20x20 garage dust collection suggestions

I have seen Harbor Freight mounted on the wall and read favorable reviews. Most of the people with them think they are great. They are in the $150 range with a coupon. The Rockler wall mounted unit is about $225 I think. The HF unit with a separator and better filters should do a great job. Another thing to think about is filtering the air in the work space while you are working. A dust collector is just a big vacuum cleaner and the fine dust remains in the air to breath. The fine dust is removed with filter system and filters that work in the 1 micron and less range. These just filter the air. The “store bought” units are in the $300 and up range. You can build one of these and buy the .5 micron filters from various suppliers that sell the machines.

Buy a used dust collector. You may be able to find one with pipe
and blast gates and stuff.

Dust collectors have soft resale value so there are plenty of
bargains to be sound.

I went to a central system with ducting recently (cyclone) and
it’s just so nice to have the dust collector out of the way. The
cyclone is made from a “Wood magazine” plan.

@Grandpa: Which unit from HF are you talking about in particular? They seem quite large and floor models. Also, I’ve seen (but lost links to) plans for air filtration systems online. Do you have any links in particular to some good plans?

@Loren: I’ve been looking on CL but no luck recently in my area. They are all very large units that I don’t have room for. As for the cyclone in Wood, apparently that material cost is $385 alone + $64 for the remote switch, not to mention I don’t really trust myself building something like that and the fact that it takes up a lot of valuable floor space on top of having to run duct work to areas of my garage that I’m not sure will always be used the same. :\

This is turning out to be a bigger decision than I thought. I think more research is in my future before I can make the proper decision on this.

-- Matt, Illinois, http://www.reintroducing.com

I’ve gotten a bunch of side advice about a HF 1hp DC. It look like and, takes up about the same space as the wall mounted Rockler, and I think more cfm (?), plus it’s about $150 on sale and less with the 25% off coupon you can get on-line from HF. I’m going to get one, then hook (try) it to my Onieda Dust Devil for chip removal prior to entering the unit. My 1/3 garage usage, of a 3 car, is down to an almost bare minimum, even with everything on wheels ! Got to try something, as my space looks like a dust bin.

-- * Reintarnation * : Coming back to life as a hillbilly.