Wall mounted dust collector

[enutees]

I'm growing tired of my shop vac for the only dust collection I have. I'd like to add a true dust collector.

I have a problem in that I have 0 floor space to put it. I've found some wall mounted shopvacs but nothing wall mounted for dust collectors.

Am I missing some or is there some reason none are built this way?

Thanks for the help.

[Chuck C]

I recently sold mine but I had it mounted to hangers on the ceiling. It had remote control, bu I think most do

[onedash]

I just saw sears has a wall mounted one. For the price it doesnt seem like the greatest deal but I guess you are paying to get it off the floor.

[L. D. Jeffries]

For several yeaars I used a shop vac for dust and a turbo/tornado (?) top or whatever its called to collect the chips in a trash can and then out to the vac. To make a long story short; Penn State Industries sells a portable dust/chip collector with a 1hp motor, 660cfm suction. Took the rather flimsey wheels off, made a bracket on the shop wall, ran clear flex 4" pipe to a drop-down that I can connect to any of my portable tools. ran a long bend elbow from collector thru the shop wall out to a box that collects the chips/etc. P/S in their catalog features a chart that show what "cfm" each type of tool requires. Turns out a 15" planer only requires 500cfm. The best part of this is that the unit sells for $139 plus shipping; I spent about another $65 +- for hoses, connector end etc. Works like a charm! Even when hooked up to my BT there is hardly any sawdust anywhere. URL is "pennstaateind.com", ck them out.

[enutees]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

One dumb question. Is a 1 hp dust collector more powerful than a 5hp shopvac?

Thanks

[THyman]

quote:Originally posted by L. D. Jeffries


For several yeaars I used a shop vac for dust and a turbo/tornado (?) top or whatever its called to collect the chips in a trash can and then out to the vac. To make a long story short; Penn State Industries sells a portable dust/chip collector with a 1hp motor, 660cfm suction. Took the rather flimsey wheels off, made a bracket on the shop wall, ran clear flex 4" pipe to a drop-down that I can connect to any of my portable tools. ran a long bend elbow from collector thru the shop wall out to a box that collects the chips/etc. P/S in their catalog features a chart that show what "cfm" each type of tool requires. Turns out a 15" planer only requires 500cfm. The best part of this is that the unit sells for $139 plus shipping; I spent about another $65 +- for hoses, connector end etc. Works like a charm! Even when hooked up to my BT there is hardly any sawdust anywhere. URL is "pennstaateind.com", ck them out.

Can you give us the model #?

[bigfoot15]

quote:Originally posted by enutees

Thanks for the replies everyone.

One dumb question. Is a 1 hp dust collector more powerful than a 5hp shopvac?

Thanks

Let's not go down that road again.
The 1 HP motor on the DC systems will develop more CFM due to the shear size of the fan attached to it.
That is the key when thinking about this. You'll notice that if you hook up only your BT# with the 2-1/2" connection reduced from the 4" on a DC, the DC will appear to struggle. This is because you don't have enough free air flow. The shop vac however wouldn't have enough CFM to pull much more thatn the (1) tool at a time with that size.

CLEAR AS MUD EH?

[Tom Miller]

quote:Originally posted by enutees

One dumb question. Is a 1 hp dust collector more powerful than a 5hp shopvac?

Not a dumb question at all. It's the answer that sounds dumb: 1HP is more powerful than 5HP. [:0]

Well, that's the short answer, and there's lots of assumptions in there. The point being, for the task of dust collection, you can get much better results with a 1HP system.

For dust collection, you want to move a lot of air (measured in cfm), and the static pressure achieved doesn't have to be so great (is the ability to pick up bowling balls important to you? Probably not.). Shop vacs don't move much air, but they do have much more static pressure.

You can get way too much information at
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/Index.cfm
Look for Dust Collection Basics, but take the info with a grain of salt. This guy is "into it" to an extreme. Good info, though.

Regards,
Tom
Edit: Regarding original question: Since the more popular DC systems have such a tall filter bag or canister setup, wall-mounting wouldn't really gain you that much. That being said, I wouldn't think it would take much work at all to attach it to the wall.

[scorrpio]

I dunno, in my practice anything mounted on a wall becomes a dust collector...

[vaking]

Let me try to offer this explanation to the question of 1HP dust collector vs 5HP shopvac.
Niagara is a big river, it has a lot of water. Niagara Falls is considered the largest waterfall in US in terms of its power.
The tallest waterfall in US is not Niagara Falls. It is called "The Great Falls" and it is located in Patterson, NJ (few minutes from me). There river is much smaller than Niagara and you cannot get as much electricity from that river as you can at Niagara but the fall is taller than Niagara.
In order to collect larger chips from a relatively small area you need a device with high suction. Suction is like height of a waterfall. In order to collect dust from large area you need high airflow. Airflow is like amount of water in the river. Shopvac compared to the dust collector is like "Great Falls" compared to "Niagara Falls". The height is bigger (suction is also called Static pressure if you look into specs of a shopvac) but it has less airflow. Shopvac does not replace the DC if you have larger machines or need to collect from more than one hookup (With Shark Guard you need to collect from the Shark and from the BT3 native below the table at the same time). Dust collector on the other hand cannot replace shopvac if you need to cleanup bigger chips or nails or a spill. These machines don't compare to each other easily. As for comparing HP in DC and HP in shopvac - don't even try. That is a comparison of a donkey vs a race horse.

[stewchi]

What these guys said plus your shop vac is NOT 5HP that is a lie and several brands have been sued. That is how much power is drawn for an instant when it is tuned on, if it were truly 5HP the way a big air compressor is, it would be too heavy to easily move and need a much bigger cord and a 240v power source. The most any system with a normal 120v plug will be under 2HP. The HF 2HP DC comes close. As for mounting to the wall, my DC motor is very heavy, and most DC are built vertically so the gravity can help to separate the dust and chips before the exhaust air passes through the filter. I am sure it is possible to custom build a DC that would have filter on its side and but it will loose some efficiency that way. It also possible to vent you dust out of the shop the way a dryer does. There for eliminating the filter.

[LarryG]

quote:Originally posted by stewchi

It also possible to vent you dust out of the shop the way a dryer does. There for eliminating the filter.

Couple of caveats there, though.

Venting sawdust to the outside air is illegal in some areas; or if not actually illegal but you have neighbors nearby, maybe not good public relations. I could get away with it where I live, and may use this approach when I build my new shop. OTOH ...

... if you heat or cool your shop and vent your DC to the outside, it will cheerfully remove not only all the dust and chips but also all your conditioned air.

[stewchi]

Any ideas on a shop made heat exchanger???

[L. D. Jeffries]

The model number for the P/S dust collector is DC660P, and yes it is more powerful than a shop vac. The other posts on this subject explain it all. I agree that blowing dust/chips or whatever might not be too neighborly, thats why I built an enclosure around the outlet pipe and then can capture all the trash and empty it when full. Makes great mulch for flower beds and gardens too; as long as it isn't walnut/butternut. I use mine on the BT3 table saw, 13" planer, chop saw (with home made hood) and my router table. Am going to make a sanding box to collect from my orbital sander soon. Only tool I don't use it on is my 6" jointer as it really doesn't put out a lot of dust..the chips I just collect in a box under the bottom chute. Hope this furthers your interest.

[JimD]

On the 1hp versus 5hp, I would add to check the amps. HP ratings on tools are pretty useless. The shop vac amps could be a little more but will not be 5 times greater. Even if the are a little more, the fans are different as has been mentioned. For woodworking, the high airflow of the DC is more important than the ability to deal with more restriction like you have with a shop vac. The BT3100 is not where the high airflow will be noticed, however. Planners and jointers generate more wood chips per unit time than do saws. A shop vac does not have the airflow. My 1 hp DC will keep up with my 8 5/8 jointer/planner but doesn't have much extra capacity. I do not know if it could handle a 12 or 13 inch planner. For the BT3100, even though the pipe is 2 inch it is pinched down to significantly less in the casting. I added a second port under the saw in the stand to move more air. If your only inlet is the normal 2 inch port, the shop vacumn may actually be more effective than a small DC. The DC will probably be quieter and last longer, however.

Jim