Harbor Freight Dust Collector

[kevin nee]

Anyone got opinions on the Harbor Freight 3 HP Dust Collector
I have a long run is 4 inch PVC going to handle it. 25 to 30 ft
with elbows. Thanks in advance

[David Walser]

Kevin,

I have had that model dust collector for close to 10 years now. It should be able to handle the length of run you are suggesting, but I think that's about the maximum run it will handle. If you were to attach a 10' length of flex-hose on the end of your 30' pvc run, I doubt the machine would handle it. I base my opinion that on the fact I have a 20' - 25' run made of 4" flexible hose and the dust collector still does a decent job of sucking up the dust when I'm sanding at the lathe. It also does a decent job of sucking up the dust and shavings off the floor. (I use the Dust-right hose and attachments from Rockler. It makes shop clean up much quicker. I'm not any more inclined to do it, but it's quicker.)

A couple of suggestions: Replace the upper bag with a canister filter and use a trash can separator between the dust collector and your run. HF used to sell canister filters for the dust collector. I got mine from someone else off the internet. (You'll have to search. I don't recall where I got mine.) I also use a dust can separator. It has 10' of flexible hose between it and the dust collector and 14' of Dust-right hose that I stretch from machine to machine as I need it. The trash can separator keeps the lower bag virtually chip free. I've had to empty the lower bag about twice in 10 years and I've emptied dozens of bags of chips out of the separator. Here are some links to the Dust-right and trash can separator (just so you'll know what I'm talking about).

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=20375
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2004310/8981/Trash-Can-Cyclone-Lid.aspx

Hope this helps.

[Dan Hintz]

You'll be happier with a 6" run of that length, dropped to a 4" at every tool.

[Reed Gray]

Horse power isn't a real guide to what your dust collector can pull. I have an 3 hp Oneida system, and it will handle 2 machines at once on 30 foot runs with 6 inch ducting which drops down to 5 for the machines. The HF would work better with 5 or 6 inch ducting (straight pipe or tubing) and then drop down to 4 or so for your machines. A 2 stage system (cyclone/chip separator) and dust bags. The paper canister type filters are a lot better than the bags as in finer particle collection, and much more surface area for the air to flow out of than the fabric bags. This makes for a lot better flow.

robo hippy

[Doug Fries]

I stumbled across this earlier today while researching a dust collector for myself. Maybe it will help you out.

http://www.deltaportercable.com/uploads/PCD/Documents/News/182DustCollectors.pdf

[Jeff Hanson]

Kevin,

Here's a link to information on how to build a separator. http://www.cgallery.com/smf/index.php . I received a HF dust collector for Christmas and have started building a separator based on info from this site.

I hope this helps!

Jeff