Reply by crank49

The HF 2hp collector does a fine job and has plenty of capacity for most small wood shops. It’ll handle a 4” and a 2-1/2” duct being connected and open at the same time just fine. It has a “Y” with two 4” ports on the fan inlet, so I just used an adapter to reduce one side to 2-1/2”.

Adding the baffle on a trash can between the dust source and the fan has the advantage of droping the big chips, screws and chunks into the can and out of the airflow before they get to the fan. I hate the sound of a chunk of wood or a nail or screw going into the fan, and I think these things will eventually damage a fan. The baffle does add to the static pressure load on the system, but reducing the dust going into the bags can potentially reduce the load, so I think it’s a trade off.

You can run the 4” line in PVC, mounted to the ceiling or walls, with drops at multiple machines if you want. Just install a gate (shut-off) at each machine so you only have one open at a time. I have my jointer and table saw connected this way with a total of 20feet of pipe; works great.

My planer only has a 2-1/2” connection so I use the shop vac for this; it needs the extra static pressurs for high velocity flow. Most shop vacs generate over 60” of static, some go up to 120”, so they are the best choice for dust sources that need high pressure and use small pipes. Most portable power tools fall into this category, like routers, sanders, etc. In the case of the planer, I plan to add a “Dust Deputy” inline cyclone to the shop vac to handle the large volume of chips so I don’t have to enpty the vac so often.

I also plan to build or buy an air filter for the shop air instead of spending money on the cartridge for the dust collector. I want the air filtered all the time, and I don’t want to listen to the collector running that much. That’s just my preference, the independent air filter will cost about $200 where the cartridge would be about half that. But I just don’t want the DC running all the time; the filters are much quiter and clean more air more of the time.

-- Michael :-{| Diapers and politicians both need to be changed often; and for the same reason.