it works.

[Wade Lippman]

I have one and my shop is dust free, even when using a drum sander.
The filter is pretty big; does Clearview use 6 of them?

My only criticism of the cyclone is the room it requires. It says it will install in 96", but good luck ever getting the dust bin out. I have mine at 99" and it is barely adequate. I have a bit of room left and am thinking of putting another 2x4 under it. (I built my only stand out of 2x4s)
When I got mine, people told me that 30a was adequate, while Grizzly recommends 40a. I put in 30a and it has been fine. YMMV.

BTW, the Clearview motor might be 5hp, but it only draws 21a; a bit less then the Grizzly. You do the math.

[Rick Alexander]

You sound just like me a few years ago. Those were my choices as well but I ended up with the Grizzly mainly because I wasn't confident in that plastic cyclone body. The Grizzly is a tank. I mounted mine on the wall and I still like it that way. I know I can't move it but heck it would take me forever to repipe things if I moved it anyway so it just stays where it is. If I run the dual drum a lot then I've got to remember to pull the brushes up and down the filter a time or two to knock off the fine stuff on the filter or it will bust the plastic collector bag on the bottom. Also, I haven't done it yet but you really do need some sort of dust deputy system to let you know when your bin is full. It doesn't take as long as you think and if you overfill, it's just a big ole mess to clean up. I followed Bill's advice and just bit the bullet and ran 6 inch pipe all the way except for just before it splits off from the main line into 2 sixes (1 9 into 2 sixes). You really have to figure in the costs of the piping as it ended up at around $600 for my 24x32 shop to run all 6 inch to the typical machines for a cabinet shop (TS, BS, Planer, jointer, router table, shaper, drum sander, edge sander, RAS, Chop saw, and floor sweep). I still have few problem areas like with the chop saw, over the top of the table saw, and RAS in that they don't collect 100% but all in all I'm very happy with the results of the Grizzly. I could probably improve those areas if I gave some more attention but it works fine now. I don't think you'll ever be dust free in a working shop. Probably the biggest negatives from going to the cyclone over the old style DC's over what I had (filter top single stage 2 HP Jet and a cheapo Harbor Freight 1.5 HP dual bag) is the noise. That thing is a bit loud but I've got a good bit of hearing loss already as I've gotten older so I wear hearing protection out there anyway. I wish I could put it outside but I'm afraid I'll lose my climate control in the process too much. I've got a friend that put his in a little closet with several vents at the top and that helped with the noise quite a bit without it getting too hot in there. I might do that one day but for now I put some rolling cabinets in front of mine to deaden the sound a bit and I just roll them out of the way when it's time to dump the bin. I ran 30 amps as well and haven't had a problem with mine popping a breaker. If you're going to do a lot of planing, go ahead and plan on a 3rd stage system to catch that dust and save yourself from constantly having to change the bin. I have mine set up to run two Rubbermaid 55 gallon plastic cans when I'm planning a bunch of lunber at once and that speeds the process up immensely and I don't have to empty the metal bin even once (that thing can get heavy). PM me if you want to see the design of that. I run a lot of rough lumber in my shop so sometimes I have to plane several hundred BF at a time and it's a lifesaver. I think you'll love that Grizzly.

[clayton sansbury]

Thank-you!! I already have a 55 gallon drum collector that worked great with a little 2 hp collector so I will keep your suggestion in mind if I am planning lots of lumber. Great to hear from some happy customers. The double drum sander was my biggest concern as I can produce 1/3 of a drum of dust in a little over an hour.

[Charles Coolidge]

I have Grizzly's 1.5 HP cyclone, I'm still amazed at how much of the fine dust collects in the drum. The filter still looks new, I crank the handle to clean it and pretty much nothing falls out of it. It is LOUD it measures 94 decibels same as my 12" table saw.