To make a long story short, I finally get to turn the corner of the basement where Rhythmdvl [del]fixes[/del] tries to fix things into a burgeoning wood shop. There are a couple small machines there now (e.g. drill press), but I have a wonderful new Jet Bandsaw (thanks dad!!!) that I can’t wait to cut off my fingers with (thanks dad!!!).[sup]*[/sup]
In addition to digits, I have a ton of wood to practice on, which means a ton of dust will be floating through the air and settling on surfaces that never expected to have dust on them. For comical effect, the opposite side of the basement has several NAS devices that store our business. Yeah, I need to keep dust to a minimum.
I think I get why I can’t just hook my Shop-Vac up to an adapter ring and rely on that. But I’d really appreciate some help untangling the array of stats, insight into which companies have better reputations, things to look and look out for, etc.
I also don’t know what factors on my side that figure into the choice. I’d rather not overbuy, of course, but I don’t want to have to upgrade after adding a few more tools to the shop (today it’s a bandsaw, tomorrow a jointer, router, and so on…). I also don’t need something to coat the dust with gold, but given the amount of [del]crap[/del] very important things we have stored down there, I don’t want to be penny-wise and dust-foolish.
The only thing that starts more woodworking arguments than sharpening tools and Sawstop threads is dust collection
There is a great book on dust collection that you can get from Amazon in eReader form for 10 bucks… it has some great advice on sizing your collector, pipes and gates depending on the tools you have and will have. I can’t remember the name off hand, I will try to post it tonight.
Grizzly makes some great dust collectors. For a basement shop with only one person I wouldn’t go huge, there are some nice roll around collectors that don’t require a lot of ducting to be installed at the outset.
I would advise that you look long and hard at the cyclone models (one caveat would be to look up Phil Thein’s separator project as an alternative to a cyclone) and find the finest micron pleated filter you can afford. The pleated filter collectors work better than the bag based collectors and last longer.
This month’s edition of Fine Woodworking has an article on how to best control dust on a budget.
If you are interested in working with wood, you might consider a subscription, or at least flipping through past copies at the library.
Every public library I’ve checked (3 so far) has had a subscription.
I’m sure you know there are dedicated - and expensive - dust collection units, so it really depends on if you’re going all New Yankee Workshop or just uber amateur like the rest of us.
I have a 6.5 hp Craftsman Shop Vac that just rolls to different stations as needed, but there’s no reason you can’t put up some PVC and create your own system. Sears has a starter kit, but there are others.
It’s all about the volume you expect to deal with.
Also, if you value your digits, you have got to get one of these.
It’s the most amazing thing to see, and it saved my buddy’s finger’s twice.
His first saw took one, however.
I’ve had a small Jet DC650 collector with aftermarket 1-micron bags and a cyclone separator lid on a 32 gallon garbage can for many years and it works well, however there is inevitably a lot of dust that settles around the shop (there’s just a lot less mess and a lot less that I breathe in). While it sounds like a quality cyclone collector would be the best bet, second best would be a regular model with a 1 or 0.5 micron cartridge filter. You can roll it around to different machines. A Shop Vac simply does not move the volume of air that you need for good dust collection.
I do like the cyclone separator - it pulls out a huge amount of stuff that would otherwise go through the dust collector and clog the filter.
Still wear a good dust mask though. Protect your lungs.
I’ve got a big dust collector, and keep telling myself it’s too big and taking up too much space. I put on the trash can seperator, and it does work great. But it’s noisy. I have a hepa filter bag on it, so it really cleans the air, and sometimes I just leave it running with the dual intake open just to get rid of floating dust. But I think the smaller fan based units would probably do just as good a job, and I could just leave one on all the time without all the noise. However, it’s also a fantastic vacuum cleaner with much more suction than an ordinary shop vac.
Heh, my dad has also been telling me for years that I should get a Sawstop table saw. They’re very pricey though, so until I have that kind of money I’ll just cut sheet goods with a chain saw.
I’ll find this month’s Fine Woodworking and see if that has All the Answers. Does anyone know if Amazon will sell a Kindle book for use with their Kindle App on a non-Kindle Android tablet?
For one machine at a time in a smallish area (no long ducts, if there will be ducts at all), does cubic feet per minute really make much of a difference over eight hundred to a thousand or so? If CFM is sufficiently high, does the motor’s horsepower make that much of a difference? I get that I should find the smallest filter size possible (and stick with a brand name to have the option of aftermarket bags), but aside from keeping an eye on systems with a cyclone separator, any other key stats?
Again, it’ll be just me down there. Would something like this ($500 Jet 1.5HP 30-Micron, 1100 CFM) be an underpowered waste of money and I’d need to spend upwards of a grand to get something more than a Shop-Vac? Then there’s this Delta with somewhat similar stats–no vortex but with a 1-micron filter.
The Delta is a good machine. What’s important is to get something and start using it now. As mentioned previously, you can spend years getting the perfect system designed and installed. The trick is to get something in place now, while you’re specing out that perfect world class system. The Delta has served me well for over 10 years.
With some 4 inch flex hose you can hook up most any machine. I ran some 4 inch PVC overhead to the far end of the cellar where I keep the tablesaw. I can run the router table, the table saw and the jointer simultaneously with no loss of suction. I don’t, but I can.
Grizzly has this mobile 1-micron canister collector http://m.grizzly.com/products/G0583Z for 424 shipped in the US. No cyclone, but given your budget and that you are starting out it is a great option.
What differentiates Grizzly? I’ve seen them recommended but don’t have the understanding of how they differ from other brand names (e.g. Delta, Jet). I get that an off brand may have sub-par motors and whatnot, just wondering if there is something special about the Grizzly.
How important is the cyclone? (And is Jet’s ‘vortex’ the same basic thing?) From what I understand, they separate the larger chips and pieces. Is it primarily to avoid having to change filters/bags as often? The average cost seems to bump by a couple hundred dollars or so–is it the type of things where I’ll need to change bags 50 times before the savings are recognized, or do they do much more than I’m giving them credit for?
Grizzly is an American company that has its factories in Taiwan. Some of their products are not great, but in recent years their bandsaws and dust collectors, in particular, are garnering a lot of praise. They tend to be cheaper because they don’t sell through retailers. They have three showrooms (I think) but typically purchases are made online. I share a shop with my dad and he bought the 2 hp cyclone, this was after we had a Delta bagged collector.
The cyclones biggest advantage is not in bags saved, but in improved sucking over time. Cyclones keep more of the dust/bigger items out of the bag and more importantly the filter. The cleaner the filter the higher the CFM will remain and with collectors it’s all about CFM when it comes to working properly.
Having said that, look at the Thein baffle, I referenced the maker of the baffle Phil Thein earlier, and I think he was talked about in the latest FWW mag others have been mentioning here. It’s a way to get cyclone-like benefits without spending the money.
If you’re going to use the machine for regular vacuuming you want the cyclone to protect your bags. You can pick up nuts and bolts with that thing, and all the heavy pieces, even a lot of the coarser sawdust ends up in a trash can. It takes a long time to fill up the bottom bag on my unit because of that. It resembles the JET DC1100 linked above. I add the HEPA bag on top of the standard bag the unit came with, don’t know the particle size it’s rated for. But just leaving it open and running gets the air incredibly clean. When connected to the dust chute on tools there’s no trace of dust escaping into the air.
TriPolar’s post reminded me of another advantage to the cyclone… if you end up picking up nuts and bolts and the like the cyclone will prevent them from being sucked through the impeller and risk damaging the blades.
You have the basic idea. Lets the larger crap drop out before it gets into the impeller and the dust bags.
You can do the same job with a metal trash can or barrel. Run your hose from the dust collector into the top of the barrel. Run another hose from the barrel to your machine(s). Gravity lets the big shit stay in the barrel and the “fines” are trapped in the bag. You can play with 4 inch PVC elbows or get some special fittings from Rockler. For $30. to $50. you have a separator.
I just saw a Woodworking Shop episode where they made a cart to hold a shop vac and a dust collector. The shop vac attached to the cyclone part and then you would use another hose to suck up the dust. The dust fell into a typical 5 gallon bucket. This prevented the saw dust from clogging up the shop vac’s filter.
Since most people wood workers have a shop vac anyway, this saves room in the shop rather than having a dedicated dust collector. And it’s a bit cheaper. Oneida has the Dust Deputy for around $90.
I have not used this personally, so I can’t speak to its effectiveness, but I was thinking about getting one when redoing my shop this summer. I already have a pretty big shop vac and I can use the shop vac to pick up any wet messes.
