Oneida filters

[Bob Marino]

I am about to order the Oneida 2hp cyclone. Space in my garage shop is at a premium, - everything on mobile bases, no duct work in the near future and one machine at a time type of situation. Has anyone used the Oneida internal filters rather than the external filter?

Bob

[Jim Becker]

My Oneida system originally came with the internal filter...even with the quick connect strap update, it was still a pain to take out and clean, especially with the required frequency once I started sanding. There was a HUGE difference in performance when I switched to external cartridges due to the much, much greater filter area. I recommend you go with the external filter, despite the additional space it will take up, both for more convenient maintenance and for better performance. (Oneida claims 20% better performance with the external filters)

[Mark Singer]

Bob,
I pipe mine thru the roof! Of course its a little warmer here!I have the 2HP and like it a lot! I got the transmitter / remote which is nice.
Mark

[John Scarpa]

Bob,
I pipe mine thru the roof! Of course its a little warmer here!I have the 2HP and like it a lot! I got the transmitter / remote which is nice.
Mark

Mark, I'm about to order the 2hp unit myself. Did you pipe the filter to exhaust outside your shop?

Bob, I thought I'd order just the unit for now as well. I want to place it before I have an electrician in to do the final wiring. I'll pipe after I'm finished shuffling my machines around.

[Todd Burch]

Bob, I have the Oneida 2HP myself. For my shop, it is pretty undersized. I need a 3HP or bigger, but really don't have the headroom for a real commercial unit.

I have the internal cartridge, and hate it with a passion. I don't have the quick release clamp like Jim does, but even with one, I would still hate the cartridge setup. Why? You have to clean it! During the process of cleaning it (with compressed air, of course), instead of getting a little dust now and then like you would without a dust collector, you GET IT ALL AT ONCE!! DUH!! Pretty stupid setup if you ask me. Ask me how I really feel...

Next one will have the best filtration bags I can find, with no cartridges at all (internal OR external).

Todd.

[Ted Calver]

Bob,
I also have no room in the garage--no room for cars that is-- but chose the 2hp with external filter anyway. It can be mounted so the filter is relatively close to the wall and is so much easier to access for cleaning. Make sure you have plenty of help to set it up 'cause it's a bear to do single-handed.

[Bill Grumbine]

Hi Bob

I have the internal filter, and I will say that I am somewhat ambivalent about it. Like Jim says, it is no fun trying to mess with the metal container, even with the quick release band clamp. On the plus side, I am way out in the country, so I just open the door and shake it out downwind - and there is almost always wind blowing around here.

My shop is fairly small, and one of the things I want to do next summer is move the cyclone outside in a little shed just big enough for it attached to the shop wall. At that point I am going to remove the filter completely and see how it performs. Since I use radiant heat in the winter, and the shop is far from tight, I don't think it will hurt my heating bill too much. If is does, I'll put the filter back in and pipe the air back into the shop.

You might want to tell Mr. Becker that Festool makes a very nice vacuum that would make his sanding shores easier, and then he wouldn't have to clean his cyclone so often. :D

Bill

[Jim Becker]

You might want to tell Mr. Becker that Festool makes a very nice vacuum that would make his sanding shores easier, and then he wouldn't have to clean his cyclone so often.

Yes, for hand tools I use a vac. (And will be getting either an orange or black/green one as soon as I can effectively kill the screamer I have now) But not for my combo sander....or the drum sander I'll be getting sometime this year. The internal filter cakes up really quickly with tools like that and for $150 or so, I put on the external filters and haven't looked back.

Your system will have about a 20% increase in performance when you eliminate the filter and vent directly outside. But even then, you may have the same problem I'm having when your CU300 arrives...you see, the 1.5hp Oneida system that we both have has very little clearance between the outside of the drum and the internal up-take because of the accommodations for the internal filter. The stuff that comes off the jointer/planer comes in with such volume that it actually gets stuck between the outer wall and the inner tube if airflow drops for any reason...such as over loading the bin or material getting caught in the intake. The newer versions of this cyclone now have a neutral vane and may have had some adjustments to the inner proportions, but I'm not sure on that. I did put a small neutral vane in mine, but because the intake doesn't come in flush with the outer cylinder, I may need to take it out to reduce the plugging problem. I also think it's kicking things up too much for the motor as it seems to be running a little hotter since I put the vane in.

But no matter, I'm upgrading to the 2hp commercial system in the near future which does not have the clearance problems internally. I don't feel bad about this as the unit I have was never designed to handle a big machine like the FS-350 and I've gotten four years of satisfaction out of it. I also have a buyer who's shop and tools will not put a strain on the 1.5hp system, so it's just the delta in cost between the new unit and what I sell the current one for plus some minor improvements to the duct work.

[Todd Burch]

I was wrong in my previous post. I have the 1.5HP motor, not the 2HP.

[Mike Kelly]

I put up with the internal filter for a year and a half on my 1.5 HP model. When I saw the ads showing the huge external one, I didn't hesitate. I am now completely happy with it. I had the silencer ducted back into my shop and just added the filter to it. The internal one always loaded up and was a pain in the rear to clean out even with the quick release clamp.

[CPeter James]

I have the 1.5 hp unit and have used it for about four years. Here in NH I have to heat the shop in the winter so venting to the outside is not a viable option then. Also, in summer, I sometimes run an AC unit, so don't want to vent that either. The point is that the air has to stay in and be filtered. I have the internal filter and while it is a pain to clean, I take it out and take the air gun to it while standing up wind. How do you clean the large external filters? I may change and put a gate on the system to use the filter when necessary and not if there is no heat or AC on. Can this cause any damage to the unit(motor)? Oneida says not to run the unit without the barrell in place as it will overload the motor. Will running it without the filter do the same thing?

CPeter

[Mark Singer]

John,
My dust drops into a 55 gal drum I bought from Oneida,then the tiny syuff .5 microns ,I think,is exhausted through the roof. I don't see anything coming out of the roof even whem its running! No dust on the walls or any residue. I used my shop for over a year to insure everything was where I wanted it. During that time I just moved my old Jet 1HP DC from one machine to another using a quik coupler. Now I am quite happy. I did move my small bandsaw about a month ago ...and it was only a 20 min job to tie it in with a "Y" and blast gate....So if its not perfect it will probably be ok.
Mark

[JayStPeter]

Jim,
I got the 2HP commercial system for my new basement shop. It's a beast. Not hooked up yet, but boy is it heavy duty. Filter is about 6' tall by 18" around.
This pic doesn't do it justice. For reference, the ceiling height is 9'.

Mike,
You got the small filter :D

Jay

[John Scarpa]

Mark,
I like what you have done with the roof vent. We can get away with that in So Cal since heating really isn't an issue. I take it you don't use an external filter, you just vent it up. Nice
John

[Jim Becker]

I like what you have done with the roof vent. We can get away with that in So Cal since heating really isn't an issue. I take it you don't use an external filter, you just vent it up.

I'm sorta toying with directly venting even here in PA...the only time the machine runs for a long period of time is when I'm skim processing a whole bunch of lumber like I did this week which isn't really normal and will become more rare once my pile of poplar is "used up". At that point, it's shorter run time for specific project components. That would save a little cost, although I'm less worried about that. Although I do use a kero heater to get the air up when it's really cold, like Bill, I'm using overhead radiant for personal comfort. But then again...I'll probably get the filter anyway.

As it is, I'm going to have to modify my DC closet a bit as I need to get the motor of the new unit up between two rafters in order to accommodate the height I need for the 55 gallon drum...which I will NOT give up! I have 96" to the bottom of the rafters and need a minimum of 99.5". Since the 2hp unit is slightly larger than my present 1.5hp cyclone, the motor is going to hit the first joist out from the wall and I'm not going to screw around with altering the structure since they are 21' spans of engineered joints. Actually, the change to the closet I'm considering would actually result in more shop space, especially for the lathe. Now if I could only steal just a little more foot print from the last remaining garage bay without making SHMBO make me sleep on the tractor, I could have even MORE room...hee hee :rolleyes:

[Mark Singer]

John,
It saves money $$$$ and the hassle of cleaning and dealing with the filter....and we have much better wine in Ca.
Mark

[Mike Kelly]

I have the 1.5 hp unit and have used it for about four years. Here in NH I have to heat the shop in the winter so venting to the outside is not a viable option then. Also, in summer, I sometimes run an AC unit, so don't want to vent that either. The point is that the air has to stay in and be filtered. I have the internal filter and while it is a pain to clean, I take it out and take the air gun to it while standing up wind. How do you clean the large external filters? I may change and put a gate on the system to use the filter when necessary and not if there is no heat or AC on. Can this cause any damage to the unit(motor)? Oneida says not to run the unit without the barrell in place as it will overload the motor. Will running it without the filter do the same thing?

CPeter

The external filter is really easy to clean. Just take an air hose and blow into the filter. All of the caked on dust drops to the collection can attached with three quick disconnects on the bottom.
On my internal filter, it was a little more messy. Just removing it was a pain. Then I would tamp it on my concrete floor many many times, then vacuum it with my shopvac. Seemed like transferring the problem to a different machine, right. It was. Then when I had to clean the Shopvac cloth filter, I had to wait until my parking lot outside was devoid of friends cars and go shake it outside while wearing a good dustmask.
Leaving the internal filter out is no problem. Just keep the drum on with no leaks. Blow your exhaust back into your shop and add the external filter. It is sweet.

[Mike Kelly]

Jim,
I got the 2HP commercial system for my new basement shop. It's a beast. Not hooked up yet, but boy is it heavy duty. Filter is about 6' tall by 18" around.
This pic doesn't do it justice. For reference, the ceiling height is 9'.

Mike,
You got the small filter :D

Jay

You are correct Jay. The 1.5 and 2 HP "component" systems have the same smaller filter which is very adequate for them.. You have the 2 HP "Commercial" system which is a bigger and much more efficient system and it has a much bigger filter. It does look real goood! I like the new white powder coat too! Do they powder coat the interior too?

I mounted my cyclone on the outside wall of my shop (8' ceiling) so I could get the intake going straight into it. I have 14' ceiling outside of my shop proper and ducted the exhaust back into the air conditioned/heated shop.

[JayStPeter]

You are correct Jay. The 1.5 and 2 HP "component" systems have the same smaller filter which is very adequate for them.. You have the 2 HP "Commercial" system which is a bigger and much more efficient system and it has a much bigger filter. It does look real goood! I like the new white powder coat too! Do they powder coat the interior too?


Nope, the interior is basic metal. They did include a bottle of touchup paint with it. It would be good if I was concerned about it because I beat it up a little hefting it up there. Did I mention it is heavy? That also makes it expensive to ship. Apparently they can ship the smaller units multi-box via UPS and it is much cheaper. I opted to drive an hour and a half to the dock and still spent more than I really wanted on shipping. The filter came separately Fedex. It was packed in one of those sonotubes.

Jay