homemade dust collection?

hey all, First post here so be gentle I'm a middle school teacher looking at retirement in the next couple of years (and we just had a baby boy 2 months ago)...So, I'm wanting to start supplementing income with some projects and eventually going "fulltime" when I retire. My shop is functional for short projects but the dust is starting to get to me. Does anyone have any advice on a CHEAP homemade dust collection system?

Brock...Welcome aboard. Glad you found us. Do you have a shop vac? If so, you might check out the Thien baffle. I haven't made one, but am thinking about it. I just might go the commercial route and get an Oneida Dust Deputy instead. Anyways, check out the Thein baffle here: http://www.jpthien.com/cy.htm

Hi Brock !!!

My wife is a middle school english and social studies teacher. I feel very sorry for you too and I also understand your budget

My dust collector is the Harbor Frieght model http://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html

Tons of guys here and elsewhere use it. It can be beefed up a bit. Maybe Vaughn can find his HF build and post it for you.
The HF Dc is often on sale for under $160.

Welcome to our Family, Brock.

I started with a DC similar to Bob and it worked fine. I have a much bigger system now, but you have to start somewhere.

Welcome to the clubhouse, Brock. Any DC is generally better than none, but as often happens, the more you spend, the better the setup. Like a lot of guys, I started with a shop vac, but before too long I went with the Harbor Freight "2 hp" model and did a few easy mods to it. Things you can do to beef up the Harbor Freight DC:

Add a Wynn filter. They have a few models, but one of those and a plastic bag or barrel is much more efficient and effective than the stock fabric bags that come with it.

http://wynnenv.com/woodworking-filters/35a-series-application-notes/

Any of these would be good choices. The first three listed are for the HF DC and similar models:

http://wynnenv.com/products-page/woodworking-filter-pricing/

Add a Thien baffle. Good info in this thread:

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?30128-Internal-Thien-Baffle-for-HF-DC

Still, I would prefer to have a cyclone system, and those can also be homemade. Hopefully Stu Ablett will see this and point us to a link to his cyclone build thread. (I couldn't find it.)

Welcome Brock. Add you location to your profile so we know where you are. This is not for data gathering, there has been more than one occasion on this forum where folks have given (or sold cheap to folks in their area) items or offered assistance to people near them. You are right to start with whatever you can afford since not having a DC is too expensive for anyone, health-wise. I started with a bag unit and though far from ideal, like 6" jointers, they tend to show up on the used market frequently from folks who have found they need to upgrade.

Adding a lot of aftermarket stuff to low end unit may seem like tossing good money after bad but, I am still using a bagger (that I added aftermarket stuff to equal to its original cost) after a decade or more. Like adding things to a contractor saw to make it more usable, tricking out a cheaper DC is not a bad way to go. I went with a properly scaled filter bag but, they cost nearly as much as a Wynn filter and take up much more room. I went this way to skip the separator which puts quite a hit on airflow. Over the years I have evolved to that original bagger, a cyclone and a couple of shop vacs with Dust Deputy separators on them. Start with what you can afford and add as you need to ;-)

Who me?

I built a Pentz system, and I'm very pleased with it.

Vaughn the reason you can't find the thread here is because here was not anywhere when I built it

I built it in 2005 and we started this place in October of 2006.

http://www.ablett.jp/workshop_archive/cyclone.htm

Link to the build thread on my website.

Cheers!

Welcome Brock,

Another HF with mods user here. For the money it's quite good, but if you aren't in a hurry so used and you can likely find a used "real 2hp" or even 3hp for close to the same price or maybe chapter if you get lucky. I put the real in wrote because although the HF unit says it's 2hp it doesn't pull near the airflow of something like a jet or grizzly 2hp.

glenn bradley said:

I went this way to skip the separator which puts quite a hit on airflow.

Click to expand...

This is absolutely correct for the pre-separator like I have, the hit was significant. I mitigated it done by making further mods but it's still there.

However, not to long ago I saw on either Phil's site or maybe smc someone had taken readings with the in ring baffle and the loss was only a couple percent, basically in the noise. I can't really explain it cause I'm not that good at fluid dynamics but the number spoke for themselves. The in ring baffle did almost (but not quite) as good of a job of keeping the filters clean to.

Welcome aboard Brock.

A HF DC user here too, have done the Thien baffle to it (http://familywoodworking.org/forums...ien-Baffle-for-HF-DC-Tutorial&highlight=thien), then installed the Wynn filter (35A). I've since ran 4" pvc to most of my tools and setup a remote to control it. It works really well without the upgrades, but works exceptionally well with them, just take them a step at a time. Do plan to have a dedicate circuit for it if you do go with one.

Teds suggestion of a shop vac is an excellent one as well. Probably best to let us know what tools you have or plan to have and we can firm up recommendations.

HF is a good start, but you may not need that, depending on your tools. If your using more hand tools and getting premilled lumber then a shop vac and Thein or cyclone style bucket, may be right.

What tools are you working with?

Welcome to the family

I have a whole web site on being a one person woodworking business for retirement - www.solowoodworker.com

I also tried all the less expensive dust collection options, and as each was replaced you could say it was an expensive option. I finally have a Pentz cyclone... but I got the factory built unit from ClearVue. Bill Pentz offers free use of his do-it-yourself plans for a single copy, as Stuart built his (probably related to the expense of shipping to Japan) or if you start sellling them, he expects a design royalty. See www.solowoodworker.com/tools/dust.html

We made ours by using the shop vac and hooking a barrel system up to it found it on you tube. We used a sump pump barrel as it has a twist lock top that was solid enough to plumb the pvc pipe to it. Then we ran 2" pvc with 45 degree T's to each tool. For the blast gates we used gate valves from the local pool store, they were the most expensive part costing $13 each. We dry fit the PVC and sealed it with duct tape to prevent air leakage and to allow expansion later. It works sweet, we have 7 tools hooked up and 2 ports to connect the hose to for floor cleaning. Total cost was under $300 not counting the shop vac. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNDc66V1_64

Thanks guys, I'm in Western Kentucky. I guess I should have been a little more detailed in what I've got going... I built a very simple 24x20 house (with a loft)... living room 12x20, kitchen 10x12, bath/utility 10x10, Loft 15x12. This was my temporary house until I got married then the plan was for this to be my dream woodshop. Well, I got married last spring (had a kid this spring) and my woodshop is now a woodshop So, I basically have the entire bathroom to devote to a DC (minus the toilet...that's important). I was thinking about making a closet type area to put the DC in or even make like a DC closet somehow??? (haven't thought it thru yet, still spinning things around in my head).



For now I've got your basic mid-level tools (10" table saw, 10" miter saw, Radial arm saw, router table, bench top planer, scroll saw, bench top drill press, even have a lathe (never used it though I inherited some stuff from my Dad).

The closet for a DC is very popular, and I can understand the reasoning for wanting it. But a couple of things to keep in mind: you need to arrange a way for the air to re circulate back into the room, you also need a way to monitor the dust bin so you don't overfill. The noise reduction is typically on the top of the list of reasons to do this, but to me when the DC is running so is something else; so i have to wear ear protection anyway.