Thoughts on Shop Fox Cyclone?

[Jeremy Williams]

Looking for any owners of the Shop Fox cyclones and soliciting feedback/reviews.

I'm considering the 3HP model for my two-car garage shop, but the data on the 'net is a bit limited in the way of reviews.

[Jeremy Williams]

Sure is quiet out here.

[glenn bradley]

Shop Fox is not readily available in my area. I would assume they work as well as their Grizzly equivalents. I have the 2HP G0440 and it works great for my 20 x 30 shop. I almost bought the 3HP and am sure I would not have regretted it. Another person bought the 3HP for a similar sized shop and stated it as overkill but . . . argh, argh, argh.

The increased size of the 3HP just squeezed it out of my preferred location and I would have had to do a total shop re-org to rotate around the spot where the 3HP would fit. After a year I am still loving the 2HP with no regret.

[Philip Rodriquez]

Shopfox is the retail version of Griz. Therefore, I would assume it is pretty darn good.

However, Griz just dropped $100.00 on their 3 HP unit and they offer free shipping. To me, I'd go with that one.

By the way, their unit tied for best overall with Oneida's 3 hp unit.

[Tom Welch]

I bougnt the Grizzly 3 HP unit This summer. It has an amazing suction/air flow. I was going to buy the 2 hp unit, but I am going to start building my stand alone shop around 30 x 40. So I wanted a unit that I could use on the new shop. So I instead bought the 3 hp Grizz. I installed Thein Baffles and 2 filters from Wynn Environmental (along with clear plastic bags). And I love it. I plummed my garage with 6" S & D PVC and it has plenty of power, It can handle two machines at the same time with no problems. I would go with the grizzly,the unit shipped to me in Fla. in just about 3 days. I could not believe how fast Grizzly shipped, compared to amazon (I have bought a lot of equipment from them). After I set up my machine, I went to HF to look at their machine, there is no comparrison, as the grizzly is thicker sheet metal, beefer construction. And the powercoat paint looks a lot better. Hope this helps. (by the way I am not a Grizz head, as I have a Jet TS, Original Saw Mfg radial arm saw, Safety Speed Cut panel saw, etc..... But the 2 Grizz machines I have I really like.

[Jeremy Williams]

Excellent feedback. I am going to make a move on the Shop Fox W1809. A local dealer (The Woodworking Source) sells them and I'd like to send the business his way (especially in these days) as he's been good to me in the past ... and knowing this unit is likely the Grizz-in-white I think I'll be safe. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

My next challenge is the duct work ...

[Tom Welch]

Good choice Jeremy. I wish I had a local dealer in the Pensacola area that stocked machines, I would give them my business too. Also keeps the money in the local economy.

[eugene thomas]

i bought the 1809 month ago and works great/. was looking at the oneida 3 hp system but coast was so much more.

[Jeremy Williams]

It's been done! The first step is done .. cyclone installed. Next is the duct work ... OUCH!~ Any suggestions?

[Curt Harms]

If you do a search on "dust collection" you'll have hours (if not days) of reading. Probably the most controversial--metal or PVC. In a home shop, there has never been a documented "dust explosion" AFAIK. High capacity industrial systems are another matter and plastic may well be verboten in industrial applications. I have a 2 h.p. single stage D.C. not a cyclone but used 6" PVC pipe and fittings from a local hardware store. The price was a good bit less than metal but this was in 1998 or thereabouts. I'm much better equipped to work with PVC than metal. It can be problematic to find a local supplier for 6" pipe and fittings. I used a sewer and drain grade(2729?) not schedule 40. Schedule 40 is thicker than required and of course more expensive. I also made my own blast gates.

When I laid out my ductwork I tried to minimize the total length, no sharp 90 degree turns (2 45 degree elbows with about a 12" straight piece between them), a straight run of a few feet leading to the inlet if possible. Minimize the use of flex hose as much as possible. I have 4" connections on most machines but have 6" hose as close as I could manage to the dust source then reduce to 4". I was able to find a PVC reducer that fit over the 6" flexible hose and slips over 4" PVC pipe. A short section of 4" PVC on each machine and I have a quick detatch very low cost connector setup. Good luck with your new toyls.

[mreza Salav]

So how do you find your shopfox cyclone? anything you like/dislike about it?
I see it comes with a stand. Does it also include the bag-holder?
And to keep the height below 8 feet, can one change the drum to 35 instead of 55 gallon?

[eugene thomas]

mine came with bag gripper and the dust barrel has clamp holding top section to bottom section of dust barrel. think can just remove upper section. I like it. only thing that sucks is have to be in line of sight with contol box to get remote to work so i ended up not using remote.

[mreza Salav]

Thanks. How does the separation work? do you have to clean the filter a lot? and is the suction good compared to other similar cyclones (if you have any comparison base of course)?

[Sherzod Niazov]

Thanks. How does the separation work? do you have to clean the filter a lot? and is the suction good compared to other similar cyclones (if you have any comparison base of course)?

The separation is great - very little goes into the filter canister. In my case, half a teaspoon per 55gal drum of dust. I've only had it for 3 months, went through maybe 2-3 canisters and the filter shows no signs of clogging. When I tried cleaning it, nothing even comes out. Huge improvement over my previous bag-style DC. One of the best investments I've ever made.

[glenn bradley]

Thanks. How does the separation work? do you have to clean the filter a lot? and is the suction good compared to other similar cyclones (if you have any comparison base of course)?

Probably much like the Griz models and this has just been my experience with the G0440. I have been running the 2HP Griz since the end of 2008. I run it some about every day and hard every couple of weeks. I have taken about a half a coffee cup worth of fines out of the bin below the filter. That is the total amount I have gotten since I started using the machine. The first time I thought it might be time to "empty" it, I ran the brushes up and down a few times and managed to get about a teaspoon of dust. Now, the bin at the base of the cone? That's another story ;-)