Dust Collector

I bought mine at Penn State about 15 years ago, & it’s holding up fine. They only had 5 micron at the time. Go for the 1 micron. This is the size I bought.
http://www.pennstateind.com/store/dc1.html

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Bags are not that expensive so get the larger capacity machine and buy a better bag for it.
You will miss that extra draw farther on down the line, especially if you put a separator in the main line.
I mean either a garbage can with a separator lid or a small cyclone separator.
The other consideration is power.
You can probably get away with a 1-1/2 hp on 110 volt 20 amp circuit but the 2 hp will want to be on 220 volts most likely.
If you’re just roaming around a half garage I would consider just using flexible lines and moving them to each station.
You can, however, build in a duct system but you must use at least 6” pipes for the mains and drops from them should transition to 4 inch to fit your tools.( yeah I know 8 to 6 is better)
The purists will disagree but then again, they usually don’t do any wood working.
p.s. you will still need a shop vac and most likely an overhead dust filter too.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Dick and Bob,

Thanks for the info. This is the first time I heard about Penn State Ind. I just checked the PSI website and the DC 2000B has a reasonable price, great suction power (1500 cfm), and a 1-micron bag.

Does PSI has a good reputation?

Granville

yes!

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

Granville: I used to live about 1 hr from Penn State and I used to kick around their store they share with MLCS router bits. I’ve always thought that their tools were OK. I bought the over the saw blade dust collector/blade guard and it’s as good as the Excalibur.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Granville, with all that Festool gear, wouldn’t it work better to use one of their dust systems? I know you can do some great things with the Festool products.

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

I have the Grizzly 2 hp. I’ve had no problem with it or dust escaping the bag. Works great for me. One of my runs is 17 feet and I have several machines connected to it with blast gates. No problem.

-- Bruce from Central New York

If you can afford it, get a cyclone they’re more efficient.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Dick is spot on with the move to a cyclone separator.
I didn’t mention a cyclone system because the budget for this was $600.00 approximately.
If you are a bit handly you can make this “inline cyclone and kick the garbage can idea.
I found the plans in shopnotes and it took a morning to build.
I think my complete cost was about $50.00

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I bought my cyclone on ebay for just over 150.00 new. being sold by the mfg. I use my Grizzly dust system for the vacuum power.

here is the ebay link
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cyclone-Separator-for-Dust-Collector_W0QQitemZ280145867937QQihZ018QQcategoryZ11704QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Thanks for the great advices, especially to Dick and Bob for pointing me to the PSI DC. I think I’m going with the PSI 2 hp 1 micron model. I’m going to get it in a few weeks when I get pay. I’m semi-retired and work as a sort-of consultant for my ex-boss. He is my only client :).

I’m pleased that you liked my advice. Have fun!!

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

Don’t ya just luv it when somebody gets helped?

bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I’m not at the shop right now but I’d suggest going for the bigger sucker, as was stated before, bags are cheap. I made my own cyclone using a 55 gallon cardboard drum and 6” white pvc. When I get back to the shop I’ll take some pictures of the home made cyclone. Why spend $150 when you can build it for about $25.00 and the money saved can buy more tools.

I might be wrong, but then you can never have too many tools.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I was in the same situation. I have been hauling around a 1 hp bag dust collector from Grizzly. Works great, but I wanted a better alternative. There is a lot of anatomical/physiological evidence that fine dust is what is killing us off. Everytime my dust collector turns on I can see a plume of fine dust blow all over when the bag inflates. I decided that I was going to drive 3 hours and go to the Grizzly plant and check them all out. You can actually go into their store, pull the thing in their testing room and play with the tools. It is great. I went there with the thought of spending no more than $600 on a system. I looked at the portable ones and I couldn’t believe the costs. They now come with fiber filters, but if you look closely at them, they trap less than some of the bags. I thought, for another $75 I could purchase a 1 1/2 hp cyclone. Then I wanted to get one that was ready to be wired at 220. I bit the bullet and spent $725 and got the remote 2 HP cyclone. That thing will suck the chrome out of the chrome! I am very excited to get it going. I was also able to sell my other machine for what I payed for it, so that will help my pipe costs. Just some thoughts…if you are looking at safety, save your money for a couple more months and get what you want instead of settling for something. I know it is very hard, but it will be worth it in the end to wait. Good luck.

-- Todd

Very good advice, Todd.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

This is a picture of how I converted my cheap 1hp Delta dust sucker into a cyclone. More sucking is what i need. 2HP and better filters

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/