DC, which one. Trying to decide.

[Frank Pratt]

I did the DC shuffle for a year or so & grew to hate the hassle. So much so that I often didn't bother to use DC much of the time. It wouldn't be quite so bad in a larger shop, but where things are cramped, it's hell dragging around a DC & flex hose.

[Bob Hinden]

4. Oneida Mini Dust Gorilla seems perfect, enough CFM for my tools, portable, but noisy.

I have the Oneida Mini Gorilla. I am happy with it. I don't find it too noisy, I usually wear hearing protection when using it and the machine it is connected to.

Bob

[Bill Dufour]

Watch Cl for a used unit. The only thing that wears out is the motor bearings and maybe the filter bag. You probably want a better filter anyway. In your climate I would vent outside with no filter just the cyclone to catch the chips and visible dust.
Bill D.

[Bill Dufour]

CL inland Empire has a 3Hp Murphy Roger cyclone systm for $850 today.
It has a "Blue Tornado"? cyclone.
Only problem ? is it is three phase so you would need a VFD. But, that allows a slow start so multiple restarts would be fine.
Murphy Rogers is a good industrial brand, not seen much in the east.
Bil lD.

'https://inlandempire.craigslist.org/tls/d/chino-murphy-rodgers-dust-collector-mrt/7006297044.html

[Andrew More]

I try not to be Mr. Doom-and-Gloom. I do not have an allergy to dust however, I am on medication for the rest of my life due to damage from not paying attention to dust collection early on. Just sayin' . . .

Fair enough, but some context is useful here. Some woods are really dangerous to handle, such as rose wood, while others will only effect people with the most sensitive allergies, such as pine. Also length of exposure matters as well, somebody who does it 40 hours a week for years is in much more danger than somebody who's doing it for a few hours on the weekend. Dust collection itself is not a perfect solution, with a variety of problems that can cut down on it's effectiveness. Finally, dust collection quickly becomes very very expensive, and as such I'd rather people do something rather that despairing that they can't afford a 5 HP Dust Collector at $2K because it's more expensive than all the other tools in their shop combined.

In this case it seems the OP is leaning more towards occasional hobby use, which is going to be less problematic, and therefore less aggressive dust collectors, or even just a face mask might be a better solution. Dust collection is not necessarily a one size fits all situation.

[Mike Rambour]

I did the DC shuffle for a year or so & grew to hate the hassle. So much so that I often didn't bother to use DC much of the time. It wouldn't be quite so bad in a larger shop, but where things are cramped, it's hell dragging around a DC & flex hose.

I am really afraid of that one, i have not used a dust collector in 40+ years and very worried I would get to that point where i don't use it if its too much hassle

[Will Boulware]

I've got the mini gorilla. It's noisy. So is a table saw. Plugged up to one machine, it does a good job on a 10 foot, 5" diameter hose. That said...

My shop is all vintage American iron. I bought the Oneida because I'm an arrogant snot and I didn't want to have to look at a flimsy Asian canister DC sitting beside my patina'd cast iron tonnage. With every machine I have, I've overkilled it on the "need" scale, and I don't regret a bit of it. With the Oneida.... I REALLY wish I'd gone with a V3000 and fixed duct work. The portability is nice, the footprint is small, the cost was lower than a V system plus ductwork, and the Mini really is a well designed unit - easy to clean out, the filter is incredible, etc. But I wish I'd gone big here. Just not an area I should have skimped on. After much forehead slapping, I'll probably be re-upgrading in the near future.

Just some food for thought.

[Jim Andrew]

I have a 3hp cyclone DC, used to have a 2hp unit, gave it to my nephew, and am not about to go back to a smaller unit, If I were to change, would be to a clearvue, and would go with the clearvue max 16" impeller.

[Rod Sheridan]

You can also look at the Felder RL series.

If you really do want to roll it around perhaps the RL120.

[Doug Dawson]

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 ?

I'm in the same situation as you re mobility. I have the Laguna PFlux 1, and it works just fine for my needs. If you need the mobility, the 3 is a bit on the "hulking" side, and unnecessary if you're using one machine at a time, provided you're using relatively short hoses (less than 10 feet) which you will be, given that you can put the DC wherever you want it.

The Oneida 3000 is awkwardly shaped, almost gangly. (You can move the Laguna around with one finger.) The Gorilla is less capable than the PFlux 1. The Clearvue's, well, good luck rolling that thing around. If I could install ducting and have a separate room for it, it's something I might have considered.

[Jim Dwight]

It isn't just wood dust that bothers Bill Pentz, it is all kinds of dust. So he has to have special filters on his house HVAC too.

Matthias Wandel has some interesting thoughts on dust collection and has an article written by a doctor included. A key point is our bodies are designed to deal with dust. There is a difference in what individuals can tolerate without impacts but we were made to deal with dust. The air outside is dusty too. Cooking puts fine particles in the air.

If you goal is to keep your shop no dustier than the outside air you need a totally different DC than you need if your body requires really clean air and you can't be outside long without issues. For really sensitive people, or people worried they will develop sensitivity, a 3-5hp DC makes sense. But I am not very sensitive and just want to keep the air reasonably clean. I have my shop open to the outside as much as possible so I am breathing normal outside dust even when my tools are not on. I am pretty happy with my HF 2HP DC pulling through a super dust deputy and discharging outside. I do not like cleaning filters and don't typically heat or cool my shop so I am not loosing conditioned air by discharging outside. Currently I have it mounted to the wall in the corner and have 5 inch snap lock pipe going to my table saw. When I want to use it on my planner or jointer I disconnect the saw and connect a long flex hose. It works better than I thought it would. I haven't bought an air quality meter yet but probably will. I know my setup catches chips well but I have no data on levels of fine dust. But Matthias tested for that and found smaller DCs can be pretty effective.

[Jim Becker]

Dust sensitivity is real. Sometimes, it's specific species...I had a wake up call when working with Bubinga a number of years ago and haven't touched it since. I met a man a few years ago who is a locksmith but had been a carver life-long. He developed a sensitivity to black walnut first, but eventually, it got to the point that any kind of wood dust caused him great physical angst. He had to wear gloves and a mask when simply drilling out a door for a lockset at that point. And yes, "plain old dust" affects many people, too, so it's not just woodworking that sometimes causes problems.

I'm doing a lot more hand-sanding right now because of some guitar building and have quickly determined I need to wear my mask where-as that's not been the case with using my Festool sanders or running my tools with decent dust collection at the point of creation. I may need to design in down-draft for my next bench design.

[Alex Zeller]

I have a larger older roll around 3hp collector. It's noisy and often I wouldn't use it. Last summer I bought a 1hp portable version from Harbor Freight (I even laughed at myself). I looked at the nicer brands but figured it wasn't going to move enough air so I didn't want to invest the money. Wow was I wrong. That 1hp works great with my table saw, router table, and band saw. I'm not going to say it'll handle a planner but I wouldn't be without it. It's very quiet and super easy to move. In fact I can connect it up to my table saw, put some cardboard down, and put it on top of the saw and move everything in one shot. I regret not buying a nicer brand simply because of how much I use it. The only thing I had to do to it was remove the plastic guards inside the duct holes as they were too restrictive.

[Mike Rambour]

Well, OP here. I did something I normally don't do, i bought a used DC from a member here. After posting my first post, a member PM'd me that he had a used Oneida for sale and he was not too far from me. I got pictures from him and sent them to Oneida where they were extremely helpful, its a pretty old 3HP Dust Gorilla and in good condition so I bought it. After buying new HEPA filters, silencer and dust bin (I will likely buy the dust bin from somewhere else, like HF if they have them), I am still saving quite a bit of money over new. It does have a weird dust bin sensor, a air pump with some hoses, not sure how that works yet i still don't have set up. But it works and is fairly quiet, I will use the existing dirty filter to finish up my body work and get Bondo dust and then install the new HEPA filter and silencer in a few weeks. I hope to set it up and get everything going Thanksgiving week. Initially will run one 8" pipe about 8' and from there flex lines to my table saw and move the flex line to my Band saw as needed, will plumb the shop over xmas break or early next year. Oneida said this model won't perform as well as the new ones, but it should still pull about 1100-1200CFM and has a 15" impeller so I think I did good.

[Andrew More]

Sounds great, hope that works out well for you.