What's the current trend for small shop dust collection?

[Matt Meiser]

We plan to move from our 10 acre property with a 30x48 building for my shop into a subdivision this summer. My days of a huge dedicated shop are over, at least for the next 6-10 years. I've sold off most all of my stationary equipment but am keeping much of my Festool gear. I anticipate building an occasional smaller piece of furniture and maybe some built-ins for the new house, but no major cabinetry. Depending on the house, I may get somewhere between a corner of the basement and a nice size dedicated room for any/all hobbies. I'll also have part-time use of the garage when the weather cooperates. I already acquired a Bosch 4100 TS and am buying a benchtop jointer off a friend. I also plan to pick up a portable planer. I'm anticipating those three machines need something more than a shop vac, though the ports on the TS and jointer are sized for that. Since buying a 3HP cyclone several years ago, I haven't really kept up on dust collection trends. What are people doing now?

[Jamie Buxton]

Are you keeping what Festool calls a dust extractor? That is, a vacuum intended to pull dust from sanders and the like? If so, you might consider a Dust Deputy add-on. It will intercept the bigger chips from the planer to save the filters, but not eat much floor space in your smaller shop. Dust Deputy is Oneida's name, but there are other systems like it out there -- even homebrew.

[Matt Meiser]

Yes, keeping a CT22. But I don't see that keeping up with a planer, even with a pre-separator.

[Andy Fox]

My shop is roughly an L-shaped 20' x 25' section in a dedicated basement space. I live in a subdivision. It's walled off from the rest of the basement by a bare stud wall covered with only plastic for dust control. That wall has an exterior-type door leading to the rest of the basement. My main tools are:

contractor table saw
6" stationary jointer
13" planer
14" bandsaw with riser
free standing drill press

Current
I use a 1 HP Delta bag collector which is switched from machine to machine. There's plenty of stray dust and chips in my shop, but it keeps the chips mostly going to one place. Constantly swapping the hose detracts from the fun and efficiency of working.

Planned
I have a 2 HP Grizzly bag collector (1550 cfm claimed) which I plan to switch to as soon as I can put in a 220V circuit for it. I'll put a Wynn cartridge filter on top and a Thein baffle in the middle. Then, I'll do a fairly simple run of 6, 5, or maybe 4 inch PVC ducting to the main dust producers.

[Jamie Buxton]

Yes, keeping a CT22. But I don't see that keeping up with a planer, even with a pre-separator.

A lunchbox planer makes a lot less debris than a bigger planer.

[Andy Fox]

My 8 gallon shop vac does ok with my 13" Ridgid planer as long as I stop to empty it way too often. That's why I use the 1 HP collector.

The jointer often clogs when using a shop vac.

[Brian Tymchak]

Matt,

Although it's not exactly "current", I bought a Delta 1.5 hp 1200 cfm DC for about $300 6-7 years back and have been pretty happy with it. It has a 1 micron bag on it, runs on 110-120V. Not sure if it can be flipped to 220. I have it stuck in a corner with 2 4" spiral pipe trunks running down each side of the basement, with 3 or 4 4" connections on each. Then flex pipe to each machine. It won't suck every last bit of dust off the table saw or every chip off the planer but it's good enough for me. It will take a 5" duct if you want to run a single run. The cart itself seems a little flimsy, but I only wheel it out about 4' to empty the bottom bag and wheel it back into its corner.

I also would advise putting an air cleaner in to avoid dust being pulled in to the rest of the house by the air returns.

Just checked amazon - it can be rewired for 240.

[Shawn Pixley]

We plan to move from our 10 acre property with a 30x48 building for my shop into a subdivision this summer. My days of a huge dedicated shop are over, at least for the next 6-10 years. I've sold off most all of my stationary equipment but am keeping much of my Festool gear. I anticipate building an occasional smaller piece of furniture and maybe some built-ins for the new house, but no major cabinetry. Depending on the house, I may get somewhere between a corner of the basement and a nice size dedicated room for any/all hobbies. I'll also have part-time use of the garage when the weather cooperates. I already acquired a Bosch 4100 TS and am buying a benchtop jointer off a friend. I also plan to pick up a portable planer. I'm anticipating those three machines need something more than a shop vac, though the ports on the TS and jointer are sized for that. Since buying a 3HP cyclone several years ago, I haven't really kept up on dust collection trends. What are people doing now?

You'll need some sort of DC system for the planer. I am in a similar situation with a garage that functions as a garage, a wood shop and a metal shop all in one. The garage is a must as both cars are parked their nightly. Hence everything must be small and moveable. I use a cheap HF DC (~100$ 1 to 1.5 HP 110v) with a 1 micron bag and a Thein separator in front. It gets moved to the work and connects with a 4" flex hose. For storage, the DC wheels under the TS when pushed to the wall. The separartor lives in the side yard. The hose hangs on a door. If you plan your work and operations well, there is not too much time switching between machines. In other words, all cutting at once, all jointing, etc... This is essential, as if that becomes too much of a pain, then you are tempted to "just do one cut" or similar without the DC creating a bigger mess. Routing, planing and sanding are my biggest dust generators that are problematic. My SS contractor table saw has been hot rodded to improve DC and provide integrated outfeed table. Admittedly, I do almost all joinery in neander fashion, so I may be atypical. I use machines primarily for stock prep and I don't have a jointer preferring to flatten with hand planes. I seldom use the planer and instead resaw for thickness.

My advice: small, simple, modular and mobile, one machine at a time.

[Phil Thien]

Well I don't know if it qualifies as a trend. But, in my small shop, I use a Ridgid 12-gallon vac through a 30-gallon separator (with "Thien" baffle, of course and then I've piped the shop with clear 2.5" piping purchased from Rockler.

I don't own a single tool with a port larger than 2.5". And my system works well for the table saw, my DeWalt 12" planer, and my 6" benchtop jointer.

I lose some CFM to the separator and the pipe. If I were to connect the shop vac directly to each tool I was using at the time I'd get even better collection. And that is what I once did. But changing the hose around each time I wanted to use a different tool was a pain and therefor I'd often just "make one quick cut." With my current arrangement I use it every single time.

I previously had an ambient air cleaner I used for stuff missed by the primary collection, but for reasons I won't bore you with (except to say I was in the middle of an amazing upgrade when I got distracted with other projects) I'm not using one now. But when I did combine the ambient air cleaner with my shop-vac and Thien-separator system, I got very respectable readings from my Dylos.

Good luck on the move! I'm at the other side, with my last kid now entering college. We moved into a community for the school system when the first kid was about four. Now we're wondering whether we want to stay or get out.

[Brian W Smith]

Good luck with your transition.

Beats me on what's current?Considering the profile of fabrication side of our facility........rolling sheet metal DC parts is child's play.And as mentioned above,runnin a shop vac is entirely doable.We developed our big TS's blade shroud to the point that it practically is a waste of electric to even use the DC....so very well could be a shop vac?Point being....with thought/desire you can make yourself whatever "system" you want?I would strongly encourage using sheet metal vs plastic.You just have so many more options,but hey...most folks use plastic so,duh?

[Ole Anderson]

Matt, you can't move, you FINALLY got your high speed internet!

As to what is current: It seems folks are moving to cyclones in lieu of bagged or bagged/filter systems. But that is kind of like saying folks are moving to SawStops in lieu of contractor saws. But for a really small shop, that may not be the best solution.

[Matt Meiser]

Sellers accepted our offer so now I'm pretty confident in the actual house we're buying.

Ole, the new house has service available from Charter, Comcast, and AT&T. I told our Realtor to not even bother showing us houses that don't have at least 2 solid providers. My wife has identified a new campaign for me--Monroe has no Starbucks.

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure I'm actually going to set up a shop as much as have a place in the basement and/or garage I can pull stuff out and build something. I anticipate there will be things we need for the new house but once that's done a lull. Part of me wants to build vanities for the baths in the new house but timing wise that's just not going to work out.

I did see one of the HF 2-bag units on CL locally that I sent an email about. If its in good shape and I can get it cheap and add the Wynn filter I can be in it for a relatively low $ value and have a good workable solution.

[Brian Kincaid]

I have a cyclone DC, but have not finalized my tools arrangement in the new shop so I have been using a 5" 25' flex hose. It keeps up fine with a 15" planer and 8" jointer. As you already know the footprint for a cyclone is vertical, for other DC's it is a little wider but certainly more mobile.

For your situation, if you need to use a planer, you might consider a similar arrangement.

-Brian

[Daniel Greening]

I built a custom small vertically arranged cyclone unit out of an Oneida steel Super Dust Deputy, Oneida 17 gallon drum, a Reliant 2HP blower unit, and a Wynn 9L300NANO pleated filter. I was able to get my hands on a 25x48 heavy duty steel dolly, which I covered with 3/4 plywood, and built a stand on it using Superstrut u-channel. The blower unit is up top, and is directly connected to the SDD (which is below) output port using a 5 to 6 inch long-taper reducer. Works great for my small basement shop! I should take some photos of it! The 17 gallon drum might be small, but it sure is compact, and makes the whole unit short enough to fit in the basement with its slightly low ceiling.

[Mark Coffey]

I use the 1 1/2 hp Grizz cyclone in my garage shop with flex hose and it does a decent job and doesn't take up much space.