Dust Collector Size?

[Casey Reames]

Hey everyone, I don't post very often since I can usually find answers searching older threads. However, in this case, I'm not finding much.

I have a small shop. 2 car garage. I need dust collection. My question is, how big and how much? I really only need it for my cabinet table saw and my bandsaw. I would be only hooking up one at a time by moving a flexible hose back and forth between the two. I'm torn between getting the Grizzly 1 HP canister DC and the 2 HP canister DC. Is 1 HP more than enough for dust management on a single piece of equipment? Or should I be safe and get the 2 HP? I don't want to overkill this situation like I usually do, and I don't want to have to leave open ports on the intake because my DC is way overpowered for my needs. Any advise would be very helpful. Thank you.

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Casey, dust collector horsepower is completely meaningless.

What you need is a system curve for the dust collector that shows airflow (volume) at different static pressures.

That's the only way to evaluate whether the collector will work for you.

A tablesaw needs somewhere around 800 CFM for effective collection above and below the blade.

It's very possible that you will add machines to your collection in the future.

Personally, I wouldn't consider a single stage machine................Regards, Rod.

[James Gunning]

Get the 2HP, it will not be overpowered. If you read back far enough on SMC and other sites, you will never find somebody that says I really was unsatisfied with my larger DC, I wish I had bought the smaller one. The larger blower will give you better collection. At a minimum, I would outfit it with a canister filter and clear bags for the chips. I would recommend getting a canister filter from Wynn environmental, not Grizzly. Don't use the felt bags, they will just pump dust into your working space. The Grizzly DC will work for you using it on one machine at a time, but one of the problems with all of the machines marketed as dust collectors is rapid clogging of the filters. Eventually all filters will clog up with fine dust and some chips, it just happens sooner in the dust collectors without some method of separation. Look back through the posts for key words cyclone and Thien baffle. Those are two devices that keep the filters from clogging quickly by separating almost all the chips and dust and passing only the finest stuff to the filter. Also, if you haven't, you should look at Bill Pentz website regarding the health issues from fine wood dust. http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm This website will give you the information to enable really good dust collection and educate you about the possible dangers of not having it.

[David Kumm]

If you get a single stage, make it the 2 hp. Anything less isn't worth it. A 2 hp will work but you will eventually want something better or more built in so don't buy an expensive one. Dave

[Jerome Stanek]

I like my Harbor Freight 2 HP dc

[Randy Red Bemont]

I agree with the 2HP unit. Down the road you may add a surface planer or other equipment that a the 2HP will handle without having to upgrade.

Red

[Casey Reames]

Thanks for the advise guys. I'll definitely go with the 2 hp which was my original plan. I just wanted to be sure that I wasn't overdoing it. I have a thickness planer also, but will still only be collecting from one tool at a time.

I've looked at that Harbor Fright DC, and thought about getting it, but I hear that 5 micron is too big. Ultimately, I still wear a respirator and anything is better than nothing. And from what I've heard, you can always get a canister for the Harbor Freight DC.

I would love to get a cyclone, but I'd probably have to find another garage to put it in since I doubt I'd be living at home anymore. We have a 6 month old baby, so anything I buy I get a pretty evil glare. I'm sure my wife would second the vote for the Harbor Freight DC for less than $200 with the coupon. I just bought a 3 hp SawStop, so I'm already kinda on the edge of being evicted. Haha.

What do you guys think? Harbor Freight and keep my cost down for future upgrades? I'm sure the resale value on them are squat, but it would be a less expensive option, and better than my shop vac, right?

[Jason Beam]

IMO, this question cannot be answered without knowing what your goals are for dust collection.

Do you want to save your lungs from breathing dust without having to wear a respirator? Pony up the bucks - and accept you'll never get perfection ,here.

Do you want to try to breathe less dust while hopefully not having to clean up accumulated dust? Pony up slightly fewer bucks - and accept that you'll be cleaning up (and breathing) a little more than you'd like.

Do you want to avoid sweeping up most dust while occasionally needing to augment your lung protection? Still not a cheap proposition, but i think most of us fall in this area. And it sounds like this may be you. A respirator and a good broom and shopvac will still come in very handy and you won't need a 2nd mortgage. But you will spend some bucks to get here unless your tools are ideally suited for dust collection (i've never seen one that was).


Do you just wanna keep the piles out of the machines and not really concerned with your lungs? Then you can do one of these 1-2hp single stage jobbies - they kinda get the job sorta done but don't really do anything for your lungs and aren't super great at keeping the piles from eventually accumulating. They do suck up a fair bit of larger shavings, though, and save you a fair bit of mess. I think this is where most people with higher goals try to start and end up disappointed.



The second half of this question involves the tools and distances and such. To achieve each of these goals, the collector requirements vary from tool to tool and distance of that tool from the collector (duct distance, not just physical distance -- adding up bends and such).


A 1-2hp single stage collector carried from machine to machine will do essentially nothing for your lungs unless it has a massive fine filter (or blows outside) that won't clog too quickly. It will extend the life of your dustpan and broom, though.

Let's also make sure to distinguish Dust Collector from Shop Vac -- they're VERY different animals in ways that aren't always intuitive. They both do suck, but a shop vac is designed for low volume at high static pressures -- it creates vacuum pretty readily and is happy to do so. A dust collector is designed for high volume at fairly low static pressure.

This means a shop vac won't pull a lot of air, but it'll do better with duct restrictions and such. This is one reason you don't see many shop vacs with hoses larger than about 2-1/2" diameter. It can handle that all day long, and you can go pretty far (i have 25' of shop vac hose and it still sucks fine at the other end). But if you up that to 4", it pretty much is worthless - the larger duct allows the airspeed to fall so low that it really doesn't move a lot of material. Shopvacs seem to thrive on a little static pressure.

On the other hand, dust collectors move large volumes of air but don't handle duct restrictions as well. This is why horsepower DOES come into play, but not nearly as much as impeller design. The impeller sets the ceiling and no additional horsepower will help you overcome duct restrictions (called static pressure). This means that the two kind of go hand-in-hand. It takes a good bit of force to move a large volume of air.

Best example i can think of is to try carrying a sheet of plywood outside. If it's calm, just feel the force it takes to spin the sheet. That is stationary air being forced out of the way by the plywood surface. It takes a pretty good bit of force to move all that air not even very fast. On the other hand, take a small scrap of plywood, maybe 1' square and swing it around -- you can feel the air, but it's a whole lot easier to move faster. That's basically the difference between a shop vac and a dust collector. It takes a big beefy collector to handle the kinds of static pressure that a shop vac can handle.


All of this is to say: you won't replace your shop vac with a dust collector. The two work together in most shops for a strategy of capturing dust where each machine does the best job. On small handheld tools like sanders and such, a shopvac works great because the access is small and they do better with this restricted pathway. If you put a sander on a big dust collector usually you'll get hardly any airflow and dust collection will be bad (you won't burn up the DC, though, contrary to some intuition at first).


Sorry, this is a big subject - and there is no "Just do this..." answer ... the answer very much depends. Set your goals first. Then look at the costs to meet those goals. Then readjust your goals (lol) to align with the budget you have in mind :P

[Martin Wasner]

You'll never complain about going bigger than you need. Other than from an operational cost standpoint

I'm trying to figure out how I want to setup dust collection in a new shop currently. A couple of 15hp single stage in a dog house, a 25hp single stage in a doghouse, or a 30(ish)hp cyclone sitting outside. Too many options, all of which cost too much. There isn't much on the used market for medium sized stuff either. You can find small units and 100+hp units all day long.

[Casey Reames]

Yeah, I understand that this is a big's subject and a broad topic. Right now, all I have is a shop vac, so that's what I use. I just slapped reducers on everything and did what I could. On my table saw, I can hear it pulling air but I can't feel it. It pulls in some of the sawdust but not very much. It seems like a majority of it ends up on my table on my clothes and in my hair. I know that even with a dust collector I will still have to do some cleanup, but I would like something that could pull a majority of the dust from the saw itself. I also know that realistically I will never collect all of the dust, so I pretty much figure on wearing a mask as well. I'm just tired of big piles of dust being everywhere all the time. I make a few long rip cuts on thick stock and I have to stop and clean up before I can continue. I feel like all I do is sweep.

Ultimately, I don't want my shop vac to be a dust collector and I don't want my dust collector to be a shop vac. I want them to be independent tools with their own identity and purpose.

I just looked on Craigslist and a guy is selling a brand new Grizzly canister filter with the brush for $100. According to the measurements it will fit on the Harbor Freight 2 hp DC. So for $300 I could get a 2 hp canister setup for less than $300. Does this sound like something that would help solve my problems. I'm not looking for cyclone perfection. I don't want to spend the money for that. I'm just looking for less piles of dust on everything in my garage. Does this setup sound like it could meet those needs?

[Casey Reames]

And Jason, thank you very much for such a thorough response. I really appreciate you taking the time for that.

[Mike Ontko]

Casey, you'll find bags full of opinions and information in the Workshops section of this board. Take a look through there, if you can, before you make any final decisions.

I'm in a similar situation to yours--setting up a small one-person hobby shop in the back of my two-car garage. I had decided to go with a used 1-1/2 HP Jet DC1100A that I found through my local Craigslist, and then upgraded that DC with a chip separator/baffle ala Phil Thien (another SMC or Google search you can run) and a 0.5 micron cannister filter from Wynn Environmental. I use a flexible ten foot 4" hose to connect it to whichever large piece of equipment I'm running at the time--tablesaw, jointer, planer, or bandsaw. For other tools and activities, I just use a 14-gallon shop vac.

Depending on what you'd like to accomplish, for now and in the future, the 2 HP one you'd mentioned could be your best option.

[Wade Lippman]

In your first post you said you only needed it for a table saw and a band saw. A DC is not terribly useful for those; I often don't bother turning mine on for the BS. Later you mentioned a planer. You certainly need a DC for that. What is it? A lunchbox will probably be okay with the HF, but for a larger one you will want a real 2hp.

A DC is probably a good thing to buy used; it is hard to abuse them.

[Jeff Ramsey]

I'm in the process of upgrading my dust collection system to a permanent one; haven't quite decide between Oneida or Clearvue. My current system leaks fine dust; the kind of dust that is deadly.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2...-health-safety

Dust collection is often low priority for small shops, yet cost shouldn't really be considered here like you might with the purchase of a bandsaw or planer. Buy the system that will remove the most dust and spend whatever it takes to do so. Your health will thank you (and so will your family members).

[Allan Speers]

HP is one thing to consider, but the main thing, as has been said, is CFM.

Sadly, you can't really trust the CFM numbers from most manufacturers, since they can be taking at many differnt points in the chain, and under various conditions.

One VERY important factor is the size of the impeller. For your use, it should be at LEAST 12.5", and as thick as possible. - then you need enough HP to spin it at 3450 rpm without any slowdown and without burning up your motor.

As for filters, do as suggested an get a Wynn. Anything else is a waste of time & energy. Wynn also as very helpful docs on their website to help you figure out what to use, and how to attach various components. You can usually even talk to the main guy on the phone.