Dust Collector

[Luckbox]

I am contemplating this myself, but really don’t have the money, but it seems to good to pass up.
http://raleigh.craigslist.org/tls/898735702.html

My question is this. My table saw, ridgid sander and planer hook up to my shop vac with no problems, but my band saw and jointer have the 4” ports. I am trying to decide if I should get a good shop vac, or a dust collector, or just stick with my shop blower/vac. I have read a lot of things with mixed results and not sure if it is worth the money to upgrade.

Where I do my woodworking is in my garage with the door open nearly all the time, and I roll my tools out to where the driveway and the garage meet, so I am not sure if I really need to worry about my dust collection system since It is pretty much an open air work area. In the winter I do tend to keep the door closed, but in most cases If it is to cold to work outside it is to cold in the garage.

Just looking for some input on what is the best solution.

[LCHIEN]

there's really a few reasons for dust collection equipment. One is for chip removal and the other is for fine dust collection. Housekeeping and health in a nutshell.

If yoiu just want to get the bigger cuttings and shavings and chips then the shp vac may well do although in some cases of machines that make a lot of shavings, it may not keep up. For machines that use vacs, 2.5" ports are the norm.

If you want to catch all the fines before they are ejected in the air at the cutting blade, then you need the air volumes of a properly plumbed dust collector, 1.5HP and up with 4 to 6" ducts.

It all depends on what you want to do.

[Luckbox]

Well health is a concern but I was not sure if the fine particles are as much of a concern with a work environment that is very open to the environment. I do know that the shop vac has issues with the jointer, but that is the only tool that it seems to have an issue with, and it it is probably the my least used tool.

[LCHIEN]

btw, that CL item looks like a good deal.

[dbhost]

The rule of thumb from what I have been able to read from Bill Pentz' web site (a respected authority on the subject of dust collection) as well as from Wood Magazine, and any other variety of sources, is that you should size your dust collection system based on the capability of the largest port on your equipment, so if ALL of your equipment uses the 2.5" dust vac port at largest, as does mine, then a shop vac based system is appropriate, but if you have 4" ports which I think you said you did, then you want to step up to a true DC, and that Grizz is a really good deal... HOWEVER. You will need fine particle filtration I'm not sure that the model you are looking at filters under 2 microns.

You will want to add at some time in the future a 1 micron filter, and a cyclone separator of some sort, like a Neutral Vane, or better yet, a Thien Cyclone Separator Thien Cyclone Separator into a 55 gallon barrel in line before the DC.