Well I just finished upgrading my old Bridgewood dust collector BW-003A. I replaced the stock cloth bags with after market micron filters from Wynn Environmental M#35A100SBOL.
To accomplish this was a bit of a chore as it was necessary due to the BW-003A design to reorient the internal deflectors; there were upside down and below the dust inlet. This required breaking about 20 welds on each deflector and gluing then back in properly for this new approach to work. Aside from that they slip right in place and clamp down with a few easy to install turnbuckles.
I did a run on the before and after ducting losses using the calculator on Bills cyclone website and got the following results.
Griggio Planer – Loss of 10.95 to 8.95
SAC Jointer – loss of 13.12 to 11.12
Knapp Profit-T Sliding TS/Shaper – Loss of 12.69 to 10.69.
The observed results subjectively support these improved numbers. I notice cleaner air in my shop and a noticeable increase in the CFM at each station. For instance I note that I no longer get a few chips blowing out of the input side of the planer bed each time I feed a board; this is nice as they are a nuisance to always be clearing out of the way between feeding boards.
The results would have been even better if I had opted for the cheaper paper/poly filter (more filter sf.) instead of the all poly filters; but I wanted to be able to wash the filters from time to time and only the poly would allow that.
All in all an impressive improvement for less than $300; highly recommended.
Attached are the before and after shots.