Should I Have Dust In the Fine Dust Bag?

[Derek Arita]

Got a Laguna 2HP CFlux and have used it only for a couple of projects so far. Great dust collector and very powerful. Thing is, I'm getting almost no fine dust in the small dust bag. I've rotated the agitator a few times, but I'm talking only about a thimble full of dust is in the bag. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I had a Dust Gorilla that I had to sell, but can't quite remember how much fine dust I got with that. Seems I only emptied it once in the years I owned it.

[glenn bradley]

On my grizzly cyclone I only get about a teaspoon full of talcum powder-like dust every few months that gets past the cyclone.

[Jim Becker]

Short-cone cyclones, from what I understand, may pass a little more fines to the filters than long-cone cyclones. It's one of the trade-offs for the smaller size advantages of units like the Laguna and other similar DCs. I wouldn't worry about it, personally.

[Lane Hardy]

I would say that hat is a good thing, the Cyclone is doing it's job.Look in the barrel what you see the fine dust and bigger chips that should not be in the filter or bag?

[Art Mann]

It is good to hear that the Laguna separator is doing such A good job for you. I like Laguna machinery but heard their cyclone dust collectors didn't do a very good job. Maybe it has been redesigned.

[Charlie Hinton]

I currently have an old Delta AP400 machine with a aftermarket felt bag and a trash can separator in front of it.
This works pretty well but for several months I have really been itching to upgrade my dust collection
The smaller cyclones (probably Jet or Laguna) have the right footprint.
There are just so many varying reports on how well they actually work ranging from near perfect to meh not so great.
While I would like to get away from moving the hose all over the garage and getting more cfm would be nice I really don't want to spend a bunch of money on something that ultimately is going to be disappointing.
I would welcome feedback from other owners about how these 'short' cyclones actually perform.
If improved cfm is the only real improvement I would get by switching to one of these machines vs my existing machine and the trash can there are much less expensive alternatives.
I found this video of what I consider decidedly meh separation performance.
The trash can separator works better than this albeit at a much reduced cfm https://youtu.be/6IqcKZqF7BU

[Derek Arita]

Charlie, from what I've read here and other places, this Laguna works very well, with respect to separation. I'm glad, cuz what I was using was giving me an equal amount of fine and not fine dust in both bin and bag, which was terrible. From all I can tell, in my small shop, with short 6" runs, suction is as good as my old Oneida 2hp Dust Gorilla, which was immovable and very tall. Now I'm getting great suction, separation and mobility. Only drawback is, it doesn't have a Baldor motor. if that's important to you, you won't be getting any of these portable machines...unless you get an Oneida.

[Charlie Hinton]

Thanks for the feedback, I am glad you started the thread and have made a concise description of the separation you are getting. I would be very pleased with a dust collector that worked as you describe.
Like many products the reported performance seems to vary quite a bit.
You are getting great performance and then the video link to Matt Cremona's experience shows not so great.
I am not hung up on the brand of the motor.

[Derek Arita]

Charlie, please give me a link to that. I’d love to see it.

[Jay Radke]

Derek,

I have been thinking about this unit for myself for the last few months. Thanks for the first hand in use information.

Jay

[Charlie Hinton]

This is the video
https://youtu.be/6IqcKZqF7BU

[John K Jordan]

On my grizzly cyclone I only get about a teaspoon full of talcum powder-like dust every few months that gets past the cyclone.

That's similar to my experience. I use a 5hp ClearVue cyclone (with a "long cone"). I don't think I've had more than a tablespoon of dust in the cleanout box under the filters in the several years I've been running it. I was actually a little surprised by the efficiency, especially when running the Performax drum sander a lot - the bin gets quite heavy with ultra-fine dust. (Heavy sanding is a good test of the separation efficiency.)

One thing that will send dust to the filters instead of the bin is any kind of air leak in the bin or connections below the cyclone. Or if the bin is allowed to overflow!

JKJ

[Jim Becker]

I get more or less zero fine dust in the small bin at the bottom of my Oneida cyclone's filter cartridge under normal operating circumstances.

[Derek Arita]

Good point on the video...I have yet to run the planer. I’ve been using the table saw and router table, with no fine dust. I’ll have to try the planer and jointer and report back.