Rob Price
01-10-2014, 12:25 PM
I've currently got a small basement shop. It conveniently has an under-the-stairs closet right in the middle of one wall where I put my current DC (Delta 1.5HP unit, 2 micron bag). It works fairly well, I'm only using one machine at a time. I have dedicated runs to my TS (~5ft), Bandsaw and router table (~8ft), and my miter saw (~12ft), all with 4" PVC pipe with flexible tubing where necessary. The problem is my lathe, I had to put it in a far corner of the shop and the run ends up being over 25ft, which is just too much for the DC. It's also where I generate the most sanding dust (all my other sanding is done hooked up to my shop vac or on a shop made sanding table). It's gotten to the point where I cough and wheeze after a day at the lathe.
I was contemplating moving up to a 2 or 3HP collector. Looking at the grizz canister collectors, I think I could fit the 2 canister 3HP unit in the closet where mine is now. The canisters seem shorter than the bag units. It would give me tons more CFM for all the tools. I would probably upgrade my main trunk to 6" PVC as well. But maybe that's overkill. I'm also looking at the wall mounted 1HP units. I could put one right next to the lathe as a dedicated machine. Shoot, for the cost of the big unit I could buy 3 and put one at each machine. So it's a good bit cheaper. The downside would be noise right at the lathe (although my current DC is pretty deafening anyways) and larger particles (the best I can find is the shopfox with a 2 micron bag compared to the <1 micron canisters). The plus of the bigger unit would supposedly be better dust collection shop wide. I don't want to waste money, but this is my health we're talking about.
About the same cost as the wall unit would be a personal air filter like a Trend air shield.
Thoughts?
I was contemplating moving up to a 2 or 3HP collector. Looking at the grizz canister collectors, I think I could fit the 2 canister 3HP unit in the closet where mine is now. The canisters seem shorter than the bag units. It would give me tons more CFM for all the tools. I would probably upgrade my main trunk to 6" PVC as well. But maybe that's overkill. I'm also looking at the wall mounted 1HP units. I could put one right next to the lathe as a dedicated machine. Shoot, for the cost of the big unit I could buy 3 and put one at each machine. So it's a good bit cheaper. The downside would be noise right at the lathe (although my current DC is pretty deafening anyways) and larger particles (the best I can find is the shopfox with a 2 micron bag compared to the <1 micron canisters). The plus of the bigger unit would supposedly be better dust collection shop wide. I don't want to waste money, but this is my health we're talking about.
About the same cost as the wall unit would be a personal air filter like a Trend air shield.
Thoughts?