In my shed I have a basic, noisy 1500w Screwfix table saw. When I use it I connect a 1000w wet and dry vacuum cleaner to the underneath extractor outlet and an old 1000W henry type hoover to the overhead guard. This takes care of the sawdust probably as well as can be expected BUT THE NOISE IS DEAFENING, the lights flicker and it's probably going to annoy my neighbours soon.
Is there some better way of extracting dust from power tools? Some kind of cyclone thing? or a quieter single dust extractor. Trouble is these days you just have to buy the stuff off of a catalogue.
Can you use an extension for the vacuum hoses to take the machines some way away from the saw table? Maybe also use a bit of rockwool insulation or expanded polystyrene around them to cut down the noise (but not the air needed to cool their motors!)?
Doesn't the noise of the saw drown out the noise of the Henry?
Plenty of Youtube videos on DIY cyclone catchment containers (run off an existing vacuum cleaner). With extra tubes to the cyclone and then another to the vacuum cleaner then the vacuum cleaner could be placed further away and/or enclosed some sound deadening box. Further as the vacuum cleaner is not collecting the majority of the dust it may run a bit quieter with a near empty bag.
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Probably watch a few similar videos as some ideas are better than others.
I note they offer it ready fitted to a drum - with plastic and steel options. The plastic comes with an anti-crush valve. I didn't see them selling that separately - unfortunately.
I bought the plastic one some years ago but have recently replaced it with a steel drum from an eBay seller. The plastic one always partially collapsed whereas the steel one just works. Also, the steel drum has a larger base so is more stable.
There are two basic options for dust collection, low volume high pressure (LVHP) small hose, and high volume low pressure (HVLP) large hose. Vacuum cleaners and dedicated small dust collectors are usually LVHP. Big bag style chip collectors are HVLP.
Then dust filtration is whole other subject.
Both have LVHP and HLVP a place - but much depends on the type of dust you are collecting, and the source.
For *effective* collection from a saw, the air speed needs to be faster than the blade tip speed, and the volume high enough to capture the dust at the point of creation - so air moving at 150mph+ is ideal since you need to capture the dust coming off the blade tips at that speed. (a LVHP system will capture the the dust that hits a baffle of some sort and falls into the saw body, but won't catch the stuff thrown in your direction by the top of the blade. Blade guard collection helps in that it physically intercepts some of the blade tip dust.
Things like planers and thicknessers especially need HVLP just to cope with the rate and volume of chip creation. Table saws can go either way, but HVLP is usually better for cabinet saws (although contractor portable saws are often only ported for small hoses).
So hand held tools like sanders etc producing fine dust, are normally optimised for LVHP, and usually benefit from good fine dust filtration since the dust is not being ejected at speed, and the air paths convoluted, and for ease of use, small diameter hoses work ok, and the high pressure overcomes the flow resistance.
Bagged chip collectors [1] are typically large dirty fan type designs powered by quiet induction motors. In use the air flow noise is probably comparable to the motor noise, and they are typically quieter than the tool itself. Filtration performance on them depends on the construction of the bags. The basic cloth ones given good airflow but only large particle filtration, felted top bags, and plastic dust bags give finer collection (at some expense of airflow), and pleated cartridge filter style top bags can do HEPA style filtration but need lots of power to maintain air flow.
Of the "bin" style vacuum collectors - some are very much noisier than others (some of the early generations of wet'n'dry vacs were astonishingly loud!). As you go up market they get quieter. Note there is a big jump in price the moment you move to M class [2] filtration (which is usually the legal minimum for on site use in businesses).
So in short, a chip collector will be a much quieter option, and probably work better on a table saw if it has a decent port size (ideally 4").
[1]
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[2]
L Class <= 1.0% Dusts with maximum allowable concentrations > 1 mg/cubic meter
M Class < 0.1% Dusts with maximum allowable concentrations >= 0.1 mg/ cubic meter
H Class < 0.005% Dusts with maximum allowable concentrations < 0.1 mg/cubic meter
L class will normally do for table saws and softwoods, M class for table saws and hardwoods and MDF etc, plus also sanding.
(H is only for specialist applications like machining asbestos, or collecting soot).
+1, wet and dry vacs are pretty cheap and nasty. Henrys, on the other hand, are normally remarkably quiet IMHO. Perhaps you need a new Henry. You could connect this to a home-made cyclone collector, plenty of examples on YouTube.
I use a Jet JCDC-1.5 HVLP cyclone extractor for the table saw and planer/thicknesser, and an Earlex LVHP+Dust Commander for routers, sanders, etcetera. Until recently I used LVHP for the bandsaw but upgraded the saw and the new one came with a 4" port, which seems odd. The problem is the Bosch chopsaw, which comes with a 2"'ish port that is totally inadequate. I keep meaning to add some sort of scoop behind it but too many other jobs keep cropping-up. What do others do about controlling chopsaw dust?
Mine has a 4" port... it seems quite well suited since it gives enough air speed to capture pretty much all the dust. (which is moderately coarse anyway)
Let is spew all over the workshop, and keep saying to myself I must build a proper chop saw station with a fully enclosed back!
Which I will do, although I might build a new workshop to put it in first...
To be fair the bag on it probably captures 60 - 70% of the dust, but that still leaves plenty to go elsewhere.
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