This is my current dust collection system. It's crude but it works for my very small shop. I can easily swap the hose between the miter saw and a longer hose that runs along the ceiling which can be connected to other tools, be used for general shop clean up etc. The Rigid vac is rated at 3.5 HP.
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I found this listing on Offer-Up for $50. It's a 1 HP portable dust collection unit.
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I've never used a unit like that one. Would this be an upgrade to my current set-up? I would still want to house the unit in the cabinet to keep the noise down so I would need a way to attach it to the Dust Deputy since there is not enough room in the cabinet for the bag. Obviously some hose adapters will be required.
Is it worth trying to make this unit fit the space?
I would say any dust collection that uses an induction vs. universal brush type motor will be better and quieter. Rockler IIRC sells a similar unit and shows the unit mounted on a wall with the bag below. I have a much larger Jet DC with Pleated filter. While not whisper quiet, like the Festool Dust Extractor, it is much quieter than most any inexpensive shop vac. For the unit to be efficient and operate at maximum potential I would not advise housing the collector where as the unit would have a restriction on exhaust. Basically you do not want to put the unit is a container that would cause the container to become pressurized while the unit is running.
You can't see it in the picture, but the back of my miter saw cabinet has a ~2" x ~24" opening in the back. IOW the back panel is 2" shorter than the cabinet height for both exhaust and less heat build up. I can feel the exhaust when the vac is on. No "pressurization" issues that I am aware of.
However, if the 1HP unit is quiet enough to be left exposed, I sure could use the storage room.
I'll use my standard "bidding" technique. "You're asking $50. I'll offer you $40 and we can settle at $45. How's that sound?" That technique works almost every time.
Understood, but a DC is going to have much more volume than a shop vac. Just something to consider, if you put the DC in there and it does not perform as well as when out in the open. The less restriction, the better it is going to perform. AND these bag type DC's want to blow out from all of the bag surface area. If you cover any of that up you are cutting down on the efficiency. The bag laying in the open on the floor would not be as efficient as when the bag is hanging under the blower on a wall.
Question: How do these things work when it comes to larger-than-dust objects?
Can it pick up nuts, bolts, small cut-offs like a shop vac can? The current set-up, with the cyclone device, keeps all debris out of the vac itself. Would I need to use that for larger-than-dust items? The debris doesn't go though the impeller does it?
Question: What's the difference between the portable device we're discussing and the full size ones with 2 bags, top and bottom? What's that upper bag for?
I would try to retain the cyclone to collect those larger pieces, in fact, collect most all of the debris as you are currently doing. That will protect the impeller which the debris must pass by (sans a cyclone) before landing in the bag.
When you say the full-size ones with two bags top and bottom, it sounds like you're describing the Jet type dust collectors. Mine has a plastic bag on the bottom which is where the debris is collected. The top used to have a filter bag which I replaced with the Dust Dog pleated filter. That's all the top bag is for, to filter the air before returning it to the shop.
I've seen some collectors with two bags in a configuration similar to what you're considering buying. In those instances, BOTH bags filter and collect debris.
Using the cyclone with a good sized container should do the trick for you.
Soooo I have 30' of 4" hose attached to my collector. The hose goes straight up to the back area of the garage door track and crosses over to the opposite side and then comes back down to the floor. This serves two purposes. It give me a place to store most of the hose so that when I don't need all 30' I'm not tripping over it. Also with the hose going up 7' it helps to prevent most heavier objects from quickly going to the collector. Sometimes I suck up things that I don't want to suck up. For example a steel wool pad or pencil etc. I'm waiting for the day I suck up my remote.... so far I have avoided that.
Yes It can suck up screws, nuts, cut offs, etc. See my explanation above for a way to help prevent the wrong stuff from going through the impeller. AND of course. the better/stronger the DC the more it can lift. Yes, the dust goes through the impeller. And a cyclone would help filter the bigger stuff but I also understand that the cyclones cut down on suction. Nothing is perfect.
In the single bag situation the bag acts as the filter and the collector. With the two bag units the lower bag catches the bulk and normally does not let air penetrate. It is normally a plastic bag. The upper bag is strictly the filter/air outlet. Oddly the cloth upper bags tend to filter better once they get a coating of dust covering the inside surface.
The unit you are looking at will probably be better than the typical shop vac but will be more to deal with when the bag fills. If you can possibly afford the price and space I would strongly suggest a unit with a pleated paper filter on top and a plastic bag on bottom.
If you want pictures of my setup I'll be happy to post.
Unless you upgrade or buy upper/top-end unit, run-of-the-mill DC filter bags are typically 5, 10 or even 30(!) micron so fines are pretty easy to get by. What _is_ trapped simply blocks some of the open pore area effectively making it a better filter (with reduced air flow, of course).
Absolutely! And even the better pleated units become caked inside, but fortunately you can spin the brush inside and increase the efficiency when suction drops.
One pretty-telling giveaway on whether the unit is being rated by the vendor such that its CFM rating is dodgy is having one a much coarser filter in order to get the airflow up for the spec's. As soon as you get it home and use it a little, it quite possibly won't come even close to that.
Moral is, don't buy the lowest-priced unit you find expecting to upgrade the filter and then still have the CFM you (thought) you bought.
I am tighter than a top on a banjo when it comes to spending money on tools , but I have had a couple of those units and they are well worth the money. For $50, I wouldn't have haggled. Sometimes things are priced to move up front.
That being said, if you run across another one close to that price you shou ld buy it. Leon is right, they are motored different than a shop vac. Alt hough not "quiet" they aren't loud either. I still use mine and they have held up for years. They will do light vacuuming and pick up a lot of dust and dirt of all sizes with the larger micron bag attached. I don't use it much for a vacuum as I have three or four shop vacs, including one that I u se inside houses that is equipped with a HEPA filter.
I use that machine mostly for dust removal from the air and they run all da y long without stopping. I have made a manifold that is about 6 inches hig h and about 24 inches across that I hang or suspend someway on the job. I put the machine in the next room and just run a hose to it. That way it is quiet where I am working, and these unit move a lot of air easily. Replac ement bags are cheap on Amazon -
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- and come anywhere from 1 micron (too fine for my use) to 30 micron which is too coarse for my normal use.
With several bags available, it really makes this machine versatile. I have used it in a client's garage and simply screwed the whole machine to the w all and used it as an air filter. Working in different rooms of a house, i t is easy to change filters bags as needed and simply move the unit from ro om to room.
Before they came up with HEPA filters for shop vacs, I used it when I was d oing a lot of refinishing. I had a BOSCH sander that I really liked. I bo ught a reducer, put the unit outside and turned it on, and connected it to the sander. Due to its large cfm vacuum capability, there was never any dus t in the room I when I was sanding.
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