Dust Collection Recommendation for Small Garage Workshop

[Michael McNerney]

Hi All. Long time lurker but 1st time poster. I've spent hours reading about dust collection on this forum and others (other woodworking forums, Bill Pentz site, etc) and find myself almost as confused as ever. Up to this point, I've done most of my stuff outside (weather permitting of course) so atmosphere and cleanup was never a huge issue. I've recently cleaned up our garage with an eye on being able to do primarily work in there regardless of the weather. Outside is obviously still an option when the weather is fine.

Currently, I have a Table Saw, Miter Saw, 2 Routers (Finishing and Fixed Corded), and 2 sanders (Random Orbital and Palm). I am looking to pick up a benchtop planer sometime in the near future if I can find a good deal. I feel like I'm at the point where a dust collector is necessary if I play to work in the garage (whether the door is open or closed). We don't have cars in there but I'm primarily focused on limiting what I'm breathing in. In all my forum reading, it seems like most folks say a shop vac/dust deputy combo does as well or better than a dust collector for the fine dust from an orbital sander (which I used a lot) vs. a dust collector working better for the saws and such. Am I reading that right or is there a dust collector that could do a decent job for my current setup? I've seen folks recommend ClearVue/Onieda/etc which I'm sure are amazing but those are really not in the budget right now. If I had say $500-$700 to spend right now, is there a setup someone can recommend that will put me in a better position than I am now with nothing?

Thanks in advance for any help you all can provide. I've learned so many things over the years reading this forum.

[Jim Andrew]

Routers, miter saw, and sanders work well with a shop vac. Buy the biggest HP and gallons you can find, and you probably need a 1 1/2" hose for the routers and sanders, along with some attachment fittings. Saw some fittings on sale in Rockler January catalog. If you have a small jobsite table saw, look what size hose connection it has, my old Dewalt had a connection that fit my shop vac hose. The planer you get will determine what size DC you need, the miter saw if newer may fit the larger size of vac hose, my old Makita takes a 1 1/2" hose, which would be greatly improved by using a larger diameter hose.

[Doug Garson]

If your on a tight budget build a Thien baffle as the first stage with a good powerful shop vac, you won't need a big gallon size as most of the dust will be collected in the Thien baffle collector. Get a HEPA filter for the shop vac or use the fine dust/drywall bag. Not sure if this one has the blower option but if you get one with a blower option you can connect a second hose to the blower outlet and route it outdoors so even if the fine dust gets thru it won't end up in your shop.

https://www.ridgid.com/ca/en/4-5-gallon-portable-vac

[Frank Pratt]

A shop vac is best for small tools such as sanders, that produce the finest dust. For about $30 you can get a Chinese knock off of the dust deputy cyclone that will separate the really fine, and most dangerous, particles far better than a Thien baffle. I use a DD on my Ridgid shop vac & clean out the filter once or twice a year just because I think it's time, but it never has more than a light coating of dust on it.

Here's a very good article comparing a couple of different types of separator: https://www.shophacks.com/dustdeputy...stopper.html#/

[Michael McNerney]

Thanks so much for the info and for responding guys. So many option out there! I think for now, what might be best is to pick up a separator (dust deputy) and use it with my shop vac. I have a pretty decent Craftsman 5HP/16 Gallon unit I recently picked up that I've been really happy with (the last 2 smaller ones I bought were duds). I'm also going to pick up a high quality respirator and an Air Purifier (Jet 1000B) to hang it above my work area. That should help with the air clearing and reduce what I might accidentally get into the house if I'm in and out the door. I don't use the table saw all that much now so a dust collector probably doesn't make much sense at this time. Once I move forward with a planer purchase (and/or anything else), I can resume the search for a dust collector.

[Andrew More]

There are a few tools I find very difficult to use without decent chip collection (which is different from dust collection, though they can be done by the same tool). Planer and Jointer are pretty high on the list. Without something to collect the chips it quickly becomes a huge mess, particularly working on larger projects. I had one project where I was making some interior doors, and filled two 55 gallon trashcans with chips. I didn't have a DC, so I had to stop after ever pass or two, to shovel the chips off the floor to have enough space to walk around the tool without tripping. That's sorta worst case, since I was working on a large project, and need to remove 5/8" from the boards.

You can sorta fake it with a Jointer, by having a large bucket at the bottom of the jointer. Same with a table saw, in that you can just allow the chips to collect in the bottom of the cabinet, or on the floor.

I also think you need one for a belt sander, but I don't own one, so it's hard to comment.

[Jim Dwight]

I use a Rigid shop vac with the quasi HEPA filter and a dust deputy for smaller tools (it also has an after market auto on switch) and a HF 2hp DC sitting on top of a Super Dust Deputy cyclone and discharging outside. The DC is for my SawStop table saw, 12 inch CMS, 10 inch planner, and 8 5/8 jointer plus a floor sweep. I have a run of 5 inch snap lock and three gates (several tools and the floor sweep share the same long flex hose). I think it works pretty well but have not measured air quality yet. I plan to get a Dylos and do that. I know the insides of my table saw do not fill up with dust and I don't have to sweep up around my planner after using it. I do get some dust on top of the table saw even with my home made overhead dust hood in use.

I think the HF with the super dust deputy is a good setup for those of us not wanting to spend thousands on a DC. I might upgrade the fan as others have done if my measurements indicate I still have too high a level of fine dust. It is a pretty crude measure but I also know that my glasses normally do not get coated with fine particles like they used to. The floor sweep is mainly for routers and dust that was created before I got the DC.

I used a Ryobi BT3100 before getting the SawStop. My shop vac worked well on the Ryobi but not the SawStop. Depending on what your table saw is, a shop vac may also do OK with it. My shop vac also got most of the dust from my CMS. But it was very ineffective with the new table saw, planner, and jointer. I needed more air movement. The HF gives me that.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

I'd been using a shopvac with a dust deputy and I was getting by ok. That was until two things happened, I bought a jointer/planer and bought a Dylos meter. The shop vac couldn't keep up with the planer and the air quality meter let me know I was killing myself.

I decided to bite the bullet and go all in on my health and the health of my family since I probably track it in. I bought a Clearvue CV 1800. I'm almost done building it, and I'll let you know if I thought it was worth the money in a couple days. So far I'm impressed with what I see, you get a lot of machine for the money but you do have to put it all together yourself.

[Bruce Lowekamp]

I recently upgraded the dust collection in my own small shop. I'd been thinking about doing it for years, but my oldest daughter has recently developed asthma that is triggered by dust, and having her have problems coming into the shop (even if she only does it occasionally) motivated me to fix it.

For the shop vac I went with the dust deputy. Inside the shop vac I put a HEPA filter and a VEVA filter bag. Even though I have triple filtration, I think the airflow is actually better (the filter bag has so much surface area it doesn't even seem to inflate). I don't have the automatic filter cleaning of a modern dust extractor, but I'm pretty confident the air coming out is clean.

For chip collection (and while planers and jointers are almost all chips, saws produce dust) I already had a Jet 1.5HP DC with 5 micron bag. So I took the blower off the Jet and connected it to a HD Dust Deputy and the HEPA filter from the Oneida Mini-Gorilla. Again, more airflow than before, although I would likely get even more with a more modern blower (bigger impeller) but I'm happy with it.

In your case I would suggest getting the shop vac dust deputy for the sanders especially. I'd think seriously about getting the Grizzly G0860 and maybe upgrading it with a HEPA filter down the road. Or just get the Oneida mini gorilla if you can swing it. IMHO I'd get an air cleaner before thinking about heavier duty DC systems, as even with the best DC system you're never going to capture everything from your table saw, and things like circular saws and routers will always throw lots of dust into the air.

Bruce

[Andrew More]

In your case I would suggest getting the shop vac dust deputy for the sanders especially. I'd think seriously about getting the Grizzly G0860 and maybe upgrading it with a HEPA filter down the road. Or just get the Oneida mini gorilla if you can swing it. IMHO I'd get an air cleaner before thinking about heavier duty DC systems, as even with the best DC system you're never going to capture everything from your table saw, and things like circular saws and routers will always throw lots of dust into the air.

I'd recommend against getting the portable solutions, unless you've got sever space problems. Generally the portable cyclones do not perform fine dust separation as well as the taller coned fixed-in-place cyclones. I've got the G0443, which does such an excellent job I seldom see any dust come out of the cone.

[Michael McNerney]

Thanks for continuing to push this thread (and information) along guys. I caught a few President's Day sales and picked up the Dust Deputy and the Jet Air Purifier to get things started this week (I already have a nice powerful shop vac). I am a little tight on space so I'm going to build a shop vac silencer box to house the shop vac/dust deputy (and gain a usable top space) this weekend. I'll have to look at a DC system once I get my hands on a planer but for what I use now, this should get me started and moving in the right direction. I'm in NC so once we get through spring, we'll move into 150 straight days of no rain and 95 degrees so I can still take the messy stuff outside. :-)

[Wakahisa Shinta]

I have a Rigid shop vac (14 or 16 gallon size) and put a mini cyclone in the middle of waste container and the motor/filter. It is ugly and made from scrap plywood, but in the last year since I built it, I have only cleaned the same HEPA filter once with a leaf blower, blowing off very fine dust from a ROS. The advantage of this modification is that the whole thing moves as one unit, instead of a separate cyclone + bin attached to the shop vac with a hose. Another alternative is to heavily modify a Harbor Freight 2HP dust collector, adding a cyclone and an after-market filter (Wynn Environmental filter or similar). I think modifying the HF dust collector costs about 300 USD for the filter + the cyclone in addition to the cost of the dust collector.

[Ken Parris]

Which model of the Dylos are you guys getting?

[Doug Dawson]

Which model of the Dylos are you guys getting?

There's more than one? I have the DC1100. It rocks.

[PHILIP MACHIN]

I’d get a air quality meter and address your dust problem in steps. I probably went a little overkill, with my clearvue and Jet air filter running my garage stays less than 500 pm2.5 while I’m working, and quickly goes below 100 once I stop.