Dust collector advice

[Carlos Alvarez]

This is where I get frustrated. Half the people say the HF is good, the other half say it's crap. Somebody's got to be wrong here...

Nobody has to be wrong, and it's not just crap vs. good. I should have used different words. The HF may be "good enough" for you, maybe not. It was not for me, and many other people. We all work differently, have different tools and spaces, and different expectations. Objectively, we can say that the HF doesn't move as much air as the larger/better ones, and that having a 5" backbone is better than 4". The HF just can't maintain velocity in 5" tubing. So you make your choices from there based on what you can spend. I disagree on "don't buy anything if you can't afford the best." I really couldn't buy more at that time, and am glad I did *something* to start with. I just wish that once I could afford it, I'd upgraded sooner.

[Peter Christensen]

I think Chris was saying that because they leak through many of the gasket joints they all are bad. If not at first they will eventually. Just look at all the little dust plumes where the leaking dust leaves a streak on the metal. All the systems people have showed me had them and they were proud on how good their DC worked and that was not taking into account the layers of dust on every surface in their shop.

[andy bessette]

I found my 3hp Oneida cyclone used/like new for $1,000 with a bunch of blast gates. Haven't set it up yet.

[Chris Parks]

If forced to use a bag/filter type dust extractor put it outside the workshop. There is a whole forum detailing all the problems and I am not going to repeat several years of findings here because it is impossible. Go to the Australian site and start reading. Yes a 3hp Asian DE can be made to work but the US climate would make that difficult in the winter for a lot of users. Peter would back me up on the quality of the work that has gone into finding out how to go about setting up DE in a shed and making it work.

[Larry Soscia]

I have also read good reviews about the harbor freight DC and understand the limitations. My question is that HF lists two 2hp dust collectors,one at 20 a and one at 15 a. Straight amperage to watts to hp says that the 20 a will produce about 3/4 hp more. Does anybody know which motor the reviews referenced? Additionally, does anyone know which motor may be the better choice?

[ray grundhoefer]

start watching online auctions around your area. used ones go for next to nothing sometimes . I picked up a 3 hp torit cyclone for $5.00 last year.
Only problem is its still not installed and running, oh well maybe after christmas I will get it going.