Craftsman 1 hp dust collector

[greencat]

I'm looking for an inexpensive dust collector. I'm using wet /dry vacs.

I saw this on ebay.
1 hp Craftsmen Dust Collector

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190136438274&sspagename=ADME:L:RTQ:US:1

Anyone have any information on this? It must be old since I only see 1 1/2 units when I google it. I don't want to invest in a large unit until I can have a dedicated shop. The seller is local so I would save on shipping.

[ragswl4]

Email the seller and ask what kind of bags it has. 30, 5 or 1 micron? If it has the 30 micron bags then for effective dust collection you will need to buy new bags. 30 micron bags will allow the finest dust (the bad stuff) to escape through the bags and you will be breathing it. Cost is around $80-90 for two 1 micron bags.

That DC will only be useful for 1 machine at a time. So you will have to move it around your shop or invest in hoses and blast gates for each machine. Price looks ok, based on type of bags it has.

[greencat]

When you get to 5 or 1 does the bag feel more like felt instead of a cloth? The reason I ask I don't think the seller knows. Also is 30 worst than the wet/dry with special bags for collection?

[LCHIEN]

I'm going to go out on a limb and say this looks like a very old C'man DC based on the general styling I see in the photo.
Basically then it will have pretty porous bags in the 30 micron range as finer filtering has only been a recent (last ten years) phenomena and most DC manufacturers are STILL putting coarse bags on as original equipment.

So what you have to do is to determine what your goals are in getting a DC. It's easy to cheat because the fines aren't all that visible (except at the end of the day when you find a fine film of fine dust on your tools and surfaces).

But do you want to have clean air for breathing (in which case you want 2, 1, or even .5 micron filtering) or just want to keep from having to sweep up or uncloging your shop vac hose?

Becasue it has assymetrical bag diameters it may not even take standard sizes of bags if you would want to upgrade...
Personally, I'd pass.