Got my HF 2hp dust collector today.

[leehljp]

Early last week, I asked about a 2hp HF Dust Collector model 97869 on sale at Ebay for $115.00. That seemed excessively low and makes one have some doubts as to the validity of the item. There was a bidding sale on another 97869 model that sold for about $110. The one that showed on ebay was the green one HF model. The one that was shipped to me was the gray model.

I was concerned about it - if it was a legit purchase for the price, so I was a tad worried if I was getting a real deal. It got here rather quickly - today/Tuesday, rather than Friday the expected delivery date.

The box had some mild bangs, but not much. One corner was frazzled but not crushed.

I took it into my shop and opened it. It (Dust Collector) was in very good / new shape and all the parts were there. When opening, I noticed that the box had a second layer of tape to it, like it had been opened before. I read one review somewhere about something being bent at the store and they got another one. The collector (center part where the bags attach) - the 4 inch inlet was in a D shape. Took a few seconds to get it round. The motor mount was bent a tad, but not much. A good 2x4 block and a hammer will straighten that out. The blower housing has a small bend in it but can easily be straightened. It does not affect the motor or fan. I did plug in the fan/motor and it ran like a charm. Not as noisy as I was expecting.

So I figure the price was due to someone (the seller) buying seconds or dented, and then re-selling them at a discount. This was half price.

I am off to a conference tomorrow and Thursday, so I will not be able to assemble it until Friday! Still, half price for a 2 hp HF dust collector new with a few minor dents is a good buy.

I got a call about noon from LOML wanting to know what that big box was under the car port behind her car. OOPS, forgot to tell her!

[LCHIEN]

Ha Ha, there's something to worry about... Counterfeit HF tools!
How can you tell? They have a price too low to believe, questionable quality and unintelligible instructions and appear to be made in China. Whoops....

[Bill in Buena Park]

Sounds like you got a great deal Hank! I don't know how old the grey model is, as I believe the newer one is green - however it's a dust collector, and as long as it runs properly, should hopefully give you a number of years of good service.

[leehljp]

Bill, I have been following the HF DC off and on for a few years, and I thought it has been the green up until a few months ago. When did they begin the Gray series?

Loren, That's funny! It could be. At least all the parts are there.

[leehljp]

That reminds me: There are stores here there and yonder that have the discounted sale items that are overages and dented boxes. Being one that likes a good deal, I do frequent these on occasion, but rarely buy. Well, I bought one from ebay! Time will tell if I made a good purchase.

[atgcpaul]

I still can't believe they shipped that to you for $115 including shipping! I really wonder what kind of profit they got on it.

Aside from adding the Wynn filter and reconfiguring it to add the Super Dust Deputy, another worthwhile mod is Loring's remote control switch.

[leehljp]

I put the DC together today and turned it on. Works great. It was fairly simple and took a couple of hours.

First: I know why it was probably so cheap. As I mentioned, it had a double layer of tape on the top. It was probably returned due to dents in 5 places. If I had paid full price, or bought it on sale and even with a 20% or 25% coupon, I probably would have returned it, once I found these dents. But for $115. I will most certainly take it.

The functioning and moving parts were not damaged or bent to the point of interference with its work and purpose.

1. The collector (where the bags go) was bent at the 4" input pipe - D shaped. Took a couple of minutes to make it round. It did not have the "crease" kind of dents. So that was not a problem.
2. The motor stand was bent side to side on a line with the bolt holes. I took my 2 1/2 lb hammer and straightened it in two or three minutes.
3. The platform was the most dented, but not enough to be noticed immediately. One edge was buckled so that one end would be about 1/2 inch out of plane from the other end/corner. Again, I used the small sledge hammer on it, finessing it back into alignment.
4. The fan housing top rectangular outlet had one lip bent downward on one side. Using a regular hammer with just the right force and some bends and tweaks with channel lock pliers, I got it fairly level. I used the rubberized silicone glue on the gasket on both sides and tightened it. After testing it, it seems to be working well. I will test it more, later.
5. The fan housing side inlet plate and the housing itself was dented just a tad. None of these dents, except for the D shaped inlet were not immediately noticeable until I began to look closely.

Again, these dents and bent edges make me believe this was a returned item. It is Well WORTH $115.00. I don't have a warranty and that is a take-away.

Putting it together: Thanks to some reviews that told of some minor differences between the instructions and reality, it went together quick and I didn't have to spend time trying to figure what to do about missing nuts - that it didn't need. All parts were there, including a couple of "pins" that I haven't figured out where they go. It also had an abundance of allen wrenches. From reading a few reviews, I was led to think it would be difficult putting the bags on, or at least one of them. I didn't have any problem with that. I have more difficulty with trash bags on the kitchen garbage can. I will add, on this note that with each model iteration of some of HF's tools, there are some improvements over the previous one. Not sure if this was the case with this one or just my good luck.

NOW, I have to make room for it! Going to work on that today.

[capncarl]

Is this somethings that you are going to mount on the wall or build a cart? How soon before you change the bag to the Wynn filter? I guess that most all the brands of cuts collectors function the same, with the filter bag on top and chip collection bag on bottom. I changed my delta set up by adding a Thein before the fan and changed out the filter bag for a Wynn nano filter and left the plastic chip bag in place to catch dust that fell out of the Wynn. You can gauge the flow of the filter by pressing on the side of the plastic bag while the unit is running. With a clean filter the plastic bag is loose with little resistance and when the filter is loading up the resistance builds up. This is something to watch! Not long ago I didn't empty my trash can under the Thein and ran the drum sander and planer quite a bit with all the shavings and dust going into the Wynn filter. For some reason I thought about checking the trash can and noticed how much debris was in the plastic bag so I turned the DC off. When I took the bag off to empty it it split down the side on a seam. Cheap me hasn't been replacing these bags, just empty them and put them back on. I believe I'll find a clear bucket or something to replace the bag.

[leehljp]

Carl,
I do woodwork about one weekend a month at the most. So for me, a dust separator before the DC will be sufficient for me . . . until I see that I need something more. I am not quite as active as you are! I have a large trash can separator for the 2 hp HF one I just got, and a smaller 10 gal separator for the 1 hp DC that I am going to move to the lathe. I am moving the lathe inside an AC/heated room. Not much dust in there where 95% will be pens.

[JimD]

My favorite HF 2hp setup is by DIY Tyler, this should be a link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RAoj4urS-Y

If I get one, I hope I get as good a price. But mostly what holds me back is space. I will probably vent outside too, instead of using a cartridge filter.

[capncarl]

I suppose that my past experiences with dust collection systems influence my shop dust collection. My first experience was with a 30,000 sf air conditioned process area that had all kind of candy production equipment operating 24/7. We added flour handling equipment that required a lot of dust collection, part of my job. After everything was installed and started up the dust collection system we noticed at 10 degree plant temperature rise per hour. That is per hour. In a few hours the factory was 100 degrees inside rather than 75. The only answer was to shut off the dust collection, and the temperature slowly went down. To fix this problem we had to introduce outside air at the same rate the dust collection was pulling air out and not take any more conditioned air out with the dust collector system than possible. This is how commercial kitchen vent hoods work, you pull out 100 cf air you put in 100 cf air. After I modified my shop delta dust collection system with Thein separator and a Wynn filter I decided to check my shop setup with the separator outside like others report to use. I rolled the dust collector outside and poked the 4" hose in the back window, run the power cord out, taped up the window and fired her up. My delta dust collector pulled enough air I could barely open the door, and it sucked every bug that ran in front of my garage door into the shop. Luckily I had a fold down attic door that acted as a pressure relief valve as It would have eventually pulled in a lesser roll up door. Enough. I move it back inside. I quickly calculated it removed all my wonderful cool shop air conditioned air a couple of times an hour and spewed it outside! Thus my stance on relocating the dust collector outside. I won't judge anyone on where they put their dust collector..... because I don't have to pay their utility bill! And if they have discovered a way to operate a dust collector on an air conditioned building without intricate make up air piping they better patent the thing quickly, because they will be the first one to work this miracle.
capncarl

[leehljp]

Carl, you bring up an interesting side. I had thought about it along those lines but not nearly as deep as you did. I also realize that your knowledge is from practical experience. In a way it is like the replacement of incandescent bulbs with florescent or LED bulbs. It costs more to cool down incandescent heat than the electricity the bulbs use.

I had originally considered (before the purchase) venting the DC outside for simplicity sake. Now, you have me re-thinking how I am going to do this. And I should do this while I am re-organizing the shop. My "shop" has a side room of 6 ft by 8 ft that is half walled and half screen with a high powered vent at the top. It was built and used by my dad for the BBQ grill. It has been a storage area for wood for me. This would be the ideal place for the DC system and I have 30 ft of 4 inch PVC pipe to do the base plumbing.

Thanks for the ideas, experiences and examples! VERY HELPFUL!

[capncarl]

My shop test for the dust collector was probably a lot more wrong than right. When I tested the unit outside it had a new, never used Wynn nano filter so it was probably pulling a lot more cf or air that it ever can when connected to the 4" ducts. I figure right now my dust collector pulls possibly 400cfm through the ducting. That equates to nearly 3 complete air changes of my 8650cf shop every hour. If you were to only operate the dust collector located outsid the shop building 10-20 minutes at a time while you were sawing or running the planer it might not effect the temperature of your shop much, but I sometimes run my dust collector for hours on end. When I run it this long I also notice a temperature rise in the shop from the additional lighting I'm using and from the heat generated by the dust collector and other equipment. The air conditioner keeps the shop 72 degrees in the smaller woodshop room where unit is located and 78-80 degrees in the garage side where there is a roll up door, personnel door and 2 Windows bringing in heat. i like my air conditioner! It makes it possible to enjoy my shop and hobbies in reasonable comfort. Before the ac the shop temperature would be in the high 90s to 100 for months on end. Impossible to use the shop for anything other than vehicle storage at this temperature. Winter temperatures were more tolerable but not really comfortable.

I try to follow Bill Pentz's guidelines on dust collections the best I can, but like eating, exercising, saving and spending it is not always possible to follow the best practices the experts recommend. My next dust collector project will be to add a proper cyclone to catch some of the dust before it gets to the filter, then remove the plastic bag from under the filter and possibly add another Wynn filter there. That done I am going to create a closet out of the corner nook that houses my dust collector with a frame that holds pleated air conditioner filters. Hopefully the pleated filters will reduce the dust kicked up from the return air from the dust collector, and maybe some of the noise.
capncarl

[LCHIEN]

I suspect one way to evaluate dust collector airflow is to measure the current drawn.
The funny thing about fans and blowers, the more air they move, the more current they draw. Air flow is proportional to current.
Block off part of the air flow, and the thing makes a big racket, the blower gets loud and the site of the restriction gets loud. You think its drawing more power but it is not. The current actually goes down.because you are moving fewer cubic feet of air.
So a good thing to do is check the current with no restriction... the bags removed and the input open. You will probably draw right at the rated amps, about 15 or so for the HF unit. Maybe more, the unit was not intended to run with no filter bags and no input wide open but some hose or pipe.
After you do work, fllter bags and plumbing, you check the amperage and see how much its gone down, its an indication of how much restriction you have added. It probably also a good means to check when your filter is plugged.

[atgcpaul]

Carl's comment about the puffy bag got me motivated to check mine today. I guess I've been absent minded with my DC can. Today I emptied it (full can) and the clear bag, too. I looked into my filter and it was completely caked. I reinstalled the bag and beat several pounds of fine dust out of the filter. I'll dump the bag again tomorrow and start again.