portable duct collector performance
 

I have a VERY small shop, with little space for me, let alone a dust
collection unit. I've been using a shop vac, but it's really loud.

I've seen the "portable" dust collectors out there (look like an
oversized leaf blower on wheels. I'm interested in anyone has used
one, and if so, how they worked out, how loud they are, etc.

I have a lathe (jet mini), a 12" bandsaw, and a compund miter saw to
generate dust. All are pretty close together, so I think the easiest
thing to do would be to have a (flexible?) hose coming off the
collector, and just plug it into whatever tool I'm using (with the
appropriate adapter attached to the tool)

Any thoughts?

I have had a Jet portable for 2 years, it's a 1 1/2 horsepower one that
sits on top of a 33 gal. trash can, so has a small footprint ideal for
my one-car size shop. Works very well, about half the noise of my shop
vac, about twice the pickup power when planing with my portable planer.
If you are planning to catch all your turning chips, you will need a
hood collector, it's difficult to capture the chips since they usually
fly off the piece toward the operator. Captures dust during sanding
just fine, using a 5" flex "duct" designed for dryers placed near the
piece.

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have had a Jet portable for 2 years, it's a 1 1/2 horsepower one that
sits on top of a 33 gal. trash can, so has a small footprint ideal for
my one-car size shop. Works very well, about half the noise of my shop
vac, about twice the pickup power when planing with my portable planer.
If you are planning to catch all your turning chips, you will need a
hood collector, it's difficult to capture the chips since they usually
fly off the piece toward the operator. Captures dust during sanding
just fine, using a 5" flex "duct" designed for dryers placed near the
piece.

I've got the ancestor of that Jet, a Delta 3/4, and it's the berries for a
small shop. It handles a 13" planer fairly well, as long as the knives are a
bit dull. If they're sharp and the piece wide, the long shavings wedge in
any curve in the pipe.

Which is why I say the Monica of dust collectors won't handle the shavings
at the lathe. My answer is to cut so the chips don't fly, but fall,
catching them in a big bag.
http://personalpages.tds.net/~upgeor...ugh%20Page.htm Doesn't even
work well as a vacuum when you've got the big rats nest of curly shavings
that collect when you're finish turning, though it handles dust nicely with
the opening behind and beneath the ways.

I also have a small car Wookshop Vaccum. Also an overhead B and D
Cylindrical dust or air filtering device. How about boxing both devices,
line the boxes with styrafoam to dampen there noise and then extend the
sucken devise to where most of the dust is comming from.. I agree than
dampening the noise is important.

Keith


"George" george@least wrote in message
...

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have had a Jet portable for 2 years, it's a 1 1/2 horsepower one that
sits on top of a 33 gal. trash can, so has a small footprint ideal for
my one-car size shop. Works very well, about half the noise of my shop
vac, about twice the pickup power when planing with my portable planer.
If you are planning to catch all your turning chips, you will need a
hood collector, it's difficult to capture the chips since they usually
fly off the piece toward the operator. Captures dust during sanding
just fine, using a 5" flex "duct" designed for dryers placed near the
piece.

I've got the ancestor of that Jet, a Delta 3/4, and it's the berries for a
small shop. It handles a 13" planer fairly well, as long as the knives are
a
bit dull. If they're sharp and the piece wide, the long shavings wedge in
any curve in the pipe.

Which is why I say the Monica of dust collectors won't handle the shavings
at the lathe. My answer is to cut so the chips don't fly, but fall,
catching them in a big bag.
http://personalpages.tds.net/~upgeor...ugh%20Page.htm Doesn't
even
work well as a vacuum when you've got the big rats nest of curly shavings
that collect when you're finish turning, though it handles dust nicely
with
the opening behind and beneath the ways.

On 19 Jan 2005 07:46:15 -0800, "tc" wrote:

I have a VERY small shop, with little space for me, let alone a dust
collection unit. I've been using a shop vac, but it's really loud.
Hi,

I use a Penn State Heavy Duty, 1 HP portable dust collector in my
shop. It works well and I'm pretty pleased with it. To be honest,
I probably would not have bought a Penn State model but it was given
to me as a gift in 1992 and I've used it since and have found it quite
versatile.

It works fine on one tool at a time. Sometimes I roll it from
machine to machine but I've also set up a semi- permanent installation
for the tools I use most, such as my band saw, power carving tool
station, and a "Sand Rite" pneumatic sander that generates quiet a lot
of dust. Each tool or station has a blast gate that can be opened if
in use or closed if not.

I don't use it so much on the lathe to catch shavings. I let them fly
where they want especially with green turning. :) But I do use it
for lathe sanding dust and it will suck up the shavings on the floor
in a hurry also. It's not much of a chore to hang a shower curtain
that deflects the shavings to one general area and then to vacuum them
up with the collector.

It has a 4 inch intake and I've made customized pickups and
collection points for most of my tools. The hose that came with it
was junk though. It was thin plastic with wiring inside but it was so
flimsy that the collector would suck it tightly together. I threw it
out and used an aluminum clothes dryer hose for a while but a couple
years ago I found some semi-rigid dust collector hose made by Delta
that I use now and it works much better. The dryer hose was Ok but it
would get bent and punctured pretty easy and I was always having to
duct tape it to prevent leaks.

It's much better than the irritating whine of a shop vac for sure and
as far as the sound I don't even notice it. The tool I'm using
usually is making more noise than the collector.

That's what I did originally, when I only had a shop vac. Built a
router table (enclosed) with enough room underneath to house the shop
vac, with pvc pipes to the router and an extra to the cabinet for table
saw, etc. Lined the Melamine cabinet with sound board (compressed
fiber) available at Loews for 4-5 bucks an 8x10 sheet. Reduced noise
markedly, but not enough airflow for the new planer, thus the dust
collector. Still use the vac for cleanup after a turning session, it
WILL pick up anything near the nozzle, including small tools and
hardware!

On 19 Jan 2005 07:46:15 -0800, "tc" wrote:

I have a VERY small shop, with little space for me, let alone a dust
collection unit. I've been using a shop vac, but it's really loud.

I've seen the "portable" dust collectors out there (look like an
oversized leaf blower on wheels. I'm interested in anyone has used
one, and if so, how they worked out, how loud they are, etc.

I have a lathe (jet mini), a 12" bandsaw, and a compund miter saw to
generate dust. All are pretty close together, so I think the easiest
thing to do would be to have a (flexible?) hose coming off the
collector, and just plug it into whatever tool I'm using (with the
appropriate adapter attached to the tool)

Any thoughts?

not sure how effective a DC is on a bandsaw??

only use for dc on lathe, as others have said, is sanding..
and HOLD ON to your sandpaper.. lol
I don't know how many times a small piece of sandpaper got snatched
out of my hand and into the cyclone..

IMO, the best setup for a CMS is your shop vac...
I've tried it with the DC (2 hp Harbor Freight) with a 4" hose, a 2
1/2 inch hose, a hood, a hose on the CMS collection port and a hood...
shop vac seems to work as good or better than the DC..




mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

In article , "George" george@least
wrote:

My answer is to cut so the chips don't fly, but fall,
catching them in a big bag.

Well, there you go! How's about placing the lathe in something like - or
exaclty like - a sand-blasting cabinet? Then put yer arms through the
"Lost in Space" - "Danger Will Robinson" dryer vent hoses and turn to
your heart's content. All shavings fall to the bottom hopper and dust
gets collected by an internal filter - Viola! - you can evem turn in the
kitchen without the spouse complaining about the extra cellulose
roughage in the diet, plus all the dust and curly shavings tracked
throughout the house. By George, George, I think you're onto something
here. (Oh, btw, patent pending, copyright, trademark, etc, Owen Lowe.)

--
"Sure we'll have fascism in America, but it'll come disguised
as 100% Americanism." -- Huey P. Long

"Owen Lowe" wrote in message
...
In article , "George" george@least
wrote:

My answer is to cut so the chips don't fly, but fall,
catching them in a big bag.

Well, there you go! How's about placing the lathe in something like - or
exaclty like - a sand-blasting cabinet? Then put yer arms through the
"Lost in Space" - "Danger Will Robinson" dryer vent hoses and turn to
your heart's content. All shavings fall to the bottom hopper and dust
gets collected by an internal filter - Viola! - you can evem turn in the
kitchen without the spouse complaining about the extra cellulose
roughage in the diet, plus all the dust and curly shavings tracked
throughout the house. By George, George, I think you're onto something
here. (Oh, btw, patent pending, copyright, trademark, etc, Owen Lowe.)

--

Considering the protective gear some don to turn, may not be so far from
reality. Perhaps the folks at Hanford and Rocky Flats could get some of
that surplus on the market. As far as curtains and such surrounding the
area go, lots of folks use 'em. My shop's too small, so I have a wall
behind the lathe - with a big streak to show me how wet the last piece
was....

Did I mention how important it is to cover the table on the belt/disk sander
across the room when turning wet?

In article ,
Owen Lowe wrote:

Well, there you go! How's about placing the lathe in something like - or
exaclty like - a sand-blasting cabinet? Then put yer arms through the
"Lost in Space" - "Danger Will Robinson" dryer vent hoses and turn to
your heart's content. All shavings fall to the bottom hopper and dust
gets collected by an internal filter - Viola! - you can evem turn in the
kitchen without the spouse complaining about the extra cellulose
roughage in the diet, plus all the dust and curly shavings tracked
throughout the house. By George, George, I think you're onto something
here. (Oh, btw, patent pending, copyright, trademark, etc, Owen Lowe.)

Skipping the arm holes, you can buy a CNC lathe that otherwise looks a
lot like that, with the fully enclosed cabinet. And Leif could probably
fill the flood coolant system with liquid dishwashing detergent solution
(reducing airborne dust to naught).

Not why I turn wood, but hey...

--
Cats, Coffee, Chocolate...vices to live by

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 06:27:12 -0500, "George" george@least wrote:


Considering the protective gear some don to turn, may not be so far from
reality. Perhaps the folks at Hanford and Rocky Flats could get some of
that surplus on the market. As far as curtains and such surrounding the
area go, lots of folks use 'em. My shop's too small, so I have a wall
behind the lathe - with a big streak to show me how wet the last piece
was....

Did I mention how important it is to cover the table on the belt/disk sander
across the room when turning wet?

nope.. you didn't mention the wall...
I won't mention the 2 drawers that I had open to rest chisels on,
either.. lol


mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

Most bandsaws come woefully underequipped to collect their own dust,
with a port under the table near the blade but with far too much room
around the port, allowing dust to go elsewhere no matter what kind of
dust collector you use. I have seen something cobbled up with a piece
of 4" PVC cut on a taper type angle such that the open side faces the
blade, said to work better than the stock one. Also, some people
drill/cut a 4" hole in the lower door, near center bottom, and install
a 4" fitting for a DC hose, the theory being most dust tries to follow
the blade. I would think some connection of these two solutions with a
Y connector would be most effective.

I cut a 4" hole in mine by the upper top right portion of the door,
hooked up my dust collector and put another small hole at the bottom
left in the door for air to be sucked in and across the door. It gets
rid of 90%. Works very well. There is never any dust left inside the
machine.

Tim


wrote:
Most bandsaws come woefully underequipped to collect their own dust,
with a port under the table near the blade but with far too much room
around the port, allowing dust to go elsewhere no matter what kind of
dust collector you use. I have seen something cobbled up with a piece
of 4" PVC cut on a taper type angle such that the open side faces the
blade, said to work better than the stock one. Also, some people
drill/cut a 4" hole in the lower door, near center bottom, and install
a 4" fitting for a DC hose, the theory being most dust tries to follow
the blade. I would think some connection of these two solutions with a
Y connector would be most effective.