Woodcraft - Small Dust Collection Cyclone (Rating: 3)

This is distributed by Woodcraft. The first picture shows the contents of the box. I bought it to build a sanding vac cart - separator and a small shop vac with a HEPA filter plus an auto switch for the vac. It was on sale for (iirc) $49.95, regular price $79.95. I went to check the price on the Woodcraft web site but it didn't come up in the search. I know my local store had them as recently as mid January. A label on the side of the box even says "woodcraft". Not sure why it's off the web site, could be discontinued.

Anyway, the components are of pretty good quality and it went together exactly as expected. The "flex goose neck" tubing is actually pretty good - it's of a generous length. Once assembled and hooked up to a vacuum it seems to work ok - you can see the vortex action but it continually scrubs the dust so I have to take points off for not being a good separator. I built a Thein baffle for it and that made a huge difference. A lot less dust got to the vac after that. (note: the picture is pre baffle.) If it had come with a baffle, I would have given it 4 stars. If they had simply called it a separator instead of a cyclone (it really isn't a true cyclone like a dust deputy) I would have given back another star. I hate deceptive marketing. To be fair, I expected to have to make a baffle for it when I bought it.

I probably could have built something similar for a bit less than I paid but have far too many other projects to complete.