Help & recommendations on Dust Collection

[Dave Norris]

Not to belabor the point, or hijack the thread, but I am extremely happy with my Clearvue. Plenty of power (enough to suck up a box of router collars---dont' ask...), and when the Leeson 5 hp motor "failed on startup", Ed took good care of me, even sending me a new motor to use while all the testing etc. was done on my motor.

[Kathy White]

Sorry it has taken me so long to thank everyone for their help. My husband's mother died and we headed for the mid-west for a couple of weeks. Sad time but I only hope we live such a full life. On the shop front, we plan on moving tools into the shop this weekend. I think it will give us a better feel for tool placement and the routing of ductwork. We will put everyone's advice to good use in choosing our system - leaning toward a cyclone.

Thanks again,

Kathy

[Rod Sheridan]

Hi Kathy, I have an Oneida cyclone, I've owned it for 5 years now, it makes the top of my best tools list.

I have a basement shop, and the Oneida removes the dust before it gets into the air, that's the important part.

Forget room air cleaners, once the dust is in the air, there are two room air cleaners removing dust, the mechanical one, and the human one.

A properly designed cyclone system with the proper filters will take care of all your dust/chip collection issues. My shop is esentially dust free, and like other replies you have received, I cannot say enough about Oneida.

Oh, and as for the clear cyclone so you can see when it's full, the Oneida comes with a length of clear duct that connects the separator to the dust barrel so you can see when it's full.

regards, Rod.

[Jeff Norri]

I am not sure what your layout is Kathy or what tools you have run in ground 4" pipe to, but I think a big 3hp DC is still worth it. For instance if you have a DC that can support 6" pipe, you could have 4" above your table saw and 4" below (a great combo in my mind if you have the DC to support it). I don't find 4" to the jointer a big deal as it is not a big dust maker (IMHO) and 4" will collect chips just fine - so if you just have 4" there it is no big deal. If you have a bigger BS you most likely have two 4" ports, so 4" to the bottom port and dropping 4" to the top port would work great.

If I had setup like you I would look at a 3+hp and run 6" dc that splits into two 4" ports for some tools. I you truly want to vent out side (you will be venting your heat outside too) then a cyclone may not be needed - you really just need a a DC that pulls high CFM and then when it get to the DC nothign fancy needs to happen as the air is not coming back into your shop. But if I were you, I would want to vent my hot air back into my shop and would go teh Cyclone route. Having said all that I have a 2hp DC with 5" duct work and it works "pretty good". My DC is in its own cabinet and the cabinet is sealed with a furnace filter outlet, these seems to really help with noise and dust. Here is my shop tour with my setp. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhmASARqtN0

[Hank Phillips]

I picked up a used Oneida 3hp gorilla off Craigslist about 6 months ago. For some strange reason the man who purchased it was trying to use it for his fiberglass business and found out the hard way that the filter was never designed for that kind of dust. The short....his loss was my gain.

I was seriously considering the 2hp version of the dust gorilla but I was able to pick this one up with a ton of duct work for 1350. The invoice he showed me was more than 2k. Getting this thing in my basement workshop wasn't easy but I managed to hoist it up by myself.

Planning out the ducts was alot of fun and I've managed to hook up every tool I own. Needless to say this thing really sucks! Since I've hooked everything up I don't seem to get that layer of dust that usually appears on everything in my shop.

A good DC is a major expense but worth it in the long run. Your lungs will thank you some day.

Get a cyclone if you can but even if you don't want to shell out the bucks get a good bag model with a good filter. I had a small Jet model that I loved but the bag that came with it was garbage.

That's a great deal! Put me down as another vote for a cyclone. I was going to build one on my own, but I just haven't found the time, have to get my new shop done first, and don't know if the money saved would be worth the time spent to me. Now I'm leaning towards an Oneida myself... I was impressed with my friends' floor sander vac system he got from them, so I sniffed around a few places to compare and got some good info.

Funny thing, I was just on Oneida's website and I thought this was a little wierd, but they have an email exchange between their president and Bill Pentz about aspects of dust collection systems. Struck me as odd because I thought they didn't play nice together!

[John Kaye]

Hi, I am also looking to buy a cyclone dust collector. It just so happens that both Grizzly (PA) and Penn State Industries are convenient (no shipping charges). But, I notice that Clearvue and Oneida are almost exclusively recommended and I am not "married" to G or PSI. Can anyone offer any clarification here as I want to make the best purchase possible.

Thank you.

[Frederick Rowe]

John - I have a 2HP Super Gorilla and have been extremely pleased with the unit and Oneida's customer service. As far as the Grizzly G0440, I didn't like how they use flex pipe from the cyclone body to the air filter. The Oneida uses a wide radius steel pipe. The Oneida also has a "Teflon-like" coating on the interior of the filter pleats to aid in the release of dust cake. Frankly, I'm up to between 10 and 12 cycles of emptying the barrel and there is no dust to speak of in the filter catch. It truly works as advertised. The G0440's filter cleaning brush seemed like a gimmick, and I preferred the Oneida metal filter cap over the G0440's plastic bag. Anyway, from what I read Grizzly makes good products and has a reputation for similar customer service. I'm sure their cyclone is decent, Oneida just seemed to have such universal support from customers, and buying American was a feel good bonus.

[Robert Payne]

IMHO, the clear plastic of the ClearVue cyclones is not a gimmick, it is a useful feature that lets the user see how material is moving through the unit if one choses. It is very efficient and when equipped with the recommended Wynn Environmental filters (99.99% efficient at 0.5 microns), it removes the most harmful dust from from your shop. I took delivery of a CV1800 last weekend and bought a CV06 Mini Cyclone for my Shop Vac as well. The Cyclone design on these units is very efficient and filters rarely get clogged. Just my .02

Rob Payne (McRabbet)

[Hank Phillips]

IMHO, the clear plastic of the ClearVue cyclones is not a gimmick, it is a useful feature that lets the user see how material is moving through the unit if one choses. It is very efficient and when equipped with the recommended Wynn Environmental filters (99.99% efficient at 0.5 microns), it removes the most harmful dust from from your shop. I took delivery of a CV1800 last weekend and bought a CV06 Mini Cyclone for my Shop Vac as well. The Cyclone design on these units is very efficient and filters rarely get clogged. Just my .02

Rob Payne (McRabbet)

That's really good separation, which model filters do they recommend?

[Robert Payne]

That's really good separation, which model filters do they recommend?

They recommend two of the Wynn 9L300BL Filters ($70 each + shipping) stacked end-to-end, yielding 600 sq. ft. of filtration area. Here is the link to the Wynn Cartridge Filters page.

[Hank Phillips]

They recommend two of the Wynn 9L300BL Filters ($70 each + shipping) stacked end-to-end, yielding 600 sq. ft. of filtration area. Here is the link to the Wynn Cartridge Filters page.

Thanks... I'm a little skeptical though. HEPA filters will remove in the neigborhood of 99.97% down to 0.3, so it's kind of an "it's too good to be true" thing for me that a mostly paper non-HEPA filter will get down to that kind of filtration level. They have test data, but it even says that it doesn't apply to that particular filter, which is fine and I understand that... but having some that does back up that claim of 99.99% efficient at 0.5 microns would be nice.