Small Garage Dust Collection on a <1000$ budget

[David Bassett]

I was thinking of going with one that already had the cyclone built in. Something similar to this guy.

Pretty sure FWW had, or will have soon, a review of that one. (One of their editors described the assembly, and possible errors..., in their podcast.)

[Bob Jones 5443]

Just a little update:

Fortune smiled upon me a bit (in the form of a scratch off lotto win), and I have a little more money to work with than I initially thought. I am going to pick up the Dylos 1100 meter, and the Jet Air Purifier.

I'm still mulling over what kind of DC to buy. HF and the Wynn filter is a cheap/effective solution, but I think I can probably do a little better. My garage has 9/10 foot ceilings so I believe that would accommodate most of the tall vertical units. I think I can afford around 1000$ on the DC unit. Any suggestions? Is the 600-700$ Jet unit a well performing option? I'm completely ok with swapping the hose between machines.

Thanks for all the help guys. Sorry for my slow replies, been busy at work.

Phil

Philip,

Yep. That's the Jet to get. Mine works like a dream. I notice a marked difference in clearing the air after a blast of fine dust shoots out from something, or after sanding (which I rarely do anymore).

I am just blown away by how expensive simple impeller dust collectors have gotten lately. Ridiculous. I still use my Delta 50-850 from 2001 or 2002, and it's a powerhouse. I paid $300 at most for it, new. Today many people talk about the Harbor Freight impeller unit. If I had it to do today, I'd try that one. It's cheap (although it was available for $150 last year, and seems to be $209 as I write), and the principle is simple, so how bad could it be? You take it apart, throw away the top bag and keep the plastic bottom bag.

Then you throw down the cash for a Wynn filter (mine was $205) and build yourself a wall mount contraption out of 2x4s for the motor/impeller and the cyclone-like receiver with Wynn on top. What a difference the Wynn makes.

Now you need the ducting. 4" is PLENTY GOOD ENOUGH. Make your own blast gates (it's fun). Don't forget the Super Dust Deputy. I built mine last year after owning the free-standing Delta all that time. Finally, a bucket to catch the chips and dust.

I already owned the Delta, as I said. Total additional expense for Wynn, PVC, Dust Deputy, nifty 30-gallon air-tight bucket, and miscellaneous hardware: $700. Add the Jet AFS-1000, and it's a couple hundred more than that. I've seen that unit on deep discount lately.

Although that sounds like a lot of coin, I now have what feels to me like a world class dust system: effective and convenient. Not having to wheel the rickety DC around the shop is a real treat. I just open a blast gate and away I go.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Philip,

Yep. That's the Jet to get. Mine works like a dream. I notice a marked difference in clearing the air after a blast of fine dust shoots out from something, or after sanding (which I rarely do anymore).

I am just blown away by how expensive simple impeller dust collectors have gotten lately. Ridiculous. I still use my Delta 50-850 from 2001 or 2002, and it's a powerhouse. I paid $300 at most for it, new. Today many people talk about the Harbor Freight impeller unit. If I had it to do today, I'd try that one. It's cheap (although it was available for $150 last year, and seems to be $209 as I write), and the principle is simple, so how bad could it be? You take it apart, throw away the top bag and keep the plastic bottom bag.

Then you throw down the cash for a Wynn filter (mine was $205) and build yourself a wall mount contraption out of 2x4s for the motor/impeller and the cyclone-like receiver with Wynn on top. What a difference the Wynn makes.

Now you need the ducting. 4" is PLENTY GOOD ENOUGH. Make your own blast gates (it's fun). Don't forget the Super Dust Deputy. I built mine last year after owning the free-standing Delta all that time. Finally, a bucket to catch the chips and dust.

I already owned the Delta, as I said. Total additional expense for Wynn, PVC, Dust Deputy, nifty 30-gallon air-tight bucket, and miscellaneous hardware: $700. Add the Jet AFS-1000, and it's a couple hundred more than that. I've seen that unit on deep discount lately.

Although that sounds like a lot of coin, I now have what feels to me like a world class dust system: effective and convenient. Not having to wheel the rickety DC around the shop is a real treat. I just open a blast gate and away I go.

I think I'm going to take the same path. However, I'm going to invest in a comfortable 3M full face respirator to eliminate the active fine dust risk. That seems to be the most cost effective way to deal with the problem. Then just leave the Jet ceiling unit running until it all calms down.

Phil

[Larry Frank]

I would not call a Delta 1.5 hp DC a powerhouse.

While a face mask respirator is great, you still have a lot of dust in your clothes and carry it around with you and into the house.

The best dust collection is done at the source of the dust.

[Mark Daily]

Philip- I would also get the washable electrostatic outer filter for the Jet purifier. I did and found they filter very well and will save you money not having to buy replacement filters. I’ve had mine over 10 years.

[jeff norris 2011]

I would not call a Delta 1.5 hp DC a powerhouse.

While a face mask respirator is great, you still have a lot of dust in your clothes and carry it around with you and into the house.

The best dust collection is done at the source of the dust.

This is my process to remove fine dust from my clothes:

169804.jpg

[PHILIP MACHIN]

My Air Quality meter showed up yesterday. My ambient levels in my garage and house were both about the same 400-500 pm2.5 and basically 0 large particle. What's interesting is when we cook dinner the entire living area shoots up to like 30,000 particles and takes an hour or two to come back down.

We ended up buying an air purifier for the downstairs living area as well.

[Bruno Jean]

Philip,

Are you sure your particle meter is working. You are supposed to have more large particles in the air than small ones. Check the bottom of this wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particulates

I also have an air quality monitor and the large particles count is always higher than the lower. I never see a 0 count for any particle size, even after hours of filtering.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Right now it’s reading 727 small and 28 large which seems pretty consistent with the ratio of particles shown in the users manual.

[Andrew More]

I was thinking of going with one that already had the cyclone built in. Something similar to this guy.

I think you're better off with this model in that price range. The general problem with the mobile cyclones is that they're a compromise all around. The shorter cone does not separate out the dust as well, and then you have to clean the filter a lot. If you're looking for mobile, or you've got really short ceilings that model's okay, but otherwise go with one of the taller cyclones.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Update:

After much deliberation, my wife has expanded my allowable budget significantly. I have been doing considerable research over the last week or so and I think I have decided on a ClearVue CV 1800. The ol' buy once, cry once strategy. It might be a little overkill for what I have now, but I plan on expanding to an external shop in the future.

I do have questions/issues to ask you all about though:

1) We are moving in 3-4 years, I don't want to spend a huge amount of time/money installing permanent ducting. My DC will be in reasonably close proximity to my tools and I was thinking of just running one roughly 10' run of 6 inch duct up to the ceiling, over to the center of my work area and down to a 6/4 wye at about head level. Then I would use flex hose to each machine in my work area. My 'Shop' is basically a 1 car garage portion of my 2 car garage. I have a Sawstop PCS, a Band saw, a Miter saw and other assorted hand power tools. I generally move the tool I am using to the center of my work area, and back to the wall when i am done. Will this setup be effective, or am I going to lose a lot of CFM by using a bit of flex?

2) I planned on building a free standing, sound dampening enclosure similar to this one. I am concerned about motor cooling, and it looks like in his pictures they left the top open. Would that be sufficient? There will probably be at most 3-4 inches of clearance between this thing and the garage ceiling.

Thank you all for your input and support. This is a great community.

Phil

[Prashun Patel]

Given that you move the tools anyway, and are planning to move from this house, I would just run a 10 or 20' flex hose from the dc. Any CFM loss from the flex hose would be compensated by the shorter distance, and lack of any splits or drastic bends from a rigid duct network.

I do this on my shop. I use a 10ft 6" flex that steps down to a 10 ft 4" flex.

I would also take a look at the Oneida offerings. I find mine to be well made. Their Supercell collector looks very interesting as it claims to be a good vaccuum AND dust collector.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Given that you move the tools anyway, and are planning to move from this house, I would just run a 10 or 20' flex hose from the dc. Any CFM loss from the flex hose would be compensated by the shorter distance, and lack of any splits or drastic bends from a rigid duct network.

I do this on my shop. I use a 10ft 6" flex that steps down to a 10 ft 4" flex.

I would also take a look at the Oneida offerings. I find mine to be well made. Their Supercell collector looks very interesting as it claims to be a good vaccuum AND dust collector.

I was looking at the V3000 from Oneida. It seems like a solid machine, but the Clearvue seemed like it had more potential for long term "growth" with the 5HP motor. I also liked the idea of being able to build it myself inside an enclosure without having to disassemble the machine and potentially void warranties, etc.

I'm still open to any ideas though.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Metal or plastic ducting is easy to setup and install. It can be put up with minimal supports and likewise, taken down in less time leaving minimal evidence that it ws ever there, especially in a garage.

Plumb it now as if you are planning to stay there and take it down and re-install when you actually move.

Congratulations on your choice of the Clearview.

[john lawson]

I understand putting everything on hold and waiting 3 years, but here is what I did when faced with your problem:

I decided to search Craigslist and be patient. It took me a year but I found a used 5hp Clearvue for $500 with a bunch of 6" piping and blast gates. I had to drive 600 miles to get it but it was worth it, I'm retired and had the time and a trailer so no big deal for me. I built a sound closet for a couple hundred bucks and I am set for life.

Will you find the same deal, probably not but the mintimum I would settle for is a 5 hp, either Clearvue, Onieda or Grizzly. The electrical you can do yourself and it may seem daunting at first, it's not and it's not that expensive if you can do it or have a friend help you.
Good luck