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2K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  richgreer 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Looking for any experiences that might help. I am looking at small portable dust collectors for my shop. The Fein ~$320 and the Festool ~$550 both look good, Festool is quite a bit more expensive for a comparable size. For me to get serious about reining in my dust issue, size, ease of use and versatility, are paramount. I am a hobbyist, so, a large capacity I don't believe to be an issue. Any opinions/pearls of wisdom would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Taco Dan
 
#3 ·
Any vacuum dust collection system that you use will be helpful. I think for your application a 10 gal. shop-vac with a Dust Deputy should work great. You would have a versatile system, the vacuum is portable and with the higher hp. motors that are available you would have plenty of power and by adding the Dust Deputy to the system you will maximize the vacuums performance.
I have a Shop-vac QPL625 that is hooked directly to my table saw and it turns on automatically when the saw is turned on. Unfortunately I do not have room for a Dust Deputy in this application, so I am using a polyester pre-filter that works very well also.
I also have a large single stage dust collector for my planers, band saw and large sander, this system has a large cyclone similar to the Dust Deputy design. I also have a "house vac" system that consists of an old B & D industrial shop-vac and another cyclone that I built separate for that system which I use mainly to cleanup bench tops and the floor.
 
#4 ·
I was a little surprised that you are considering a Festool. Since I own 2 Festool dust extractors, let me opine on that option.

First, I am a big fan of Festool's ability to extract dust. It clearly is in a class by itself. However, there is a big "BUT" coming. I am not confident that a Festool dust extractor will work well will with tools that are not Festools. A Festool saw, sander, and other tools are designed to work with the Festool dust extractors and vice versa.

If you look at the statistics on a Festool regarding air flow, pressure, etc. you will see that it is, per the specifications, weaker than most other shop vacs The reason for it's excellent performance is how well it works with the tool. Festool is a system.

There is only one situation when I use my Festool dust extractor with a non-festool tool. It works great with the dust collection accessory for my Leigh dovetail jig. I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect that Leigh designed this accessory with the Festool dust extractor in mind.
 
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