Portable Dust Collector

[Mark Furjanic]

So sorry to ask for opinions on a subject I know has been beaten to death several times over but I hope folks will kick in opinions anyway. As a weekend hobbyist the only dust collection I've had is my Festool CT and rigid shopvac. The CT is for all things Festool and the Rigid gets hooked to my router table and bandsaw with adapters. I'm buying a Sawstop so I figure I'll need a real dust collector. The Sawstop will live in the garage with the rest of my shop in the basement so my thinking is to put the Collector in the basement and plumb a line from the basement through the attached garage wall and have a hose connection through the wall. The hard line will only need to be as long as necessary to get from the DC inlet up the just below the ceiling and into the wall (maybe 8 feet including a couple 45's to get it up and out the wall. When I'm not using the Sawstop I can roll the unit across the basement close to the router table and bandsaw and hookup with a short hose one tool at a time.

Not much room in the basement and ceiling height is only around 80" so I'm limited. Clean air and suction are the two most important things (performance at the tablesaw going through the little bit of hard plumbing and a flex hose) I'm looking at the following two units. I know the Laguna is new but I wouldn't be terribly afraid to roll the dice with it if people think it will outperform the Powermatic. Thank You in advance for indulging me, I have no knowledge when it comes to dust collectors and it seems the more I read the more complicated it gets. Dust collection is the woodworking rabbit hole.

http://www.rockler.com/laguna-c-flux...dust-collector








http://www.rockler.com/powermatic-pm...n-canister-kit

[Art Mann]

At the moment, there is something wrong with your first link. It takes you to the Powermatic page rather than the Laguna page. In general, my opinion is to go for the cyclone system. The type with the big plastic bags, like the Powermatic, is a huge PITA to dump and the filter requires frequent cleaning. I have a Delta brand that is very similar to the Powermatic. I finally installed a Super Dust Deputy cyclone separator in in line with the collector and it works acceptably. I spent about as much money as it would have taken to just buy a cyclone style unit in the first place.

[Mark Furjanic]

Thanks Art. I think I have the link fixed.

[James Gunning]

I agree with Art, get the cyclone system right off the bat. You will save a lot of money and aggravation as you progress through the various methods of dust collection only to arrive at a cyclone system in the end. Consider buying one big enough to allow it to be used with more ducting in the future. I have no personal experience with the Laguna DC's, but some report they are not as good at separating out the fines as longer cyclones. They work, but cleaning the filter more often may be in your future with the short cyclones like the Lagunas. While you are at it, use at least a 6" duct from the cyclone to your saw and upgrade the collection port on the saw to 6". Cyclones are all about air flow and the usual 4" pipe simply chokes the air flow to the point that most of the power and capacity in the cyclone is wasted.

[Andy Giddings]

+1 on the above - did the same as Art about a year ago and am now contemplating either a ClearVue or Oneida V system.

[Wade Lippman]

I had a JDS, which was identical to the Laguna; well it was a 3hp. I found the short cyclone was very efficient. I know it isn't supposed to be, but It was. Besides with 80" what are you going to do?

Like everyone else, I had one like the Powermatic and found constantly cleaning the filter to be a pain.
Though I would be really interested in see an authoritative test of the Turbocone, or the Thien baffle for that matter.

If you believe the copy then it is a no-brainer. The PM claims to get 98% of the 2micron dust; Laguna claims 99.97% of 0.2-2.0 micron dust. While the PM isn't very good, the Laguna seems absurdly good.

[Mark Furjanic]

Alrighty, I guess I'm gonna be the guinea pig with the new Laguna. I'll give a detailed report as soon as I have it in operation, thank you.

[Andy Giddings]

Mark, if you haven't already done a search on the Laguna short cyclone have a read of this recent thread http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ghlight=laguna. Don't know if its the same one you are thinking of but just in case

[Larry Frank]

I think that the shorter cone of the cyclone will make it less efficient at separation. BUT, will it be a problem for you. If I had a drum sander, I would use a longer cone cyclone.

Is it possible to put the dust collector in the garage and plumb it into your shop?

Please do post your results as it will help others.

[Ben Rivel]

If you must go portable and need to stay in that price range, definitely take a look at that Oneida Mini-Gorilla Portable Cyclone: LINK

[David Sloan]

I got rid of my underpowered Delta DC with bag (dust always billowing out of it) and bought a Powermatic Vortex DC with canister 220V. I had looked hard at Laguna cyclone but had read some negative things online. I have been very happy with the Powermatic.

[glenn bradley]

Its good to hear someone give a positive on the short cone machines. Most of what I read (from those who have used both) leaves the short cone as a solution to a problem and not a first choice. You have that problem; headroom, so this could be a good choice for you.

Another idea may be to leave a full sized collector up with the saw and plumb down if required. Your shop vac solution has been working for you in the basement. This would leave the collector close to your tablesaw and lesser offenders farther away. It would be a pity to shoehorn a short DC into the basement (which holds a premium on space I imagine) and then plumb up to the saw only to get sub-optimal results.

[Mark Furjanic]

I am actually thinking of a collector in the garage fr the tablesaw and staying with the shopvac in the basement. Unfortunately the wall in the basement that gets me into the garage is a diagonal opposite corner from my shop area in the basement so it would be a pretty healthy length of ductwork to reach the shop.

The mini gorilla was on my shortlist but the fairly low cfm concerned me when it comes to the tablesaw. That would be the longest run and I wasn't sure how much it would be able to pull. Even assuming that Laguna inflates their numbers they show a good bit more than the gorilla and even a short cyclone should be a little better than no cyclone I imagine. I run a small manufacturing plant and I've had a corner walled off for my Rigid contractor saw and planer but I'm tired of running to work in the evening to use it or not using it at all because of the inconvenience. The garage is more of a nicely finished room that we don't park in and we'd like to keep it as clean as we can. The Sawstop with a good dust collector should help prevent sawdust everywhere and it'll be there to use whenever I want.

[Mark Furjanic]

I finally got to use the C Flux and my new Sawstop and I'm very pleased with the performance. I'm building a pile of shop drawers with 3/4" BB sides and 1/2" bottoms so I cut all the dado's today. Right around 65 feet of 3/8" deep and 1/2" wide dado's and the Laguna sucked things up like a champ. I've got a good pile of fluff in the dust bin and maybe a 1/2 cup in the filter bag. I hooked up with what I had around to get a feel for what I have to grab so I had about 6' of thin wall pvc and a Rockler expandable hose on each end of the pvc. The hose closest to the DC was scrunched to about 5' and between the pvc and saw was around 6'. I need to get a few fittings and some regular flex hose which will effectively shorten my run. Right now I'm very pleased with the performance of the Laguna, time will tell more.
I know I have a Radio Shack SPL meter at work somewhere and if I can turn it up I'll get a reading with it but I really don't think my numbers will mean much. The noise will be very dependent on room size and wall reflections so if I can find the meter I'll also post room specs with the db reading.