Shop vac stlye dust collectors
Right now I use an ordinary shop vac to collect dust from my RO sander, mitre saw, circular saw. It’s loud, and has to be switched on and off manually. If I ever forget to turn it on, I have a big pile of dust to deal with it about 30 seconds. So I’m thinking about relagating it to general shop cleanup duties and getting a
tool triggered, more specialized unit.
I looked up the FWW article on shop vac collectors, but it’s dates pretty far back.
Does anyone have (I’m opening that can of worms) a strong opinion on this matter?
What FWW articles tend to omit is the long term ownership part of tool ownership- the
durability of tools and overall satisfaction of owners, as well as support and price/ availablity of consumables. The online reviews have a little bit of reader feedback, but
it’s nothing compared to the wealth of comments here in knots.
I really like the look of the festool CT 22, and I think it might be a good idea to set myself up for compatibity with festool… when my pocketbook expands I imagine my festool collection will also. It seems like these are available for a good price when packaged with the tools.
The fein and porter cable units appear to be pretty solid too.
anyway, I would appreciate your feedback-
Vincent
Replies
Go to www Oneida.com- they have a cyclone unit built for small jobs. I posted a query abou9t it and got really enthusiastic replies.
Vince,
http://www.woodcraft.com has JDS dust collection systems that you can hook up a remote control to. http://www.grizzly.com has a fine selection of DC units, can't say for sure about RC setups. Mine is a Bridgewood BW002AC from http://www.wilkemachinery.com which will suck a golf ball through a garden hose if given the chance, don't know about RC units with them either.
CC.
My brother-in-law an I just purchase a Clearvue cyclone. As well , Bill bought the mini cyclone for use his basement. He has the little one hooked up to his Dewalt planer. The planer has a pretty good vacuum system it self, so it is not surprising to see no noticeable chips or dust coming off the planer. The material ges into a 5 gallon plastic bucket. For testing, he had a new Rigid shop vacuum. The 5 gallon pail is full, the vacuum is empty. Shop vac motors like lots of air to keep them from overheating. The less dust that gets trapped before the filter element, the more air will flow past the motor.
http://www.clearvuecyclones.com/
Keep this in mind because over time the cost of replacing HEPA grade elements in your shop vac can get very costly. Why HEPA. The wood chips and coarse dust won't kill you. The stuff that is lees than 1 micron will in time. That is the stuff you don't notice but find all over your shop in the morning.
There is so much to consider when getting into dust collecting. You have to start with Bill Penz information and see how far you want to go.
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm
Switching off and on. Some of the shop vacs have a switch that allows one tool to activate the other. There also a product called an Automater on the market - through eBay. You can buy the wire in model or 2 different styles of prewired plug in models - one for 110V and one for 220V.
Some things to think about.
Don
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled