Oneida V Series 3000

[Ron Franssen]

I am considering purchasing an Oneida V Series cyclone for my shop. I'm looking for feedback from owners who actually have the V cyclone installed and running. I have searched the forums and it appears that most of the prior posts deal with purchasing options. I'm looking more for specific input from people who have used the system for a few months or more.

I don' t know if this is relevant, but I'm looking at the 3000 system to cover my 20x30 shop with the usual tools, and I'll be trying to minimize ducting. The cyclone will be somewhat centrally located.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated.

[Jim Foster]

I have a 2HP or 3HP Oneida system with a 7" main line. I like it a lot. Mine is mounted on a wall above a stairway (sort of) so it does not take up available shop space. My shop is about 22x24. From the image of this system on the Oneida website, it looks like it would take up a pretty big footprint if installed in the middle of the floor of your shop with ductwork coming off it. I also have automatic blast gates set up on machines, which works great for me. Whenever a tool starts, the collector starts and the appropriate blast gate opens and I'm collecting chips as I go.

The cyclone I have looks like the one linked below, but has wall mount brackets.

http://www.oneida-air.com/pro_1500.php

Several things I've noticed.
* It's easy to end up having too many flexable ducts running on the floor.
* When your planing, you can make a lot of chips much faster than you think you can and the system will clog from stem to stern. When I plane 7-10 rough boards, I'll make as many as four bins of chips over a hour.
* The Oneida "smaller shop" systems like this one seem to be right about the height that allows them to mount under an eight foot ceiling with a 35 gallon bin. No room for a 55 gallon or a split to two 35 gallons, so I would take ceiling height into consideration. The first shop I installed this in was my garage stall and the motor was several inches from the ceiling and the 35 gallon bin was a bit of a pain to unfasten and empty.
* The machine is loud but not too loud, especially if it can be mounted a reasonable distance from the machine your working on.
* The ductwork depending on how you go, can be a significant part of the cost and installing and updating ductwork as you use the system and develop preferences for the ducting can be an ongoing project/expense.

Oneida has been very easy to work with and I would buy this machine again in a heartbeat.

[Jack Ganssle]

I have the V3000. It's 3 hp and requires 220. The machine is large, and you'll need help or a hoist to assemble it.

My shop is 24x24, and I've got three 6" diameter runs forking off of the DC. They get reduced, where needed, right near the machine.

I used the 26 gauge ducting from McMaster Carr, with the Borg 30ga stuff for bends and angles.

The machine's performance is stunning. Even at the most distant drop, over 20 feet, the suction is plenty to handle a Performax 16/32 or the lathe (when sanding). It sucks all the dust from the big bandsaw except a little that comes out on the table - but the lower wheel cabinet is pristine. It gets the vast majority of dust from my contractor's style TS and the other tools.

The thing is loud. You can talk over it, but only if close to the other person. With a machine on too, well I wear the Worktunes hearing protectors and listen to music. The good news is that it's barely audible inside the house.

The manual says to turn it on no more than 6-7 times per hour. The tech told me the motor inrush current is on the order of 100 amps. So that means I plan ahead more when using it. I'm not too keen on that; better would be to just leave it on, but living in the country the Worktunes can't get some radio stations I enjoy. One option is to stream the radio over the web from the iPhone into the Worktunes, but that runs the iPhone's battery down in a couple of hours.

I had some initial problems in the V3000 not letting me turn it on after it had run unless I waited several minutes. Turning an internal switch to select or deselect (I forget which) "auto" fixed that.

I'm overall very happy with the machine, and my wife loves it too, since I no longer track sawdust into the house.

Jack

[Ron Franssen]

Thanks for the additional info Jack. This is the kind of personal experience I'm looking for. I too have a contractor style TS and am currently making mods to make it "better" at dust collection. The 220V doesn't bother me as I've already got that wired. However, I think my breaker is only a 20 amp service. 100 amps of inrush current seems like it would pop the breaker. What size of circuit do you have yours installed on?

[Jack Ganssle]

Ron,

It's on a 20 amp breaker. The V3000 manual specifies a "HACR" style 20 amp breaker. That seems to be the generic kind sold in the BORG. This is a slow-blow breaker to handle the high inrush current.

The unit comes with a plug for a NEMA 6-20R outlet, so you'll want to be sure that's what's supplying your 220.

Jack

[Philip Rodriquez]

I have a V-3000, two remotes, 5 drops, the Hepa option, and the entire system came with free duct design!

I agonized over which one to purchase until I actually called Oneida and asked them which machine purchase. I was sure to tell them that price was not a factor as I only wanted to do this once. Crystal had me send my shop drawing to her and I was completely shocked when they told me that the v-3000 was more than enough.

My shop is a 5 car garage and my stationary tools sit at the end of the four-car tandem. I shuttle the other tools (18" BS, 3 HP Shaper, and my Performax 16/32), when necessary. My fixed tools are a 15" planer, a 10" jointer, an ICS SawStop and an Excalibur blade guard.

The system completely rocks and it is only slightly louder than my Jet 1100 can unit was. All together, it came in around $2,200.00

[Ron Franssen]

Thanks for the information Phillip. I kind of went into this with a bit of a preconceived idea that I wanted the dust gorilla. Then after talking to one of the sales reps, I started considering the V series because of cost. Do you have any information of the gauge of the steel used in the cyclone body?

Strangely enough, one of the things that has me a little more content with potentially purchasing this machine is the dust deputy. Its basically the same design with a much bigger "vacuum" at the end. Watching the video for the dust deputy you can really see the dust spiraling right out of the air stream. Hopefully the v-series works as well or better.

[Jack Ganssle]

Ron,

I have no idea what the gauge of the metal used in the cyclone is, but it seems pretty hefty to me. They say it's "lighter gauge" than in some of their other machines, but it's really solid. With all of my blast gates closed there's no noticeable deflection in the machine.

Jack

[Philip Rodriquez]

I'm at work so I have no way of masuring it. However, I would guess that it is atleast 1/8" thick.

As I think I said, I would have had no problem purchasing the 3HP SDG. However, I was happy to find out that the V-3000 was more than enough.

As it stands now, I have no regrets.