Leon wrote:
Having worn out a couple of different brand shop vacuum cleaners I can
honestly say that a dust collector kicks butt for not too much more money
and offers a lot more capacity and much less noise.

I have a 1.5hp dust collector, but I'm considering using a shop vac
also. The reason is that the volume and air velocity differences
between the two are different enough that I think a shop vac might be
better suited to certain jobs while a DC might be better for others.
For example, the jointer and planer definitly need a DC. But for
hand-held tools, I would opt for the shop vac.

I tried to attach my DC to a reducer, then to a hose, then to the leigh
dust collection router attachment thingy. I wasn't too happy with the
results. It just didn't seem to suck hard enough to get all the chips.
I think the difference is the amount of dust created vs the size of
the area where the dust is being collected. On a planer, the cutter
head area is sort of large compared to the bit area of a router or the
space under a ROS. I'm sure someone can chime in with the science
behind volume vs velocity.

I also like the idea of attaching the DC to the cabinet of my router
table, but attaching a shopvac to the router fence. I need to
experiment more. Or maybe I just need a bigger dust collector. :-)

brian