I bought the Dust Deputy Deluxe a few years ago but never got around to hooking it up. It sat in its box for a couple of years.
Recently I bought a Festool Midi vac. Inspired by the Wood Whisperers' shootout, I also bought the Ultimate Dust Deputy. I really like this setup. Only thing is, the Ultimate Dust Deputy would not accept the latches on the Festool. There was a very narrow vertical slot present in the UDD dust box but it was too narrow for the "web" in the plastic latch on the Festool. No mention in the instructions about this. Glad I didn't force the latch too hard and break it. It didn't take much to modify, I used a utility knife to widen the slits. Problem solved.
Now that I had the UDD hooked up I was motivated to put the regular Dust Deputy on my shop vac. The lid that comes with the bucket is kind of flimsy, but after all it is just plastic. If not modified you will find your DD starts to lean as the weight of the hose causes the lid to deform. Hey what do you expect for $80? In all fairness my setup may make the leaning worse, as I mounted the bucket on top of my shop vac instead on the side. So I have a lot more 2.5" hose hanging off of it. But I have seen pictures of other peoples DD and see the same "leaning" problem. So I took a piece of 1/2" plywood, cut a hole in the center to match the hole in the lid and bolted it in. The lid still flexed. Next I drilled 6 new holes through the lid and plywood near the outer perimeter of the plywood. This really stiffened up the lid. Makes the lid a little more resistant to removal as the whole lid is a lot stiffer, but it's not that bad. The DD does not lean anymore. So the DD is not without it's deforming issues... read on...
With respect to both the regular and ultimate dust deputy: Throw the rubber gasket away (the gasket that goes between the DD and lid). It is too thick and too spongy when bolting plastic to plastic. The base of the DD will deform as you tighten the bolts. I didn't over tighten for fear of damaging the DD. However, the next day the bolts were loose as the rubber gasket "set". I really disliked how deformed the base was on both units. So I removed the gasket on each unit and instead used clear silicone adhesive. Used maybe a 3/16" bead. Once bolted down the silicone filled the gap between DD and lid. The base of the DD was no longer deforming and it was much sturdier especially on the UDD (I didn't have to use plywood to reinforce the UDD lid). My recommendation to Oneida, forget the gasket, provide a small tube of silicone or just mention you need to buy a small tube. A sturdier lid for the DD Deluxe would also be nice.
I am happy with both units, but they are not an "out of the box" nothing else needed kit. Some fussing around is required.
If I were to buy another DD, I would skip the DD Deluxe, and pay a little (OK over 2X) more for the Ultimate DD. Nice sturdy box, has a little hose that provides suction to keep a dust bag in place and in general is just a more robust design. But either are decent as long as you fuss around with them a little.
Todd
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Originally Posted by Peter Kuhlman
