Dust Collector

[Aimlesssoul]

I am looking into a dust collector. My space is small so I was thinking to keep the dust collector in one spot and move the various tools to it. What would be appropriate,for bandsaw, table saw, lunchbox planer, jointer, and a miter saw. Type or size recommendation would be apprciated.

[Uncle Cracker]

The planer and jointer are the biggest waste producers of those you mentioned. For one tool at a time use, you could probably get by with a 600cfm DC unit. That would equate to probably 1-hp or so. (Note that you cannot take for granted the cfm's advertised in some sales literature, such as that of Harbor Freight.) But higher cfm's are still better than lower, so I wouldn't limit yourself to the 600cfm range if you don't have to.

Also note that desirable or necessary upgrades such as 1-micron bags need to be sized to properly provide the needed air discharge capacity (you need a bigger 1-mike bag to pass the same air as a standard 10-mike bag, for instance), or else your cfm's will be reduced. The same can happen if your DC ducting is too small or too lengthy.

Also, the feed rate and per-pass material removal settings can seriously affect how fast your tools produce chips, so you will probably need to adjust these factors according to the DC capacity you can provide.

I do know that when space is a problem, there are wall-mount units available, but I have no idea how well they perform. Perhaps somebody else here who has one will chime in.

Lastly, there are good books and articles out there about dust collection, as well as threads galore in the archives of this board and others. There is (usually) no downside to too much information.

[LCHIEN]

there are several ways to look at it. One is to consider what size dust ports your equipment has. Bigger DCs with more CFM are of course better but their CFM performance is limited by the piping and fittings, the CFM ratings are for a DC with no piping at all. If all your tools have 2.5" hose fittings then throttling the DC through those will greatly limit the achieved air flow CFMs.

So the first question is, how many tool have 4" ports?
Or, can be fitted with effective 4" ports?

Dust collection is dominated by two desires - one to pick up the chips and two, to control the ejection of fines into the air at the source. Lots of CFM are required for the latter, to combat the tendency of the fines from flying away from the cutters. This also a health priority. Picking up the chips is visibly easier to confirm, and makes the shop neater. In this case, the CFMs required are just enough to keep the chips moving in the hoses/piping.

[sweensdv]

Pretty much any of the small one bag style dust collectors will work if used as you described. An upgraded bag is a must for health reasons but other than that dust collection for one tool at a time is not rocket science. There really is no need to over complicate this purchase.

[Charlie]

Deleted by me.

[dbhost]

Let's make a couple of basic assumptions here...

#1. You are interested in collecting the fine health problem inducing dust.
#2. You can afford a mid priced system, or find a mid priced system at a much lower price I.E. on Craigslist.
#3. You are willing, and able to do a little dust hood modification where it will do the most good.

The tools you mention are...

bandsaw, table saw, lunchbox planer, jointer, and a miter saw

But you don't mention brand name, model, existing ports, so I have to make an assumption based on what I see commonly out on the shop tours...

Bandsaw. I have to guess that you have a common 14" Taiwan import band saw like the Jet, Delta, Grizzly, Ridgid, Harbor Freight etc... These ship with a variety of ports, typically 2" or 2.5". And almost always they are worthless. I have seen, and intend on implementing on mine, an improved port, that surrounds the blade with 4" S&D as it comes out of the bottom of the table. Others have added 4" ports into the side of the lower wheel housing. The reports on both designs is the improvement to 4" ports CFM wise handles the dust you are worried about.

Table saw. Again, no brand, no model, no listed port mods. I will go with mine. BT3100 with belly pan. I use a 4x4x2.5 wye, the 2.5" to the blade shroud, the 4" to the belly pan. I run my shop vac hose to the Shark Guard (not OEM product BTW. Search for Shark Guard here for more info...). I am clean above and below the table.

Lunchbox planer. Again, no brand or model. No listed ports. My Ryobi AP1301 works off of the 2.5" port and suffers for it (I am seriously considering modding the dust hood and molding a 4" port to it). The Ridgid, and I beleive DeWalt lunchbox planers have 2.5" OR 4" ports (you chose). I believe the Delta planers require an accessory hood with the port, and I believe those are 4".

Jointer. Unless you are using a benchtop jointer, and there seem to be few of us that do, you either have no dust port at all, or the dust port is 4".

Miter saw. (There's a hole with no bottom). Typically those, IF they have a dust collection provision, have 1.5" or something non standard... You generally want to build a hood of some sort that surrounds the sides, and back of the saw, and funnels down to a 4" port. There are a LOT of approaches to miter saw dust collection. The simplest, but not neccesarily the most effective is to just take the saw outside and let the dust fly. Getting slightly more concerned with controlling the dust is using a Big Gulp Dust Hood (many online and brick & mortar woodworking vendors sell these) on a stand behind the saw works well. The nice thing there is... You can take your stand, and hood, and use it for Lathe work if you get one of those later on...

Okay so now we have determined through assumption that you either have, or are willing / able to modify your dust hoods to accept the 4" hose you need to get the CFM you want.

You have a couple of choices, but unless money is real tight, I would suggest the following. And no it isn't the cheapest option, but it works well, and can be made to consume less floor space than other options...

Dust Collector. Delta mode #50-760 1.5HP dust collector. This is already equipped with a 1 micron dust bag, but in all honesty, I have found cartridge filters take longer to plug up and straight out of the box flow better. To make your life easier, maintenance on the DC easier, and performance of the DC that much better I would recommend...

#1. Swap the dust bag and dust bag support rod for a Wynn Environmental 35A cartridge filter. (Or similar) I went with Spun Bond poly, the paper element is popular as well as it filters down to .5 microns.

#2. Build a Thien Cyclone Separator on a 30 gallon barrel, and house that under the inlet of the DC on the DC stand. This will make your DC behave more like a MUCH larger, and MUCH more expensive cyclone system.

If however you are more budget oriented, and can deal with slightly lower performance on a budget...

The current issue of Wood Magazine has a coupon from Harbor Freight Tools for their #97869 2HP Dust Collector for if I recall right, $137.00. I may not be spot on, but I am within a dollar or so... This is the DC I own, it comes with a way too coarse 5 micron filter bag. Upgrade the filter to at a MINIMUM a 1 micron filter bag, Highland Hardware has them. But the Wynn 35A canister filter is WELL worth the few additional dollars in air flow and filtration performance. The paper element is $103.00, the spun bond poly is $145.00. The poly can be washed out, dried out, and reused. The paper cannot... In the long term, the spun bond makes more sense...

Lastly, and since you mention space is critical, build a Thien Baffle for the inlet ring of your DC. This works like the pre separator I described above, BUT it is just the baffle portion mounted to the bottom of the inlet ring. It keeps the filter clean longer. You still have to change bags as often...


Now for an air filtration machine (you use these AFTER you leave the shop so you have clean air to come into next time) can be as simple, or complex as you want it to be. I personally use a simple 20" box fan with a 3M Filtrete Ultra Allergen electrostatic filter duct taped to the back side...

Don't forget to consider your sanders, those typically need higher static lift than a dust collector can produce, this is where a shop vac with a HEPA filter comes in really handy...

[poolhound]

Lost of good advice already. Keep an eye open on your local CL and do aim to get something that either already has or you can upgrade to a good filter. Some of the old ones were 15 microns which is letting a lot of nasty stuff back in the shop.

I have the 50-760 that DB mentioned. it wa a little more costly but its a great unit.

Also I noticed you said you wanted to "keep the dust collector in one spot and move the various tools to it." I would recommend doing it the other way around. Most DCs are on wheels and are a lot lighter than some of the heavy tools you mentioned.

[Sawatzky]

If any of the Lowes in your area still have the Delta 50-720 on clearance, get it. It is a great collector on wheels producing 650 CFM with a 1 micron filter bag. It is a great one machine at a time collector. But it has been a few months since it was on clearance and is probably gone by now. I also have the small portable DC from Harbor Frieght (the green one with the induction motor, not the red one). It is also on wheels and can be easily moved around. It works well, but would do much better with a bag ugrade to 5 microns or less. I think this DC is about $120.00 at HF.

[Charlie]

Deleted by me.

[dbhost]

Your guess is spot on. On the BT3100, at least the way mine came, it is a simple piece of 1/8" hardboard with a replaceable insert, the insert houses a nipple of 4" Sch 40.

Mind you I got my saw this way. I have been too swamped with other projects to bother with changing it out, but I have planned pulling the insert, making another for 4" S&D so it fits my plumbing better. Right now mine is attached to a 4" DC sweep elbow and the gap is made up with LOTS of duct tape... It works, it seals. But it is complete redneck engineering...

There are some gaps between the hardboard and the bottom of the saw, but they simply act as slots for fresh air intake, and all the junk in the bottom of the saw gets sucked in fine...

[Charlie]

Deleted by me.