Harbor Freight portable dust collection Q's

[cgallery]

Harbor Freight shows two portable dust collections:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94029
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=31810

The first one (94029) is a little less expensive, looks a little smaller, and seems to have substantially higher CFM (914-CFM) than the larger one (660-CFM).

Anyone have personal familiarity w/ these? I'm wondering why the smaller, cheaper one would move 1/2-again more air.

I've seen pictures of what I think is the 94029 on eBay and it almost seems like it has a universal motor? Perhaps they are spinning the turbine much faster?

Or, perhaps they are inflating how much they inflate their CFM #'s (I think the 94029 is a newer model).

Oh, and I know everyone is gonna tell me to get the 2HP model because it works better and is a better value. But I'm actually thinking of using it to play with my experimental cyclone and don't want all the extra "stuff" that comes w/ the 2HP.

[sweensdv]

From what I've seen posted on other forums the red one seems to receive positive responses while the green one is generally bad mouthed. I have no personal experience with either one, except for seeing the green one at the local HF. The green one for sure would need an upgrade on the bag and I suspect the same would be true with the red one.

[tedkitch]

I have the green 31810 and I have been very happy with it. It does everything that I've asked it to. I only hook it up to one machine at a time and I needed the portability (working in the garage, outside, basement, etc.) I purchased it on sale for 89.99 and used my 15% off coupon. As far as the CFM are concerned, I don't have an air flow meter, but it works incredibly well with the BT3100 and my CSMS. I've even rigged up my drill press and it does wonderful with it too. As stated previously, the bag that it comes with isn't great, but it works.

Let me know if you have any specific questions regarding the unit,

[cgallery]

Thanks for the input. We have +1 red, +1 green. Keep it coming.

BTW, are there any current HF coupons that will work in their stores?

[Sawatzky]

I have the green one and am happy with it. It does pull a lot of air and works well for one machine operation. I have a small shop and the only major dust tools that I have are my router table and table saw. I don't use my jointer enough to justify hooking it up and I don't have a planer. I also don't have much room so this little DC slides right under my outfeed table. The green DC has 1 HP induction motor. The red DC has a universal motor and to me looks much from flimsy and breakable. The green one seems to be a lot like the 2 HP DC minus the collection bags. I would think a universal motor on a DC would be very loud and you would not want to keep it running for long. Based on my expereince I recomend the green DC to anyone needing a portable unit.

[Russianwolf]

The red one is beleived to be a clone of a model sold by PSI. You can find a bit more info on it on their site.

[cgallery]

Thanks Mike. I think I'll try the red one for my cyclone tests. I think the additional static pressure can only be a plus.

It will be interesting to see how much noise it generates compared to a Ridgid shop vac. I found a RS SPL meter on craigslist.org for $20 so I've been testing all my gear to find out how loud it is.

[Garasaki]

I'll be interested to hear how it compares to a shop vac as well. I wonder if a person could somehow retrofit one of these to filter down to a much lower micron value?