Dust collection - share information and a pic of yours?

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CaptnA

Andy
Corporate Member
I have put it off for too long and am starting the process of deciding on dust collection for my shop.
There is a lot of equipment, a lot of ideas, and a plethora of opinions on this subject.
I have read though a lot of older and newer threads on dust collection, read articles and advertisements, and window shopped to the point of information overload.

Obviously there are no one device fits all situations product, so I still have work to do.
I have to determine what my needs are, what equipment I need to have dust collection on, etc.
I've seen flex vs rigid tube debate, 4/5/6" tube preferences, blast gate location, switch location questions and many more. There are just a ton of questions to figure out before I can even get into it.

Would anyone post a picture of what you have for dust collection and describe what you like, what doesn't work so well, and what you would do differently?
I much prefer honest user testimonials over any advertiser claims.
Thank you in advance
 

redknife

Chris
Corporate Member
Andy, can you give us an ideas about whether you're planning stationary vs. mobile collection, space for equipment, ability to exhaust outside, budget, shop location within a family dwelling vs. freestanding, etc? As we discussed recently, there is a continuum of dust collection and I think it helps to get in a certain ballpark.

I've read all those prior very useful threads, pentz, particle count discussions, etc but I think it it will help if you can narrow some of the parameters for best advice.

to answer your question re: personal experience (necessarily anecdotal), I use a Jet cyclone mobile unit and a Jet air cleaner. I realize there were some negative thoughts about this unit express recently, but I do find, as did FWW, that the cyclone mod keeps the filter cleaner than same design without cyclone, resulting in debris falling down and prolonged life of optimal suction. I like the ceiling mounted air cleaner for my family since the shop is attached to the house. I do think there is evidence that the air cleaners quickly reduce the counts locally in the room and hopefully this poses less risk to my family as small particles are known to distribute in the house. I agree with the recent threads that this level of collection is best supplemented with a mask but I don't always do so. I also use a fair number of festool tools with a ct26 which provides a good collection system although I haven't measured particle counts. I connect my festool vac to the blade guard on the table saw (sawstop... trifecta) and Jet to the 4" duct which seems to (jo counts) work well. I would like a larger hp stationary cyclone unit with distributed piping now that I am more settled with large machinery and locations. If you can get into that range now, go for the big motor and pipe it out. Problem with my set up is time and hassle to move things around and efficacy (good for me right now, but realize not what it could be). HTH without stirring anyone's pot and good luck.
infrequently mentioned is running the dust collection for a period after stopping tool (how long ???) which acts to continue to reduce particle counts when tested.
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
My shop is non existant due to a move. Actually it is under construction. I hired a contractor, he was supposed to be by the end of August but you know how that goes. I have my little Delta AP400 in storage and plan to use it in the new shop. It is only 1hp but worked pretty well for me. It won't keep up with my little 10 inch Ryobi planner but works OK with my other tools. I had it set up semi-permanently with piping that was rigid where possible and flexible where it had to be. I used large plastic drain piping from a home center for the rigid. I made my own blast gates located at each tool. I'm not sure what I will do in the new shop but it will probably be similiar. If I was starting from scratch, I would use at least a 1.5hp DC. I use a paper cartridge filter on the Delta after using the stock and then felt bags. The cartridge is definitely the way to go.

It is not a DC but I have a little plastic cyclone on my Rigid shop vac. It takes most of the debris out including some pretty fine dust minimizing cleaning of the aftermarket hepa filter.
 

richlife

New User
Rich
Hey, Andy. I went through the throes of learning all I could several years ago, and information glut can really set in fast. I definitely agree that it would help to know more about how you're setup -- especially the size of your shop and how many collection stations you are thinking you will need.

But I may be able to help a little up front. First off, I'll recommend the book I found last (after much other research) but which did me more good than all the other information I gathered -- http://www.amazon.com/WOODSHOP-DUST-CONTROL-SANDOR-NAGYSZALANCZY/dp/B000LA0Y5K . I haven't taken any specific pictures of my dust collection, but you can see some of my setup on this page of my website (which suffers from being out-dated just like everything else due the the past two years of real life in our household). http://www.beauhavenwoodworking.com/bh_views.htm Let me point you particularly to the full inside shop picture (second row of three pictures, pic on the left) and the shot of my sanding station, two rows below.

I have a 1 1/2 hp Woodtek collector which works well in my small shop. I would still prefer 2 1/2 hp and a cyclone, but cost and timing decided. I quickly decided to move the DC outside onto the deck and built a closet for it which you can see in the sanding station pic. After starting with all flex tubing running through the inside of my small shop, I quickly realized that I was losing too much interior space and and way too much efficiency with the flex tubing, so I started over with a four-pronged steel run servicing the chop saw, the drill/rotary tool, the router table/sanding station and a central station to which I can roll the table saw, band saw, drum sander, planer and jointer for connection. With 1/8" hardboard, aluminum flashing, rivets and caulk, I made custom surrounds and/or collection bins for each tool. I used 5" tubing throughout and routed it under my shop as it is set up on pillars and there was plenty of room underneath.

On the full inside shot I mentioned, behind the foreground open space right in the center of the shop, you can see the main collection flex tubing coming out of the floor (under my work bench). That is right next to my 220 volt service -- most of my large tools are now wired 220. On the left side center you can see my miter saw setup and on the right side center is the drill press. Straight in the rear middle (the small grey box) is my router table with the sanding station on the other side of the wall. The miter saw and drill press are single gates, the router/sanding setup is Y'd with 2 gates and the flexible tube in the middle (shown with floor vacuum collector) has a single gate on its end which I connect to each of the big tools as needed.

This has worked well for me now for 6 or 8 years. I wasted a lot of money on flex tube which I later discarded in favor of the steel tubing (got lucky and found all that in a flea market including most of the elbows). BTW, I used mostly 90* rotating air vent elbows, but coupled each as a 45* so that they give the recommended large radius for dust collection. I used some incense sticks to help find and silicon caulk any leaks (it would be good for me to do that again at this point).

Just today, I modified the table saw collector to fit the delta saw I recently acquired. It only took one long cut with the saw to convince me that the dust connection had immediate highest priority. :)

Rich
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
Once, I taught shop in a school with a 4000sq ft shop. 7.5 hp cyclone, bag filters, but only one place to actually turn DC on. I swore this would never happen in my shop. So now I have my Wood cyclone, with 0.5 micron filter socks that are 6" dia X 65 inches high. A total of seven, which gives me filter surface of a HUGE filter bag. Most importantly, in the panel box is a sensor that turns DC on when any of the machine circuits are energized, and allows DC to run for ten seconds after shut down to clear the pipes. Idea for sensor came from Aug 2000 FWW. I added a delay on break timer to original design. I use my jointer and 15" planer on slab in front of shop. I connect them to a Thien baffle at the source to keep from having to haul the can from back of shop.
 

CaptnA

Andy
Corporate Member
My shop is separate from the house. I need to go down and get some measurements.
I would prefer a permanent mount but honestly portable may be easier.
My biggest concern is my lungs. I simply do not breathe as well as I used to.
I would like to have dust collection at the table saw, band saw, sanders, and lathes. I usually take the planer outside the roll up door and let it fly.
I've been doing little aside from lathe work for too long and my last project showed the need for far more than just running the shop vac.
I am leaning towards a portable dc with a suspended air filtration but am holding off looking at options.
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
If your band saw is a Delta 14", or a clone, look up my "Top Tip" in Wood magazine. Requires no cutting of doors and works very well.
 

Pyrut

New User
Jack
Hey andy,
If you're not planning to do brain surgery in your shop and can contend with a little dust and less noise, I have built a cyclone system from a captured blower with a one horse motor, a heavy duty cardboard box (convinced to go "round" and another box convinced to go "conical". Add a mixture of dryer vent hoses, metal ducting, a sewn at home felt bag filter and shazam! you've got a working system. Cost me about $60 and have been using it for years with good success. Email me if interested and I'll fire you some photos of the Frankenstein.
janulies@carolina.rr.com
 

richlife

New User
Rich
My shop is separate from the house. I need to go down and get some measurements.
I would prefer a permanent mount but honestly portable may be easier.
My biggest concern is my lungs. I simply do not breathe as well as I used to.
I would like to have dust collection at the table saw, band saw, sanders, and lathes. I usually take the planer outside the roll up door and let it fly.
I've been doing little aside from lathe work for too long and my last project showed the need for far more than just running the shop vac.
I am leaning towards a portable dc with a suspended air filtration but am holding off looking at options.

Not shown and not mentioned in my post is that I also have a ceiling suspended air filter in the main shop and another in the separate finish room that I added on. The latter is mainly for dust removal when I'm working on finishes, but the one in the main shop is marvelous for picking up the dust that collectors at the tools can't get. That's usually the worst stuff as it's the finest.

And since you said, "My biggest concern is my lungs. I simply do not breathe as well as I used to." I also urge you to always use an N95 rated dust mask also (they will have two head straps, not just the one elastic strap that the basic and useless, nuisance mask has). My lungs are very sensitive due to earlier abuse from a college summer job (coal dust), early life smoking and asthma. If I forget my mask, I will end up coughing for a couple of days after time in the shop creating dust. Fortunately, my doctor still says my lungs sound clear unless I'm having asthma problems at the time.

Rich
 

BWSmith

New User
BW
See if these pics upload.Short story;

A cpl years ago this was one of those seeder spreaders,ya'll have seen them.They made a bazzilion of these Red spreaders.As we were cleaning old junk out of the way,just before tossing this pce,I thought it would be kinda funny,see'n as it had CYCLONE plainly printed on the front......why not make it a DC?So,we started collecting parts for it,no big deal.

Then we built a pretty nice vert. panel saw.Was using a shop vac for it's DC,cause the saw gets turned on/off or,cycled a little too many times to keep starting big collector.Then the "joke" DC popped back up.Rolled all the necessary pcs out of 20 and 24G.No big engineering,just copy the basics from our other systems.The whole top part lifts to get collection drum out.It's a taper'd fit.......gravity providing the seal.

The side benny,and what really lit the fire was,we are planning to use this as a "mobile" unit to go out on jobs with us.Hence the junky old hand truck(barely visible),used as framework.The reasoning behind the high'ish inlet port has to do with the panel saw's ducting comes in from kind of high location.Anyway,thought ya'll would like to see some of the crazy "stuff" we do around here,haha.
 

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