Looking for help in designing my dust collection system

[Michael Koehne]

I currently don't have a dust collection system in my garage/workshop. Most of the work I do in the shop revolves around wood turning. But I also have a radial arm saw, small table saw, bandsaw, etc. I just purchased a HF 70 gallon dust collector and a Oneida Dust Deputy separator kit. I also have two Craftsman shop vacs, but I don't think they will necessarily play into the design of this system. I would appreciate any guidance in what to use for the main plumbing runs, connectors, fittings, etc. I generally have a shoe-string budget for things like this, but I want to build an effective system with minimal leaks.

Thanks you in advance for any help you may be able to provide!

[Dwight Rutherford]

Let Google be your friend. Search " Shop Dust Colletion Design".

[Michael Koehne]

Let Google be your friend. Search " Shop Dust Colletion Design".

Yes, I'm well aware of Google. I was just hoping I could get some first hand information, and possibly a discussion going on the subject. In other online forums i belong to, that's the case. is it not so here?

[Andy Giddings]

Michael, you might want to look at all of the various mods people have done with their HF 2HP Dust Collectors. There are numerous YouTube videos that will get you started. One of the issues you will face is that the filter on the HF won't filter out the fine dust which can cause you the most harm. I would recommend fixing that first if your budget is low before thinking about ductwork etc. You can move the HF from machine to machine and use flex hose to start but the filter is most important IMHO. Just go onto YouTube and search Harbor Freight DC mods

[Jim Becker]

Michael, I don't believe that there's enough information yet for folks to really help you. We don't know about your shop's size, layout, actually tools, etc., for example, which all play into a good design. "HF 70 gallon" dust collector also is a bit generic as they are not normally referred to relative to "gallons"...is it the popular 2hp unit? I'm glad you have the separator because you absolutely need that to pick up your turning shavings off the floor safely.

Tell us more about your shop and tools so we can help you better.

[Randall J Cox]

I'm just finishing up mine in my very compact 16x18 shop and it took much longer and was more expensive than I expected. And I had friends give me lots of usable pieces and bought some used pieces off CL. Good luck. Randy

[James Gunning]

Michael,

I agree, we need a bit more information. Going on what you said so far, the Dust Deputy is designed to be hooked up to a shop vacuum and not really to a dust collector. I have one and it works perfectly with most shop vacs.

Bear in mind that there is a divide in dust collection. Tools with small pickups like routers, rotary oscillating sanders, biscuit joiners, IOW, hand type tools, tend to do better with a shop vac as the dust collection source. Combined with the Dust Deputy, they get good separation and will keep the filters clean. The shop vacs can overcome much more flow restriction with the smaller hoses than a dust collector can. They operate at a high static pressure and much lower air flow where the dust collectors operate on high air flow and lower static pressure. I have doubts that hooking up a DD to the Harbor Freight DC would work well, if you are thinking along those lines. The airflow to the dust collector would be very restricted by the small DD.

Larger tools like a jointer, planer, larger table saws, drum sanders, etc, are what need a dust collector. They generate more volume in chips and dust than most shop vacs + DD can handle well. You mention a radial arm, bandsaw, small table saw, lathe. Those fall kind of in the middle. They might work with either a shop vac +DD or a dust collector. If the Harbor freight unit is the 2HP (not really 2HP-probably a bit over 1.25HP and a small impeller) the advice about replacing the filter is spot on. I would talk to Wynn Environmental about their replacement filters. They also have good quality flex hose.

A lot of the money in dust collection can be in ductwork. It's nice to have a system that is permanently hooked up, maybe even with automatically actuated blast gates. Problem is it takes considerable money and effort to get that. Also, to operate a duct system of any size, you need a much larger blower than the smaller dust collectors (like the Harbor Freight) can operate. More like an actual 3HP motor or larger with much larger impellers. The size of dust ports on most machines and the commonly sold hose size is 4". The problem is, 4" hose does not flow enough air to work properly with most dust collectors. 6" hose is where we should be. The smaller the DC, the more important the larger hose becomes to insure enough air flow. Of course, 6" hose also means modifying the machines to increase the port size, or providing multiple smaller ports to insure enough airflow.

I have a small garage shop. I started with a 1HP DC from Penn State. The first thing I did after a short while was replace the cloth bags with a canister filter and clear plastic bag. Eventually I built the unit in the photo using an SDD plus the blower from my Penn State DC. I added a filter from Wynn. I can only use one tool at a time, so I use a length of 6" flex hose to hook up one machine at a time. All my machines have been changed to 6" ports as well. Yes, it's a bit less convenient to move the hose, but it allows my small dust collector to work properly. Even with those changes I really need a larger blower. I'm restricted to 110 volts in the garage so I'm limited to about a 1.5HP motor.

SDD-PS blower-Wynn Filter-4.jpg

[Randall J Cox]

I am using a 1.75hp powermatic DC unit with no cyclone but have installed ductwork in my small shop. Am very pleased with the result. My ductwork starts out at 6" and into long tapers to 5" to keep the speed of the air movement up and all the way to my chop saw, 15" planer and 8" jointer with 5" machine hookups. Unfortunately to service my belt sander (6x48), 14" band saw and lathe, I had to drop down to 4" as I had to room to run 5". But with a small shop my runs are short. Also I have a 5" run to my Unisaw TS underneath with a 3" overhead collection off the blade - works great. My only real drawback problem is that I have lots of 90 degree turns, but had no alternative. Point being, I have ductwork with a less than 2 hp unit and it works. Would love to have 3-5 hp but have no room for anything that large, nor any room for a cyclone.... Randy

[Larry Frank]

I would love to see what kind of flow these smaller units have especially in the case where there is long duct work and multiple 90 bends.

[Jim Dwight]

In my current shop I am using a Rigid shop vac sucking through a dust deputy and blowing out a quasi HEPA filter. It works well for the smaller tools including my BT3100 (Ryobi) table saw (but I have no blade guard pickup so that dust does not get collected).

In my old shop, I had a 1hp Delta DC that helped but was really undersized. I had it plumbed with 4 inch S&D PVC. Others report satisfactory results with the 2hp HF using this size pipe but some would say it is too small. It will cost significantly more to go up to 5 or 6 inch pipe. Maybe it is worth it. Whichever size you go with, run as much straight and as little flexible as you can. The pressure drop of the flexible is much, much greater. I made my own blast gates after getting unacceptable performance from inexpensive plastic ones. They jambed up all the time.

If I put a DC into this shop, I would get the 2hp HF and put a super dust deputy on it and let it discharge, unfiltered, outside. I hate cleaning filters. I had a Wynn cartridge on my Delta at the end but no effective pre-separator. Cleaning was a chore. I would probably plumb with 4 inch S&D. A central trunk line of 6 inch might make sense. But I only use one tool at a time so it probably makes more sense to use the same size all the way to the tool.

Regardless of what I do about a DC, I will keep the shop vac with a DD. It works well on my track saw and sanders, OK on my CMS, somewhat on my RAS and decently on my table saw. I don't use it on the jointer or planner. I might try it on the 10 inch planner. I think you need one. And it is much more pleasant to use with the cyclone to keep the emptying easier and the filter cleaning interval longer.

I would not turn on the HF without getting at least fine bags. If you do, you will just blow the small dust up where you can more easily breathe it. I did that with the Delta and will not do it again. I survived fine but the shop got dusted up thoroughly and didn't get clean until I was moving out. Not something I want to repeat.

[James Gunning]

Larry,

The short answer with lots of ductwork and a small blower is: not enough flow to work properly.