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 ?
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