A Tale of Two Dust Collectors (maybe three)

[Louie Ballis]

With apologies to Charles Dickens, I am about to pull the trigger on a DC system and need some advice, I currently have a 1 hp grizzley two bag unit with a cyclone like garbage can lid used as a prefilter. In the past I have rolled this unit around to attach it to the tool I was using.

In the process of upgrading the shop I want to use a stationary DC and plumb it to several machines using blast gates/ducts.

The machines that I plan to plumb it to include a bandsaw, Tablesaw, jointer, planer, miter saw with home made dust shroud, and router table.

My question is...is the unit (which is rated for 530 cfm) enough? or should I upgrade to the 2 HP harbor frieght unit (which looks supicioulsy like the Shop Fox DC) which is on sale for 175 (rated at 1350 CFM), the final option is a self contained unit (new this year) by Grizzly which has a 1 hp motor and a built in cyclonic cansister on wheels (rated at 830cfm, is that too little?). Grizzley does make a 2 hp unit which is very similar however the demenions exceed the availible space. How many cfms is enough?

I have looked at the tempest and the clear-vue systems but they just wont fit in the space I have.

[Clark Harbaugh]

I personally have the 2HP Grizzly DC, with a cyclone trash can, plummed to a miter saw, table saw, jointer, and planer. I have been very happy with it's performance. I will tell you that more than 2 blast gates open does affect it's performance. But then again, I am just one man and usually am not running 2 of these tolls at the same time...

[Louie Ballis]

Thanks Clark, when you say that more than two blast gates affect performance, do you mean more than two gates open at the same time? I would have more than two gates but only one open at any one time.

By the way I am in Shreveport, La we got 4 inches of the snow storm you guys have been dealing with last night.

Thanks Louie

[Chuck Isaacson]

Have you checked out PSI's new collector on the cart?

http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TEMP2PCX.html

It is a little lower that the other ones. About 10" I think. I don't think that it has a much bigger footprint than a Bag type..

[Matt Schnurbusch]

FWIW you can get the the HF 2HP unit for $185 with a two year replacement warranty. Pick up a copy of the March 2010 Wood magazine. There is a coupon in there for the DC @ $139.99.

Your current DC is way too small to plumb to all of your tools.