Cheapest way to go for proper dust collection?

[David Weaver]

Hand tools. that's the cheapest way I can think of. Quiet, too. Except the hammers.

[Ole Anderson]

I agree with Paul that dust collection is too important to give it less than your best shot. It will be one of your most used and useful tools.

[Jim Andrew]

I mean the Grizzly planer is easy to collect the dust from. Well designed hood,it does not need a 6" connection. 4" is plenty big. Too bad you are not my neighbor, picked up a cyclone reasonable today. They had 2.

[Mike Olson]

This is not for everyone, but you could always go the route I took with a ShopVac and a 2x4

[Phil Stone]

This is not for everyone, but you could always go the route I took with a ShopVac and a 2x4

That is extremely cool, Mike. How is it holding up under use?

[Mike Chalmers]

My set up. 2 HP Craftex CX400 (Cannister and 12 3/4" impeller). Super Dust Deputy on 32 Gallon Brute garbage can. 6" hose from DC unit to SDD, 5" from SDD to Junction. Junction connects to 20" planer, reduces to 4" to Table saw and jointer. Ridgid 6.5hp vacuum with Dust Deputy to over head dust collection on Table saw. Also used for Rotor table, Ridgid Oscillating edge/spindle sander, and general clean up. Shop Vac 2.5hp with Dust Deputy for Radial arm Saw. Also connects direct with Ridgid hose to Dewalt Ransom Orbital and finishing sanders. I have fans set up to circulate air around the shop to the overhead air cleaner unit. End result is a shop that shows very little accumulation of dust. No sense of dust in the air, no evidence of dust in my nose, throat etc (mucus buildup). In addition to the equipment, I seldom leave the shop without cleaning it up. I usually do a clean up at a tools once done, router table for example. It does not meet Pentz's standard (almost nothing does, unless you spend $5K plus), but I am confident that I have very good dust control and little health risk.

[Mike Olson]

That is extremely cool, Mike. How is it holding up under use?

holding up fine, but I'm just a hobby shop.

[Mike Cutler]

Michael

Get the biggest DC unit you can afford, be able to power, and put it outside the shop. Run the hoses through the door or the wall. If it's a longish distance you'll need to fab up a large trunk line for increased flow.

I have a 1 1/2HP Jet DC1100. It sits outside the shop with 4" flexible hoses that come through the door. It works pretty good actually, but I need a bigger unit, and larger diameter hoses to really make everything work better. Especially for the bandsaw.
Get the DC Unit out of the shop and you overcome a lot of obstacles that really drive the costs up.

Keith Outten has posted pic's of his "system", which is no more than a DC exhausting directly into a big plywood box outside his shop. Cheap and effective.

[Curt Harms]

You'll get different answers. here's mine:

Get a single stage machine, change the filter to a 1u cartridge, and then build a pre-separator. I have a couple Thien separators that work very well. The HF 2hp machine is a good value - I wouldn't call these mods 'heavy'. They're quite doable and straightforward.

I would also get a good shop vac and buy a Dust Deputy for it. A DD does a great job for dust collection for routers and sanders and other portable tools.

You can also save a good deal of $$ and increase your efficiency by planning your shop so either the hose can be moved from tool to tool or so the DC can be rolled up to each tool as necessary.

This is pretty much what I have. The best "bang for the buck" is IMO a Thien baffle. I have mine installed in the metal 'funnel' just above the lower bag. The baffle really helps to keep particles out of the cartridge filter. I still have to vacuum (and in my case hose out - Wynn 100% spun bonded filters can be washed out) perhaps once a year. All filters gradually clog and lose efficiency unless they're cleaned. A separator like Phil's baffle reduces the amount of chips and dust that make it to the filter so they need to be cleaned less frequently. A lot of people build a freestanding 'top hat'setup incorporating a separator. I don't really have the room and if I empty my D.C. bag when it's about half full, it's not hard to do. An added bonus to emptying early and often is I think less waste makes its way from the bag back into the filter.

[Erik Christensen]

you want to learn about dust collection go to billpentz.com

[Tom Clark FL]

Years ago I purchased a 1hp dust collector. It was a joke, so I purchased a 2hp G1029. It still works fine 20+ years later. The small dc ended up attached to the band saw. It can collect the dust from that.

The machines all back up to each other so short hoses can be used. A 30 gal trash can is used to separate the chips from the 15" planer and 3hp shaper.

I also have a home-made shop air cleaner that deals with the finer dust and the mess from routhers and sanders. Been using the same set up for nearly 25 years, but I am just a home hobby shop. The whole set up was quite inexpensive.

As usual, photos are not in order loaded, but you should be able to get the picture.

[Greg Portland]

The cheapest method is to buy any cheap chip collector (bags don't matter) and a high quality respirator. Fine dust will go all over the place. If you want to ditch the respirator then you will want to ensure that no fine dust escapes... this will cost significant money and setup time.

[Thomas Canfield]

It depends on your shop size and arrangement. I have a 2 HP Oneida cyclone with hard ductwork and slide gates installed in my little 16x24 shop because the system was relocated from a larger previous shop. Doing it over again, I would have probably opted for a stand/cart mount 1-1/2HP cyclone and only flex duct moving between equipment to save the cost of all the ridgid duct and gates. A 1-1/2 HP unit would serve 2 pieces of equipment (planer, jointer, table saw, etc) running. The only issue is the space to move the stand and the dust bin is usually smaller. The 1-1/2HP can also operate 110 or 220. I prefer a cyclone over the single stage units and a trash can separator also.

[Bradley Potts]

Yep, after completing my Thien separator hop-up to my HF 2hp DC, I figured out a couple of things:

1) Singed surface polyester DC bags are cheaper, easier to clean, less prone to clogging, but bigger than cartridge filters of the same level of protection and CFM capacity. These can be ordered to custom configurations.
2) As another member noted, knocking on the HF isn't such a good idea since it is nearly identical to the Delta, the Grizz, and the Jet that are comparable setups; yes, the way things are manufactured in China, these all probably come from the same factory and are built to slightly different specifications. The differences come down to filtration rate of the bags, and ergonomics. The HF's impeller is the same metal model, the motors are equivalent, etc..
3) The biggest expense, spatial requirements, and driver of cost for the whole system is the required duct runs, so those are the best element to minimize or eliminate. The elaborate duct systems are reasonable in a commercial setting, with multiple operating machines, many tools, many personnel, and large spaces, but in the typical home shop of less than 1,000 square feet, I think the big systems are a waste. The only benefit of the big system is that it is so big that it must become a stationary tool, but it takes up a lot of space, wants 220 power, and is permanently positioned.
4) No doubt, any system needs to be a 2-stage setup (chip separation), with a Thien being a cheap DIY option and the Dust Deputy being the best value for its performance in the ready made category. Again, 1 micron bags are readily available, Rockler just had a $25 sale price for a size appropriate for a 1hp collector, and 1 micron is the only acceptable level of performance, otherwise one ends up with what is known as a "dust pump" and the really gnarly, dangerous fine particulates will make it thru the system and into your lungs.

This all led me to conclude that if I were to do it all over again, I would instead go with 2-1hp portable units (450 cfm), NOT wall mounted unless the pipe run(s) was less than 7' or so. These would be setup as top-mounted, roll-about bin separator units with hoses no more than 6' in length, and positioned on 2 opposite sides of the shop. If one had a true dust beast, then both units could be hooked up in tandem. The very short duct runs guarantee that the small blowers can evacuate big tools, they use a lot less electricity, are lighter, much cheaper, easier to move around, easier to configure, and are a lot quieter than the bigger systems. Harbor Freight just had a 1hp portable on sale for $99, and it was basically the same as the $259 wall-mount Rockler unit. Importantly, Rockler sells all sorts of accessory hoses for their unit, and shows them being used in a very long configuration (>20' slinky hose) which KILLS its suction -- ignore that and use as much rigid pipe as you can and only a few feet of flex hose for very short runs. In the end, one could buy or make (see Mathias Wandel's YouTube vid) a higher performing impeller if you use a separator, and this would boost system performance.

The bottom line is that the 2 unit solution will be much cheaper at only ~$200, plus whatever it takes to make it mobile and add the dust separators, in the long run than some ducted, stationary system, and it will be far more flexible in its application. A final conclusion is in agreement with another member's comment to work more with handtools. This really makes a lot of sense for hobbyists, as it is a much cheaper path that is safer, takes up less floor space, isn't nearly as loud, and altogether eliminates the need for a DC.

[Andrew Joiner]

The cheapest method is to buy any cheap chip collector (bags don't matter) and a high quality respirator. Fine dust will go all over the place. If you want to ditch the respirator then you will want to ensure that no fine dust escapes... this will cost significant money and setup time.

I agree with Greg except I would change it a little.

The cheapest method is a broom and a high quality respirator. Next cheapest is a fan blowing dust away from you toward a leeward window. If you want to try to ensure that no fine dust escapes it will cost significant money and setup time, but no wood-shop is dust free.