Small Garage Dust Collection on a <1000$ budget

[Jim Andrew]

Glad you came to a good decision. There is a huge difference between where you started out and and have finally finished. Personally, I think anything less than a 3hp system, is a waste of money, unless you are just using some homeowner grade power tools, and then you could probably get by with a shop vac.

[ChrisA Edwards]

....... Personally, I think anything less than a 3hp system, is a waste of money, unless you are just using some homeowner grade power tools, and then you could probably get by with a shop vac.

I was going to bite my tongue on this statement, but then I thought, there's lots of folk who garner lots of information from these threads, just as I have done in the past and still do.

So my home owner grade of tools consists of a 3HP SawStop tablesaw, a Hammer A3-31 12" planer/jointer, a Hammer F3 Shaper, a Shopfox W1812 Moulder, a Laguna 14/12 BandSaw, a Powermatic Mortiser, a Jet Oscillating Belt Sander and a SuperMax 19-38 Drum Sander, to name a few.

Not bad home owner grade tools....but I know for a fact, a shop vac would not work with the majority of those tools.

When I cut 600 ln/ft of elliptical Plantation Shutter Louvers, with my ShopFox Moulder, I filled my 55 gallon drum twelve times, that was a lot of horse stable bedding, which is where those shavings ended up.

And what allowed me to do this? A measly 1.5HP Jet dust collector converted into a two stage through 5" metal ducting with 4" ports at the tool.

If I found the Jet inadequate or frustrating to use, it would have been replaced long ago.

I'm very happy for the OP, I think he's made a good choice and won't regret it.

At some point I may upgrade the Jet, but it probably will not be until the motor fails, so far 5 years and going strong with a start and stop every time I turn a tool on.

[Larry Frank]

I agree that a 1.5 hp DC is a great chip collector. However, it probably is not so great with dust collection. I went from a 1.5 HP chip collector to a 5 HP one and there is a huge difference in the shop air quality.

[Edwin Santos]

Glad you came to a good decision. There is a huge difference between where you started out and and have finally finished. Personally, I think anything less than a 3hp system, is a waste of money, unless you are just using some homeowner grade power tools, and then you could probably get by with a shop vac.

Perhaps saying anything less than 3hp is a waste of money might be a little extreme. After all any dust collection is better than none. However I definitely agree with the larger point that dust collection is one of those areas where more power is better. In my case, I have a 3hp Oneida Super Dust Gorilla. It is quite powerful and indeed my dust collection is better than a lot of shops, but had I been thinking properly, I should have gone with the 5hp simply because the incremental cost between 3hp and 5hp was so small, like $150 or something like that. Imagine that, $150 more to get 60% more power on a $2000 purchase.

I even called Oneida to find out if I could upgrade the motor, and it really wasn't feasible due to the fact that my unit's housing is designed around the 3hp motor. So take it from me, if you go smaller, you could find yourself wishing you went larger, but odds are you won't have any remorse if you err to the larger size.

Edwin

[Andrew More]

I agree that a 1.5 hp DC is a great chip collector. However, it probably is not so great with dust collection. I went from a 1.5 HP chip collector to a 5 HP one and there is a huge difference in the shop air quality.

The problem is that there are SO many things that could be effecting this I don't think we can just put it down to more HP = better system. Just as a guess, I'm going to say that you likely replaced most, or all of the ducting, and the filter. Depending on the time between replacements, you likely also have different tools, with different shrouds, and potentially different work loads. Those different work loads are likely producing difference amounts of dust.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

Just finished the sub panel install in the garage today. Two 30A 240 circuits and two dedicated 20A 120’s. Got the inspector coming to give it the ok. Once I’m good to go I’m pulling the trigger on the CV1800.