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best-small-shop-dust-collection-near-me A dust collector is nothing else than a vacuum cleaner for a shop. Various particles of dust can be dangerous for you and your machines’ health. They can also cause problems such as combustion and explosions. Those are all valid reasons to think about purchasing the best dust collector for small shop. But what would be the right choice? This is where our reviews will help you. First, take a look at the buying guide and then move on to the thorough analysis to pick your favorite. Contents. 1 Top 10 Reviews of the Best Dust Collector for Small Shop  Are you curious to know which the best dust collection system for small shop is? If the answer is yes, let’s not waste any more time and move to the reviews of top 10 machines currently available. Name. Download PDF. This article is from Issue 29 of Woodcraft Magazine. Create a clean, healthy environment for working with wood. Consultants: Robert Witter and Jeff Hill. When we first work with wood, taking on a small project here and there and buying a power tool or two, addressing the mess of sawdust and chips with a broom and dustpan seems reasonable enough and cheap. But as our passion grows and the projects become more frequent and involved, our investment in machines increases as well. And so does the sawdust. That’s when we cough up the bucks for one or more portable shop vacuums to help. Adding a 5hp HEPA cyclone Oneida Dust Gorilla Pro in my garage. Actually, I added the Gorilla to my shed and ran ducting to my shop from there. I give a. Grizzly Industrial G Dust Collector. He pointed out that most sales claims and magazine tests were not meaningful in practice. Can you just blow the dust out of your shop and forget all the ductwork and filters? The disposable masks for "nuisance dust" are not particularly effective. Amazon Second Chance Pass it on, trade it in, give it a snop life. He also has a small shop and uses a shop vacuum for dust collection.

At that distance, because of increased resistance, the air volume drops to under cfm, less than recommended for woodworking tools. In reality, however, one can live with that. When I hooked up the 1-hp collector to a newly installed metal duct system, with my tools in the same configuration as before, I was really surprised. The air volume was back up to cfm, very acceptable.

Then I hooked up my old 1-hp collector, which is outfitted with oversized felt bags available from Oneida Air Systems that improve airflow and capture fine dust , and I measured almost cfm. Hooked up to a 6-ft. Cyclones and two-stage collectors have slightly more internal air resistance; hence the lower cfm reading. Performance ranged from good to so-so, depending on how much sawdust was being spit out by my tools.

The best way to direct maximum airflow to the tool being used is to attach a blast gate to each hose. Hooked up to a PVC duct system a run of about 25 ft. A two-stage unit such as the Oneida costs almost twice as much. Penn State Industries also sells a cyclone collector. With two blast gates open, the air volume dropped and was insufficient to operate two big machines at once.

More horsepower does mean more noise; both registered 85 decibels at 8 ft. The Delta comes wired for volts but can be switched over to volts. The Oneida comes without cable or switch. It can be wired to run on either current.

A 2-hp unit can sometimes handle two machines at once Hooked up to two 6-ft. When I connected the 2-hp units to the PVC duct system, they too were robbed of considerable power, but one machine could be operated at a time with satisfactory results. When connected to a metal duct system, the Jet collector really moved a lot of air, cfm at the tablesaw-jointer connection after about 25 ft. With two blast gates open, the air volume was reduced to less than cfm, still acceptable for some operations.

The Dust Boy produced slightly lower readings but still had more than enough power to run one tool at a time in any configuration. If you regularly operate more than one machine simultaneously, it would be wise to look at 3-hp or bigger dust collectors. They cost more, however.

Most 2-hp collectors come wired for volts. The Dust Boy can be run at either volts or volts. On the matter of choosing a dust collector, a two-stage cyclone gets my top vote.

A small cyclone collector takes up less room, is easy to empty and runs very clean. For example, on all of the single-stage units, even after running them for only an hour, fine dust appeared on the machine and in the area around it. The Oneida cyclone, outfitted with an internal filter, rubber gaskets and wide metal ring clamps, seals better. Two-stage units such as the Dust Boy Delta also makes a two-stage collector are also nice and compact.

The Dust Boy takes up 6 sq. The Dust Boy as does the Oneida comes with a Leeson motor and cast-aluminum housing and impeller fan , and the sturdy plastic barrel holds a lot of debris, 55 gal. Before it can be emptied, however, the heavy motor and housing must be lifted off. Removing the lower bag of a single-stage collector is an easy matter of loosening a band clamp.

The real fun begins when you try to reattach it. The lower bag must be wrapped around the metal waist of the machine and held in place before the clamp can be cinched. Some manufacturers, such as Jet, add an elastic band inside the lower bag to facilitate reattachment somewhat. The skirt and a standard gal. I just wish the skirt were made of felt rather than the more porous woven fabric.

This setup will reduce the air volume. When an ad says a collector is rated at 1, cfm, what does it mean? Not much, really. Cfm stands for cubic feet per minute, a measure of the volume of air moving past a point of reference. The cfm figure needs to be put in the context of the amount of resistance, or friction, present called static pressure, or SP.

Air moving through duct or hose encounters resistance, just as a person would slipping down a water slide. The more bends and bumps, the slower the ride or the lower the air velocity and volume.

Many manufacturers rate their machines without bags or duct attached. While trying out a number of dust collectors, I measured their performances under real working conditions, using flexible hose, PVC pipe or metal duct in my sq.

I also measured collectors hooked up to a straight piece of 6-in. Collectors ranging in size from 1 hp to 2 hp have impellers fans sized from 10 in. All things being equal motor speed and impeller design , a bigger impeller coupled with a bigger motor will move more air than a smaller pairing. There are some differences among collectors; to learn more, ask a manufacturer for an impeller performance chart.

As soon as any collector is hooked up in the shop, performance declines in relation to the length and type of hookup. Materials that affect airflow. The metal elbow top , which is designed for central dust-collection systems, has a gentle sweep, which lowers resistance to airflow. Plastic PVC pipe has a tighter-radius bend and restricts airflow more. Ribbed flexible pipe also disturbs airflow, up to three times as much as metal.

Hooked up to two 6-ft. With a larger upper bag, I found that the cfm readings were not compromised. But if you happen to vacuum up any offcuts, they will make quite a racket rattling around in a metal trash can.

Although many woodworkers, myself included, have used PVC drainpipe for duct without mishap, experts warn against using the material. The connectors elbows and wyes restrict airflow, and the material builds up a static charge, which may cause a spark and set off an explosion. Running grounded copper wire inside the pipe reduces the hazard. Use PVC at your own risk. Metal duct and fittings are obviously better and will also last longer.

Your collector will work more efficiently, and so will you. Quick View. Add to Cart. Jet - Vortex Cone Dust Collector, 1.

A couple other problems with a single stage collector. First, the dust and chips go through the fan. Better hope you don't pick up a nail or screw and certainly don't use the optional "floor sweep" , because that metal piece can cause a spark when it is hit by the fan, and that spark can smolder in the dust for hours before catching fire in the middle of the night.

Second, the air and grunge are blown into the filters before they drop This is sometimes called a two stage dust collector. A high volume of fast moving air can carry heavy chips in addition to fine dust. Air from the machines is spun around a funnel-like "Cyclone", and as the air spins around and down the gradually narrower tube, it slows, dropping the dust and chips into a bin below the first stage. With a perfect cyclone, the air stops at the instant it changes direction from around and down, to being sucked up the center, through the fan, and out.

If it stops completely, all the dust is dropped. If it just slows, the chips plus most of the dust is dropped. If there is an air leak at the bottom of the cyclone often at the seal of the trash bin the airflow is disturbed and a lot of dust remains in the air.

Note that normally most of the debris is gone before it goes through the fan and into the filter. The filter after the fan is typically a large, very fine filter, often a pleated cartridge the second stage.

However, with little dust left in the airflow, there is little contamination of the filters, so the filters remain very efficient. If you have a cyclone and the filter gets plugged frequently, something is wrong with your setup - likely an air leak at the collection bin, or you should contact the vendor. There are huge battles about different types of cyclones.

Almost any circular container will drop the chips and "look good" but a slight turbulence in the air from a less than perfect shape or air leak, and the efficiency plummets - the fine dust is not dropped. The fairly tall cyclones that do the best job of dropping dust and chips don't fit within the typical small shop ceiling. Shorter cyclones either require much higher power or become less efficient - don't separate the dangerous fine dust.

Bill Pentz designed a cyclone for optimum performance and published the plans on his web site to allow woodworkers to freely no royalty build one for their personal, non commercial, use. Parts of the design were stolen by vendors who didn't pay design royalties required for commercial use , and other parts should have been stolen - Bill can demonstrate that many of the highly regarded cyclones aren't very good at separating the very fine dangerous but invisible dust.

Experts who are not trying to sell a competing product generally agree that Bill's design is excellent. ClearVue Cyclones is the only vendor currently licensed to use Bill's design in a commercially available cyclone. The ClearVue founder, Ed Morgano, retired, and when he stopped taking orders on May 1, , I feared the death of a good company. A couple months later July it was bought by Bushey Enterprises, three brothers, who moved the manufacturing to Seattle, with office operations in Burlington Vermont.

In August manufacturing is moving back to South Carolina. Wherever they are, the business is continuing. What cyclone to buy? I have heard at least as many bad comments as good about JDS dust collectors. Penn State Industries sells the Tempest dust collectors, but they don't design and build them. Grizzly specs look good, but the user enthusiasm on the woodworking forums is not convincing - Grizzly cyclone users are happy but far less enthusiastic than users of some of the other Grizzly machines.

Shop Fox is a close corporate relative of Grizzly. ClearVue user reviews are always positive. Oneida seems to have good user reviews. All these notes are based on second-hand discussions, not on first person experience. I helped a friend with a commercial shop select and install an Oneida system.

He was very complementary about this web page until I got to the point of recommending Oneida. Bill said "Please rethink that recommendation.

I think the Oneida Air System cyclones are probably the worst choice that someone can make today due to terrible separation, poor filtering and way too little airflow in all but their 5 hp and larger units.

She was very complementary about this web page and the need for dust collection at the source. She goes on to say "I am sorry to see that you have given a forum to Bill Pentz and his anti-Oneida rhetoric. I would ask that you remove his negative comments and understand that he has no foundation for them. Trying to understand the battle, I have done some more research Despite the clean appearance, he ended up hospitalized with lung and heart damage that was traced to shop dust, bad enough to require full time oxygen.

As a professor he started researching the problem as a one-time professor, I know that is a very natural thing to do. He became an expert and found most commercial designs didn't hit the target.

He offered consulting services to vendors, and testing services to magazines. He pointed out that most sales claims and magazine tests were not meaningful in practice. His testing showed that most commercial designs were inferior to what he felt necessary. He designed a cyclone to meet the needs of a small shop, and offered the plans free to individuals to make one for their own use.

Today only ClearVue manufactures a cyclone following Bill's design and pays him a royalty for the design , but you can build one yourself for personal use without royalty sounds like a professor to me. I don't know the details of the Oneida - Pentz battle. I don't know who was right or wrong.

I am not sure I could judge the case on it's merits, so all I can do is report a battle between Bill Pentz, one of the world's leading experts on wood dust collection, and Oneida, one of the leading vendors in that field. Over the years I have talked with numerous users of Bill Pentz's cyclone design, either home-made or bought from ClearVue, and they have universally been happy.

I have talked with numerous Oneida customers over the past few years, many of whom have given good reviews as users of 2 and 3 hp Oneidas, as well as 5 hp but don't expect the tiny Oneida systems with small hoses to compete with a "real" system.

I have recently talked to a couple users with large shops and smaller Oneida cyclones who had less than great results - so don't get a unit that is too small for your shop, from Oneida or from anyone else.

Although I still believe Oneida can be an excellent vendor if you get a big enough system, I recently chose a ClearVue for my own shop. Effective dust and chip collection depends on a very large airflow. That requires large pipes I had a huge improvement in my dust collection when I went from 4 inch to 6 inch ducts. You may be shocked to spend as much on ductwork as as on the cyclone.

That large airflow requires a large fan impeller , driven by a powerful motor. The squirrel cage fans often recovered from old furnaces probably won't be adequate - I don't think they will maintain the necessary speed and volume to carry relatively heavy chips through pipes.

Your dust collector motor may be the hardest working motor in the shop - hp or more, running under full load moving lots of air for hours at a time, not just intermittent brief periods of heavy load while a tool is cutting.

Be careful And a 5 hp cyclone creates a lot of heat - not only from the motor and noise, but also from stirring a large volume of air through ducts, fans, and filters. These are basically a low efficiency cyclone that is put "in line" prior to the primary single stage or cyclone dust collector. Any separator like this constricts the airflow, dropping the pressure, which reduces the air volume, so experts normally say they should NOT be used.

The inefficiency of a simple trash can separator helps here - the large chips are dropped, and the fine duet goes on to the main unit. As a result, people are often willing to take the chips Best Small Shop Dust Collection Zoom for garden mulch or animal bedding. The really ugly dust at the dust collector has to be disposed of far less often. When I had a single stage collector, I made a real effort not to open the plastic bag any more than necessary to get it out - it is really ugly fine dangerous dust.

I probably got over 20 bags of chips for each bag of dust. Now that I have the more powerful cyclone, it pulls medium size chips to the cyclone, and only drops the largest at the separator, so I only get about 5 bags of chips for each bag at the dust collector. I am experimenting with opening additional gates to reduce the suction at the separator, so more chips stay at the separator rather than going on to the cyclone.

Also, with a single stage, there is positive pressure on the collection bag it inflates. With the cyclone there is negative pressure on the collector in suction so I cannot collect directly into a bag without taking exceptional steps - I have to empty the collection can. A fellow named J. Phil Thien tried the usual Rockler, Woodcraft, and Lee Valley trash can lids as separators, and didn't like the results - too many chips got through, and chips that had already been dropped were sometimes picked up and carried out of the separator called scrubbing.

He also has a small shop and uses a shop vacuum for dust collection. But his design of the Thien Separator appears very effective. In a few minutes I can make as much dust as he used in his demonstration of a "week's worth" of dust and chips, so I don't expect to go back to a shop vacuum driven dust collector. His design has been extended to versions that work with or inside conventional dust collectors.

He also supports a forum to discuss his design - accessed from the link above. More on chips: Walnut wood chips contain a chemical that prevents seeds from germinating and can reportedly kill horses when mixed with horse urine don't use it for horse bedding. Not good for mulch? On the contrary. I have people asking for walnut chips for their flower beds.

Since most weeds are spread by seeds, and it doesn't do anything to established plants, it is great for weed control It doesn't help with unwanted growth spread by runners or roots, but it sure cuts back on the weeds. Other chips that don't include walnut are taken by people who are making compost, reportedly ideally mixed with grass clippings.

You buy a high power cyclone, and connect it to your machines with large, efficient ducts. Is everything okay now? Sorry, but the answer is no. You are certainly far better than you were before installing a good cyclone dust collector with fine particle filters, but testing shows that too much of the fine dust still escapes uncollected - the fugitive dust.

To be really safe, you should still wear a respirator, and continuously exchange the air in the shop with outside air. Living in the South now, and previously living in the North, I like heating and air conditioning - personally I am going to sacrifice some measure of health for comfort. Years ago I had a "wellness" doctor who carefully analyzed my diet, weight, activities, etc.

How much longer? His analysis said 4 months longer. I made the decision to continue my wild life. I am starting from a very healthy level, but I have still made a major investment in collecting as much of my shop dust as I can at the source, through dedicated vacuums and a large, efficient cyclone.

A large professional shop may have truckloads of dust and chips - not me. Small shops typically have to bag their dust and chips, even if they go into a dumpster. If you separate the chips see above the total volume of dust is dramatically lower, but you still have to get rid of the ugly stuff. But I have found the 3 mil "Construction site cleanup bags" from Home Depot and other stores quite adequate at about 35 cents each.

Can you just blow the dust out of your shop and forget all the ductwork and filters?

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