# dust extractors



## 12bolts (Jun 15, 2014)

Looking for a dust extractor for my shop.
What sort of power rating do others here run?
Wet & dry vacuum, or dedicated extractor?
Is it worth modding my leaf blower to suck?

Cheers Phil


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## pdentrem (Jun 15, 2014)

I use a 1 hp unit for my wood working equipment. Since it is in the basement, I bought a quiet unit like this one. I would likely upgrade the bag to a larger volume, but still 1 micron. If the bag is drum tight it is too small for the motor unit and dust will be pushed through the material instead of being captured.
http://www.busybeetools.com/products/DUST-COLLECTOR-1HP-570CFM-1-MIC-BAG-CSA.html
Pierre


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## Terrywerm (Jun 15, 2014)

I use a shop vac combined with a Dust Deputy, which is a cyclonic dust separator. There are other brands out there, I just am not sure what they are. Anyway, I have been very happy with mine, very little dust gets into the shop vac, saving like crazy on filters. 

My large shop vac, which is quite loud, was way more than I needed for dust collection, so I purchased a smaller one just for in my basement shop, and the big one stays out in the garage. The smaller vac is advertised as 4.5 HP, is far less noisy and it also comes with a frame to mount it on the wall, getting it off the floor and up out of the way.

As for shop vac horsepower, I typically ignore it. My big shop vac is advertised as 6.5 HP and there is no way that they can generate that kind of power off of a 120VAC / 15A circuit. Here is a good read about advertised horsepower on shop vacuums: http://www.thewoodnerd.com/articles/shopVacPower.html    Anyway, I just go by the amp rating instead, it is a much better indicator of how much power the vac is actually capable of.


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## pdentrem (Jun 15, 2014)

I am looking at the Dust Deputy as an addon. Seems that it is very good at capturing the fine dust before it gets to the main unit. Is that what you have found as well?
Pierre


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## Terrywerm (Jun 15, 2014)

Yes, Pierre, the Dust Deputy is a wonderful add on. I can vacuum up metal shavings, cast iron dust, saw dust, dust from sanding, and about 99% of it stays in the Dust Deputy bucket. I simply empty it about once a week or so, depending on how much use it has been getting. I've never had it fill up. Even if it did, the Dust Deputy is somewhat translucent, and you would be able to see material piling up inside the cyclone, indicating that the bucket needs to be emptied. As for the shop vac, I check it from time to time and empty it, but there is never much in it, but what it does catch is very fine dust. I find that my shop vac filters last much, much longer this way, too.


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## hman (Jun 16, 2014)

I just recently stumbled across a "Cyclone Separator Shootout" by the Wood Whisperer, and have been waiting for an excuse to post the link!

It's a pretty thorough comparison between the Dust Deputy, the Rockler Dustright Vortex, and the ClearVue Mini CV06.  The Dust Deputy wins!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ct5R6_bj80


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## xalky (Jun 16, 2014)

I have a dust deputy that I use mainly on my blasting cabinet. It does a great job separating out the fine dust from the blasting cabinet. I'm happy to see that it was the clear winner in the shoot out too.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk


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## catoctin (Oct 17, 2014)

I just started looking at the Dust Deputy this morning.  My plan is to use it for general chip cleanup around my new mill.  I am hoping it keeps the chips, oil and swarf out of my shop vac.  Has anyone had any issues with using it?  I saw the shootout and it appear to work well for saw dust.  Oneida has been doing dust collection for years and their experience in this was was evident in the shootout.


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## Philco (Oct 17, 2014)

I too am very pleased with the dust deputy.
http://www.hobby-machinist.com/showthread.php/15451-Shop-vac-recommendations?highlight=Dust+deputy


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## sinebar (Oct 17, 2014)

Here's another vote for the Dust Deputy. Mine is one of the original steel models. Oneida threw it in as a freeby years ago when I bought a Dust Gorilla for my wood shop. I use the dust deputy with a Rigid shop vac (another good product) for general shop cleanup and for sucking up the swarf. I don't let metal get into my wood dust collection system because of the possibility of sparking in the duct work.


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## Holescreek (Oct 18, 2014)

I'm not sure what kind of dust you're tying to extract, but if it's metal dust you need at least 650CFM. Here's the route I took in 2004. Rather than retype everything and risk loosing important details, I just cut it from my original post:

In my little home shop I have one surface grinder, a couple of snag  grinders, and a small belt sander that I use only for metal.  (I've since added a Deckel SO grinder and a T&C grinder)  The  surface grinder was my primary concern so I based all of my requirements  for dust collection on it.  I watched  industrial Torit type units on Ebay for several months hoping that I  could snag one close enough to home to pick up myself and save freight.  Not having a forklift to unload a semi is one drawback, then having to  either buy yet another VFD or change a motor out was another.

I refined my list of requirements to fit my wants: single phase, fine  filtration, mobile, quiet, safe (from fires) and CHEAP. My wants pretty  much decimated the majority of dust collectors available on the net. A friend gave me an old furnace blower so I started prototyping a dust  collector around it. I figured that I'd just start trying stuff. Then I  pulled the covers off of a Torit #64 at work to see what they did.  To  make a long story short, the furnace fan wasn't feasible (but it was  quiet) without using a 10" duct. I was about ready to give up when I  found a damaged 650CFM HF dust collector  on Ebay for $30. I wasn't going to use the broken part anyway, and it  was about an hour drive each way to get it. The noise that it made  measured out at 95dB sitting on the floor. Putting it in the box I had  left from my furnace blower attempt dropped it to 85dB and adding the  insulated exhaust stack took it down to a manageable 75dB. Since this is  a prototype I figure that I'll remake it out of steel on a smaller  scale to fit the HF impeller later on. (I never did) I used MDF for the current case. I  know it can burn, but I often use MDF for impromptu welding jigs and  seldom do I ever get a flame from stick welding directly against it.   I've got around $50 in everything so far, and the suction is very  strong.  The 5 filter bags were picked up at a local flea market. I  found them in the McMaster catalog as polyester filter bags rated at 25  gallons/min. (Still using the same filter bags 10 years later!) I think the catalog had the mesh size at around 2-3 micron.  I held a piece of filter over a butane flame and it melted but would  not catch fire. I added the close weave (HEPA) furnace filter on top for good  measure, and the whole tray slides out for maintenance.  I’m sure  there’s a few things I can come up with to improve on it, from what I’ve  read, I could use a lot more surface area on the filter bags.  I’m open  to suggestions from the group.

I was going to add a shaker bar to knock the dust off the filter bags, never got around to it. 

In the pictures below the dust is pulled in through the intake hose into a narrow chamber in the lower half of the unit and is drawn down to the bottom where there is a 3" opening at the bottom of the chamber.  Heavy dust falls into the steel chip pan while lighter dust is drawn up into the filter bags where anything larger than 3 microns is caught. he air and finer dust passes through the pleated HEPA filter and the cleaned air is drawn up into the impeller and exhausted through the foam lined tower tower which is taller than me in order to keep the noise overhead.  At 75 decibels I can still hear the radio in the shop while I'm grinding.


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## Holescreek (Oct 18, 2014)

Here's the collector chute I made for my grinder:


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## GarageGuy (Oct 19, 2014)

I have a Dust Deputy on my blast cabinet, and it works excellent.  The hose goes from my blast cabinet, through the Dust Deputy cyclone, through the Shop Vac, and out through the back wall of the garage.  I run the Shop Vac with no filter because of the Dust Deputy and the outlet going outside, so there is no loss of suction in the system.  

It moves so much air that I have not had to change media in my blast cabinet.  When the media is turned to dust it is drawn out by the vac, and I just add new media from time to time.  My blast cabinet is pretty large, so this is a pretty impressive movement of air.  I use Black Magnum from Menards as my media of choice.





That's a Harbor Freight bench top blast cabinet inside of my cabinet with the door closed (and lots of room to spare).

GG


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## Rbeckett (Oct 19, 2014)

In my old shop before we moved to the country I had a sears shop-vac hooked to a home made catch can for metal and sparks and it worked well enough to really have a good go at cleaning up the mess I usually ended up making.  All of the little razor blades and other chips got caught in my catch can and only a very small amount of really fine stuff got through.  I used the foam filter sleeve and it worked perfectly with little or no loss of suction and good clean floors and equipment.  The new shop still has a really long way to go, but I will get there eventually.  The pick up hose was a pool suction hose for the underwater vacuum so it would reach anywhere in the shop easily too. Sure do wish I had kept all that stuff from before.  Oh well, live and learn I guess.

Bob


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## catoctin (Oct 19, 2014)

Thanks for the feedback guys.  I planned to only use it for vacuuming up chips in and around my mill.  This exercise started with me trying to get the chips out of the filter of a small cheapo vac I bought at Lowes years ago.  Having a separate container for all of the metal chips, oil and cutting fluids is appealing.  

-Joe


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## kd4gij (Oct 21, 2014)

If my shop was big enough this is what I would have. http://www.pennstateind.com/store/TEMP2PCX.html


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