DC, which one. Trying to decide.

[Mike Rambour]

Ok, I basically have never had Dust Collection and have the lungs to prove it. My shop is a "everything" shop, I do auto restoration, metal work and woodwork, so my tools move around the shop a lot. The only 4 items that don't move is the 4-post lift, my metal lathe, mill and my reloading bench, they are permanently placed, everything else on wheels. My life story is that I was a cabinet maker back in the late 70's until the late 80's when my lungs gave out and I switched careers to computers. Because of my lungs, if I can do something in metal I do it but I still have my table saw, band saw, 12" planer those have 4" ports, the 8" jointer has no ports, my router table has 1 1/2" ports and I use a Festool shop vac on it. The shop is 24' x 44' so its good sized but barely enough room to walk around with the 2 cars in it, one on the 4-post and one on the scissor lift. The car on the scissor lift needs a TON of wood work, its coachbuilt (flimsy aluminium skin over a wood frame) and there is almost no wood left. So I need to get back into woodworking on a serious level.

I want quiet in my shop, i know you can't have a quiet DC and YES I do wear hearing protection to protect what little hearing I have left. My shop was custom built, so its 9' walls with scissor joists (cathedral ceiling), plenty of height for DC. Plenty of electrical power with 50amp and 30amp 220V drops all over the place for my welders and 200amp sub-panel. Because woodworking is not my primary hobby, although it may become that in April when I retire, I really enjoy making sawdust, I don't think I want to do any ducting, just connect each machine one at a time, not against ducting in the future, but not now unless you talk me into it. I do want HEPA level filtering.

1. I was looking at Clearview, but decided against it because its the nosiest of the bunch and the motor does not like on-off, it more designed to be on all day or at least a few hours at a time.

2. Laguna PFlux 3, I like this, quiet and some people say it does not seperate well due to the short cyclone but others say that has been fixed.

3. I am very seriously thinking Oneida V-System 3000, its quiet, pulls dust well, but seems overkill for my needs. I plan on leaving it in the corner near my wood tools and using a 10' 7" flex hose I can get to all my machines and neck down to 4" at the machine, so I would have 10' of 7" hose and a reducer and 2 or 3' of 4" hose at the machine, that DC seems overkill and too big for that task. But it would give me ducting possibilities after I retire if I get back into woodworking which really was my first hobby and I would still do if I had not damaged my lungs. I am aware that flex hose kills CFM, I assume this would work though if I stay with 7" flex until the machine.

4. Oneida Mini Dust Gorilla seems perfect, enough CFM for my tools, portable, but noisy.

I also have been reading Bill Pentz site and he says you need 1000CFM to pull fine dust, the mini only has 583CFM so by his theory it would only be a chip collector, not fine dust. I however have been reading his site a lot and I am believing less and less of his ramblings, he is the typical University professor a know-it-all and i have learned most really don't know it all. They may have academic knowledge but not real world smarts, I work at a UC. But Bill seems to be well respected in the DC world so I can't fully discount what he says and that leaves the V-system 3000.

I really only want to do this only once and I have wifey approval for the costs so....which one ?

[Eugene Dixon]

Having been a college professor, I'll stay out of this one.

[Jim Becker]

I personally do not believe in "overkill" when it comes to dust collection...and I'm a fan of Oneida. If you're not going to put in duct work and just depend upon a single hose that you move from machine to machine, the roll-around is probably more practical unless you plan on duct work for the near future. A single hose with a fixed position DC isn't necessarily the most convenient thing when it comes to the hose lying about.

[Paul F Franklin]

At least look at the new machine from Oneida; it's pretty practical if you're going to roll it around. Didn't see it on your list.

And, FWIW, the V3000 comes with a tag (at least mine did) that says approximately: The motor manufacturer recommends starting the motor no more than 4 times per hour.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

Take advantage of the high taxes we pay and vent outside.

[Andrew More]

You should also know the Bill Pentz has an allegy to dust, which is not something that all wood workers suffer from. As a result I think his suggestions are overkill for hobbiests.

Further his arguments start to break down the moment you try to use some tools like sliding compound miter saws which spew dust everywhere. I've yet to see a solution which works perfectly with a SCMS, due to the nature of the beast.

It also doesn't sound like you've looked at Grizzly. I've been very happy with my Grizzly Cyclone Dust collector, which is decent quality at an excellent price. For my 2 car garage I found their 2 HP G0443 to be overkill. It gathers all the dust I can, and most of the failures come down to limitations of the shrouds around the machines, rather than a failure of horse power.

They also have a new set of mobile cyclones akin to the Laguna, though I think both are compromises compared to a stationary DC with duct work. I mention this mainly because it sounds like you're willing to forgo the better performance of a static unit for the flexibility of a mobile cyclone.

[glenn bradley]

I personally do not believe in "overkill" when it comes to dust collection...

Truer words were never spoken. I have never seen a post, an article or heard the remark "gee, I wish my dust collector wasn't so powerful".

The shine has gone off the Oneida apple for me after their last price jump. They are excellent but, like some other things in our world, almost seem priced to dissuade you from buying.

In short, get the most powerful machine you can. Try to avoid a crippled design like a short-cone or a bolt-on that relies on an unknown blower to just happen to work well with it. Franken-DC's can work well but, for a shorter and more sure road, look at things that are designed to do what they do as a system. Only you can decide which compromises are suitable for your use. If noise level is a priority, you may suffer performance. If height is a challenge, you may have to clean your filter more often. There are lots of give and take options. You need to short list your "gotta-haves" to help you narrow the field. Just my .02.

[Mike Rambour]

Having been a college professor, I'll stay out of this one.
Sorry to offend someone on my first post here, honest I won't hold your professorship against you, I even like some of them here at my work.


At least look at the new machine from Oneida; it's pretty practical if you're going to roll it around. Didn't see it on your list.

And, FWIW, the V3000 comes with a tag (at least mine did) that says approximately: The motor manufacturer recommends starting the motor no more than 4 times per hour.
Do you mean the Supercell ? I did and it was the sales guy at Oneida that shot that one down. And I didn't know about that motor tag, I will ask Oneida, although 4 times an hour seems very possible if using the same tool I can easily see keeping the DC on between cuts.


You should also know the Bill Pentz has an allegy to dust, which is not something that all wood workers suffer from. As a result I think his suggestions are overkill for hobbiests.

Further his arguments start to break down the moment you try to use some tools like sliding compound miter saws which spew dust everywhere. I've yet to see a solution which works perfectly with a SCMS, due to the nature of the beast.

It also doesn't sound like you've looked at Grizzly. I've been very happy with my Grizzly Cyclone Dust collector, which is decent quality at an excellent price. For my 2 car garage I found their 2 HP G0443 to be overkill. It gathers all the dust I can, and most of the failures come down to limitations of the shrouds around the machines, rather than a failure of horse power.

They also have a new set of mobile cyclones akin to the Laguna, though I think both are compromises compared to a stationary DC with duct work. I mention this mainly because it sounds like you're willing to forgo the better performance of a static unit for the flexibility of a mobile cyclone.
I did not know about Bill's dust allergy, I don't have a severe allergy but a day in the shop doing woodwork without a DC and I can't breathe for a few days, I get all stuffy and have to use a inhaler for asthma for a few days, I can go many months without my inhaler othewise. If a DC will help me, I can easily see me getting back into woodworking on a serious basis. I have looked at Grizzly, lets just say i have looked at them all. The G0443 looks like a good one, but by the time i add the silencer and HEPA options, I am at Oneida pricing, so I had removed it from my list. To be fair, I am not sure I need the HEPA option, just seems that with my issues, its a good idea. Although I have read that none of these are really truly HEPA at least they are trying.

[Robert Cherry]

You are asking the wrong question- what you should be asking is what dust collection system (ductwork size and layout) do I need to adequately collect dust and chips from my tools. After you design the ductwork to provide adequate collection from each tool, the answer to what dust collector you need will be answered for you based on the pressure drops and flow requirements of your system. This link provides a good overview of how to design a system that will work:

https://airhand.com/designing/

[glenn bradley]

You should also know the Bill Pentz has an allegy to dust, which is not something that all wood workers suffer from. As a result I think his suggestions are overkill for hobbiests.


I did not know about Bill's dust allergy, I don't have a severe allergy but a day in the shop doing woodwork without a DC and I can't breathe for a few days, I get all stuffy and have to use a inhaler for asthma for a few days, I can go many months without my inhaler othewise.

I try not to be Mr. Doom-and-Gloom. I do not have an allergy to dust however, I am on medication for the rest of my life due to damage from not paying attention to dust collection early on. Just sayin' . . .

[Stephen Bandirola]

1. I was looking at Clearview, but decided against it because its the nosiest of the bunch and the motor does not like on-off, it more designed to be on all day or at least a few hours at a time.



Any large single phase motor has the same restriction of not liking to be turned on and off many times per hour (it heats up the capacitors and windings to much leading to early burn up failures).

A solution is to use a soft start to ramp up the motor speed over several seconds.
I use a 5hp 3 phase motor on mine powered of a VFD, I set it to ramp up over a very conservative 10 seconds. I can turn it on and off as much as I want.

Steve

[Ole Anderson]

Go with an Oneida 3 hp with HEPA level filtering and you will never regret it.
https://www.oneida-air.com/v-system-3000-hepa-cyclone-dust-collector-v2019

[John K Jordan]

1. I was looking at Clearview, but decided against it because its the nosiest of the bunch and the motor does not like on-off, it more designed to be on all day or at least a few hours at a time.


I wouldn't rule out the Clearvue based on those points. After trying others I am so glad I bought the 5 hp Clearvue. The power is amazing. It is quiet enough to hear a whisper in the shop once I installed it in a small sound-insulated closet along with the 5hp air compressor. It is in fact a screamer when mounted naked in the shop.

Where did you read about the need to run it all day? I do leave mine on while working at one machine but never all day or almost never even for an hour - I turn it on when working at a machine then usually turn it off when walking away. Cycling a large motor of ANY type too often can cause overheating, not just Clearvue. I may run mine for 10 or 15 minutes then turn it off for a bit then turn it back on. I read to limit restarts to maybe 6 times per hour under full load - but for a cyclone that means with blast gates open. If you close the blast gates first there is very little load on the motor. I've monitored the external motor temperature with a thermocouple and regardless of how often I turned it on and off it did not overheat. People who turn it on and off ever two minutes might have problems.

I run 6" ducts to drops then usually switch to one or more 4" at the most machines.

The long cone cyclone on the Clearvue is incredible at separating the fine dust from the air, the stuff that is bad for breathing. I get talcum-powder like fines in my bin. Virtually nothing even gets to the filter stack. I use a Dylos Pro laser particle counter air quality monitor to verify the efficiency.

Another nice thing about the Clearvue is when installing it you can watch the separation to verify it's working and there are no leaks in the bins.

It does take some assembly time, not difficult for an intelligent person capable of setting up and using a shop.

As for wood dust sensitivity, I've known two woodturners who developed serious wood allergies and had to give up working with wood after years of zero problems running with poor dust collectors. One guy got so bad he had to sell his house and move since he could no longer walk into his shop, even after having it professionally cleaned twice. He took up metal working instead of wood to satisfy his creative drive.

JKJ

[Mike Rambour]

You are asking the wrong question- what you should be asking is what dust collection system (ductwork size and layout) do I need to adequately collect dust and chips from my tools. After you design the ductwork to provide adequate collection from each tool, the answer to what dust collector you need will be answered for you based on the pressure drops and flow requirements of your system. This link provides a good overview of how to design a system that will work:

https://airhand.com/designing/

Well because my garage is a metal shop, auto shop, wood shop, gun shop, whatever my current hobby is shop, my tools move around. My table saw maybe at one end of my 44ft. shop one week and the other end next week. So I can't really plumb it with ducting, it will be flex line to the tools only. Bad design ? yes, I know but currently my shop is in body work mode, I still use old school lead, very little bondo. All the welding is done and I hope to paint the final color coat over thanksgiving week. Then its final assembly of the car and get it out of the garage (son-in-laws car) before xmas and move mine back in which will require lots and lots of woodwork. When on my car, my tools will be in the middle of the shop and yes could be ducted then but they never are in the same place. So the design has to be completely flexible and change one week to the next.

[Jim Becker]

Mike, with that much movement and if your larger tools move around a lot, having a DC that also can move around would be my choice, but I'd get the best I could relative to air flow for that purpose. A short hose then helps keep things working with reasonable efficiency. I'd pick that over stretching a long flex hose across the room for sure.

[Frank Pratt]

I did the DC shuffle for a year or so & grew to hate the hassle. So much so that I often didn't bother to use DC much of the time. It wouldn't be quite so bad in a larger shop, but where things are cramped, it's hell dragging around a DC & flex hose.

[Bob Hinden]

4. Oneida Mini Dust Gorilla seems perfect, enough CFM for my tools, portable, but noisy.



I have the Oneida Mini Gorilla. I am happy with it. I don't find it too noisy, I usually wear hearing protection when using it and the machine it is connected to.

Bob

[Bill Dufour]

Watch Cl for a used unit. The only thing that wears out is the motor bearings and maybe the filter bag. You probably want a better filter anyway. In your climate I would vent outside with no filter just the cyclone to catch the chips and visible dust.
Bill D.

[Bill Dufour]

CL inland Empire has a 3Hp Murphy Roger cyclone systm for $850 today.
It has a "Blue Tornado"? cyclone.
Only problem ? is it is three phase so you would need a VFD. But, that allows a slow start so multiple restarts would be fine.
Murphy Rogers is a good industrial brand, not seen much in the east.
Bil lD.

'https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/tls/d/chino-murphy-rodgers-dust-collector-mrt/7006297044.html

[Andrew More]

I try not to be Mr. Doom-and-Gloom. I do not have an allergy to dust however, I am on medication for the rest of my life due to damage from not paying attention to dust collection early on. Just sayin' . . .

Fair enough, but some context is useful here. Some woods are really dangerous to handle, such as rose wood, while others will only effect people with the most sensitive allergies, such as pine. Also length of exposure matters as well, somebody who does it 40 hours a week for years is in much more danger than somebody who's doing it for a few hours on the weekend. Dust collection itself is not a perfect solution, with a variety of problems that can cut down on it's effectiveness. Finally, dust collection quickly becomes very very expensive, and as such I'd rather people do something rather that despairing that they can't afford a 5 HP Dust Collector at $2K because it's more expensive than all the other tools in their shop combined.

In this case it seems the OP is leaning more towards occasional hobby use, which is going to be less problematic, and therefore less aggressive dust collectors, or even just a face mask might be a better solution. Dust collection is not necessarily a one size fits all situation.

[Mike Rambour]

I did the DC shuffle for a year or so & grew to hate the hassle. So much so that I often didn't bother to use DC much of the time. It wouldn't be quite so bad in a larger shop, but where things are cramped, it's hell dragging around a DC & flex hose.

I am really afraid of that one, i have not used a dust collector in 40+ years and very worried I would get to that point where i don't use it if its too much hassle

[Will Boulware]

I've got the mini gorilla. It's noisy. So is a table saw. Plugged up to one machine, it does a good job on a 10 foot, 5" diameter hose. That said...

My shop is all vintage American iron. I bought the Oneida because I'm an arrogant snot and I didn't want to have to look at a flimsy Asian canister DC sitting beside my patina'd cast iron tonnage. With every machine I have, I've overkilled it on the "need" scale, and I don't regret a bit of it. With the Oneida.... I REALLY wish I'd gone with a V3000 and fixed duct work. The portability is nice, the footprint is small, the cost was lower than a V system plus ductwork, and the Mini really is a well designed unit - easy to clean out, the filter is incredible, etc. But I wish I'd gone big here. Just not an area I should have skimped on. After much forehead slapping, I'll probably be re-upgrading in the near future.

Just some food for thought.

[Jim Andrew]

I have a 3hp cyclone DC, used to have a 2hp unit, gave it to my nephew, and am not about to go back to a smaller unit, If I were to change, would be to a clearvue, and would go with the clearvue max 16" impeller.

[Rod Sheridan]

You can also look at the Felder RL series.

If you really do want to roll it around perhaps the RL120.

[Doug Dawson]

Ok, I basically have never had Dust Collection and have the lungs to prove it. My shop is a "everything" shop, I do auto restoration, metal work and woodwork, so my tools move around the shop a lot. The only 4 items that don't move is the 4-post lift, my metal lathe, mill and my reloading bench, they are permanently placed, everything else on wheels. My life story is that I was a cabinet maker back in the late 70's until the late 80's when my lungs gave out and I switched careers to computers. Because of my lungs, if I can do something in metal I do it but I still have my table saw, band saw, 12" planer those have 4" ports, the 8" jointer has no ports, my router table has 1 1/2" ports and I use a Festool shop vac on it. The shop is 24' x 44' so its good sized but barely enough room to walk around with the 2 cars in it, one on the 4-post and one on the scissor lift. The car on the scissor lift needs a TON of wood work, its coachbuilt (flimsy aluminium skin over a wood frame) and there is almost no wood left. So I need to get back into woodworking on a serious level.

I want quiet in my shop, i know you can't have a quiet DC and YES I do wear hearing protection to protect what little hearing I have left. My shop was custom built, so its 9' walls with scissor joists (cathedral ceiling), plenty of height for DC. Plenty of electrical power with 50amp and 30amp 220V drops all over the place for my welders and 200amp sub-panel. Because woodworking is not my primary hobby, although it may become that in April when I retire, I really enjoy making sawdust, I don't think I want to do any ducting, just connect each machine one at a time, not against ducting in the future, but not now unless you talk me into it. I do want HEPA level filtering.

1. I was looking at Clearview, but decided against it because its the nosiest of the bunch and the motor does not like on-off, it more designed to be on all day or at least a few hours at a time.

2. Laguna PFlux 3, I like this, quiet and some people say it does not seperate well due to the short cyclone but others say that has been fixed.

3. I am very seriously thinking Oneida V-System 3000, its quiet, pulls dust well, but seems overkill for my needs. I plan on leaving it in the corner near my wood tools and using a 10' 7" flex hose I can get to all my machines and neck down to 4" at the machine, so I would have 10' of 7" hose and a reducer and 2 or 3' of 4" hose at the machine, that DC seems overkill and too big for that task. But it would give me ducting possibilities after I retire if I get back into woodworking which really was my first hobby and I would still do if I had not damaged my lungs. I am aware that flex hose kills CFM, I assume this would work though if I stay with 7" flex until the machine.

4. Oneida Mini Dust Gorilla seems perfect, enough CFM for my tools, portable, but noisy.

I also have been reading Bill Pentz site and he says you need 1000CFM to pull fine dust, the mini only has 583CFM so by his theory it would only be a chip collector, not fine dust. I however have been reading his site a lot and I am believing less and less of his ramblings, he is the typical University professor a know-it-all and i have learned most really don't know it all. They may have academic knowledge but not real world smarts, I work at a UC. But Bill seems to be well respected in the DC world so I can't fully discount what he says and that leaves the V-system 3000.

I really only want to do this only once and I have wifey approval for the costs so....which one ?

I'm in the same situation as you re mobility. I have the Laguna PFlux 1, and it works just fine for my needs. If you need the mobility, the 3 is a bit on the "hulking" side, and unnecessary if you're using one machine at a time, provided you're using relatively short hoses (less than 10 feet) which you will be, given that you can put the DC wherever you want it.

The Oneida 3000 is awkwardly shaped, almost gangly. (You can move the Laguna around with one finger.) The Gorilla is less capable than the PFlux 1. The Clearvue's, well, good luck rolling that thing around. If I could install ducting and have a separate room for it, it's something I might have considered.

[Jim Dwight]

It isn't just wood dust that bothers Bill Pentz, it is all kinds of dust. So he has to have special filters on his house HVAC too.

Matthias Wandel has some interesting thoughts on dust collection and has an article written by a doctor included. A key point is our bodies are designed to deal with dust. There is a difference in what individuals can tolerate without impacts but we were made to deal with dust. The air outside is dusty too. Cooking puts fine particles in the air.

If you goal is to keep your shop no dustier than the outside air you need a totally different DC than you need if your body requires really clean air and you can't be outside long without issues. For really sensitive people, or people worried they will develop sensitivity, a 3-5hp DC makes sense. But I am not very sensitive and just want to keep the air reasonably clean. I have my shop open to the outside as much as possible so I am breathing normal outside dust even when my tools are not on. I am pretty happy with my HF 2HP DC pulling through a super dust deputy and discharging outside. I do not like cleaning filters and don't typically heat or cool my shop so I am not loosing conditioned air by discharging outside. Currently I have it mounted to the wall in the corner and have 5 inch snap lock pipe going to my table saw. When I want to use it on my planner or jointer I disconnect the saw and connect a long flex hose. It works better than I thought it would. I haven't bought an air quality meter yet but probably will. I know my setup catches chips well but I have no data on levels of fine dust. But Matthias tested for that and found smaller DCs can be pretty effective.

[Jim Becker]

Dust sensitivity is real. Sometimes, it's specific species...I had a wake up call when working with Bubinga a number of years ago and haven't touched it since. I met a man a few years ago who is a locksmith but had been a carver life-long. He developed a sensitivity to black walnut first, but eventually, it got to the point that any kind of wood dust caused him great physical angst. He had to wear gloves and a mask when simply drilling out a door for a lockset at that point. And yes, "plain old dust" affects many people, too, so it's not just woodworking that sometimes causes problems.

I'm doing a lot more hand-sanding right now because of some guitar building and have quickly determined I need to wear my mask where-as that's not been the case with using my Festool sanders or running my tools with decent dust collection at the point of creation. I may need to design in down-draft for my next bench design.

[Alex Zeller]

I have a larger older roll around 3hp collector. It's noisy and often I wouldn't use it. Last summer I bought a 1hp portable version from Harbor Freight (I even laughed at myself). I looked at the nicer brands but figured it wasn't going to move enough air so I didn't want to invest the money. Wow was I wrong. That 1hp works great with my table saw, router table, and band saw. I'm not going to say it'll handle a planner but I wouldn't be without it. It's very quiet and super easy to move. In fact I can connect it up to my table saw, put some cardboard down, and put it on top of the saw and move everything in one shot. I regret not buying a nicer brand simply because of how much I use it. The only thing I had to do to it was remove the plastic guards inside the duct holes as they were too restrictive.

[Mike Rambour]

Well, OP here. I did something I normally don't do, i bought a used DC from a member here. After posting my first post, a member PM'd me that he had a used Oneida for sale and he was not too far from me. I got pictures from him and sent them to Oneida where they were extremely helpful, its a pretty old 3HP Dust Gorilla and in good condition so I bought it. After buying new HEPA filters, silencer and dust bin (I will likely buy the dust bin from somewhere else, like HF if they have them), I am still saving quite a bit of money over new. It does have a weird dust bin sensor, a air pump with some hoses, not sure how that works yet i still don't have set up. But it works and is fairly quiet, I will use the existing dirty filter to finish up my body work and get Bondo dust and then install the new HEPA filter and silencer in a few weeks. I hope to set it up and get everything going Thanksgiving week. Initially will run one 8" pipe about 8' and from there flex lines to my table saw and move the flex line to my Band saw as needed, will plumb the shop over xmas break or early next year. Oneida said this model won't perform as well as the new ones, but it should still pull about 1100-1200CFM and has a 15" impeller so I think I did good.

[Andrew More]

Sounds great, hope that works out well for you.

[Jim Becker]

Congrats on that buy, Mike. It's a great system for sure. On your bin, you need to be absolutely sure that there is zero...and I do mean zero...leakage between the cone and the bin. It has to be completely sealed. Not even a pinhole or you'll be stuffing those new filters with stuff and trust me, it's no fun to deal with that! DAMHIKT!! So focus on a barrel/bin that accommodates that. The OEM Oneida setup uses a standard clamping barrel top arrangement.

[Tim M Tuttle]

Ok, I basically have never had Dust Collection and have the lungs to prove it. My shop is a "everything" shop, I do auto restoration, metal work and woodwork, so my tools move around the shop a lot. The only 4 items that don't move is the 4-post lift, my metal lathe, mill and my reloading bench, they are permanently placed, everything else on wheels. My life story is that I was a cabinet maker back in the late 70's until the late 80's when my lungs gave out and I switched careers to computers. Because of my lungs, if I can do something in metal I do it but I still have my table saw, band saw, 12" planer those have 4" ports, the 8" jointer has no ports, my router table has 1 1/2" ports and I use a Festool shop vac on it. The shop is 24' x 44' so its good sized but barely enough room to walk around with the 2 cars in it, one on the 4-post and one on the scissor lift. The car on the scissor lift needs a TON of wood work, its coachbuilt (flimsy aluminium skin over a wood frame) and there is almost no wood left. So I need to get back into woodworking on a serious level.

I want quiet in my shop, i know you can't have a quiet DC and YES I do wear hearing protection to protect what little hearing I have left. My shop was custom built, so its 9' walls with scissor joists (cathedral ceiling), plenty of height for DC. Plenty of electrical power with 50amp and 30amp 220V drops all over the place for my welders and 200amp sub-panel. Because woodworking is not my primary hobby, although it may become that in April when I retire, I really enjoy making sawdust, I don't think I want to do any ducting, just connect each machine one at a time, not against ducting in the future, but not now unless you talk me into it. I do want HEPA level filtering.

1. I was looking at Clearview, but decided against it because its the nosiest of the bunch and the motor does not like on-off, it more designed to be on all day or at least a few hours at a time.

2. Laguna PFlux 3, I like this, quiet and some people say it does not seperate well due to the short cyclone but others say that has been fixed.

3. I am very seriously thinking Oneida V-System 3000, its quiet, pulls dust well, but seems overkill for my needs. I plan on leaving it in the corner near my wood tools and using a 10' 7" flex hose I can get to all my machines and neck down to 4" at the machine, so I would have 10' of 7" hose and a reducer and 2 or 3' of 4" hose at the machine, that DC seems overkill and too big for that task. But it would give me ducting possibilities after I retire if I get back into woodworking which really was my first hobby and I would still do if I had not damaged my lungs. I am aware that flex hose kills CFM, I assume this would work though if I stay with 7" flex until the machine.

4. Oneida Mini Dust Gorilla seems perfect, enough CFM for my tools, portable, but noisy.

I also have been reading Bill Pentz site and he says you need 1000CFM to pull fine dust, the mini only has 583CFM so by his theory it would only be a chip collector, not fine dust. I however have been reading his site a lot and I am believing less and less of his ramblings, he is the typical University professor a know-it-all and i have learned most really don't know it all. They may have academic knowledge but not real world smarts, I work at a UC. But Bill seems to be well respected in the DC world so I can't fully discount what he says and that leaves the V-system 3000.

I really only want to do this only once and I have wifey approval for the costs so....which one ?

I have the Mini Gorilla and if that's all you can afford, I guess it's okay but it seems you can afford a much better system. My Mini Gorilla really isnt much better than a shop vac. It cant keep up with my DW735 planer or 8" jointer and it does very little on my table saw or band saw. I hated the mobile aspect of it. It was always in the way so I ended up mounting it to the wall. It has a wye straight out of the inlet. One is ducted to my table saw (probably too long of a run but it doesnt seem any worse than before) and one is attached to a Rockler expandable hose which I hook up to my other tools. It's better than nothing but a bigger system is on my wish list once I move on to my next shop.