Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm seeking advice on shop vac type of dust collection system. My primary dust maker is a Bosch random orbital sander. I would like to keep things btween $100 and $150 if possible.

Does anyone have any personal experience to share?

Thanks in advance!

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

One of the BEST!!!!! Small portable dust collection systems is the FESTOOL.
Very nice but it may be out of your price range.
I will look up the costs!!!!

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

This one
http://www.festoolusa.com/ProductDetails.aspx?id=6&prodid=58 3360
is $285
This is exponentially better than a shop vac!!! Also it is very quiet.

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Hesh--

I'd like to connect it to my ROM and perhaps other tools in the future. I've seen your Festool vac and really like it, but as Ansy has noted, it may be out of my current range.

I'm not sure how much more traction I can get with "But Sweetie, your guitar will be the one after this!"   

We will have to see!

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

I have no personal experience with this, but have my eye on it as a possible for my Performax 10-20.

HF Dust Collector

CrowDuck

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Chris Nielsen
Soquel, CA.

Something like that HF unit will do the trick but you'll need to replace the bag. 35 microns is NOTHING and you'll be breathing in the particles that are smaller than that. Those are the dangerous ones. I'd pick up that blower and a .5 micron bag and you'll be set for a small scale DC.

Jim
   I recently got a top of the line shop vac from Home Depot. Its a Rigid of course, but it does a good job of collecting the dust and it has scroll quieting technology so that it is really nice and quiet. Good strong vaccuum and quiet operation for about $150. What else could you want?

   I have been rethinking the whole dust collection thing. I have one central vac for dust collection that needs lots of tubing to hook up various stationary tools. But several days ago I went to a cabinet shop where the owner had small dust collectors for each machine. They were really small and took up less room than shop vac on wheels, but the owner said that since they serviced only one machine that they were doing a great job. His shop was clean for sure. Grizzley sells what he had on his 12 inch table saw for 150. No tubing all over the shop. No oversized vacuum motors to collect dust from one machine, which is all I run at one time anyway.

Jim,

I also like the Rigid shop vac's from Home Depot for price/performance. One nice feature is that they have a range of filters available, from medium to fine- fine is 1 micron, I think, but don't remember for sure. Check it out for the particular one you buy, if you go that way.

Almost any of the machines mentioned above will do the job for your ROS, but if whatever you get has a little extra oomph, it'll work for bigger machines in the future.

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Gene

Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason- Mark Twain

Thanks guys. Good food for thought. My goal is to try to keep things sort of scalable as my power tool selection increases.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

My experience is for a ROS or any sander with a smaller dust port a shopvac will do a much better job then reducing a 4" dust collection hose down to the required 1 1/4" I have a festool and it is sweet, auto start, quiet and effective, however almost any shop vac rated at 100cfm or more is effective. I will have to take a look at the rigid vacs I still use a craftsman screamer quite a bit for cleaning up doing installs when the festool isn't handy.

Jim,

If you go the Shop-Vac or similar route, you can get HEPA filters for most of
the popular brands for $20 - $30. Highly recommended for the health of
your lungs.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I use a ridgid shop vac for now but a real dust collector is in order. The
ridgid filters are $15 or better each and they plug up quick. I keep a couple
on hand so I can change them out and knock the dust out later. Once they
start plugging up you can never really get all the dust out.

Man! If I could get that Festool CT Mini for that price I'd do it!!! US$285 = AUD$370 approx. Here in Oz that very same vac is $692 Australian Rupees. That's $320AUD more than what you guys pay!

And here I thought that the fancy free trade agreement that our governments had signed would bring our exorbitant prices down.

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If God had wanted us to drink beer, he would have given us stomaches.

[QUOTE=John Forbus] The ridgid filters...plug up quick. I keep a couple
on hand so I can change them out and knock the dust out later.[/QUOTE]
John,

I recently read a shop tip in one of the woodworking magazines that addresses this. The guy has two filters, like you do, but rotates them frequently. He puts in the clean one and then vacuums the dirty one he just took out. It starts out your fresh filter with old dust, but it makes for less work if you switch them often.

Jim, for a shop vac, any of the brands mentioned should work great, specially for a ROS. However, I would have to disagree with the guys using a shop vac for dust collection at the power tools. I don't think a shop vac moves nearly enough CFM to work as an effective dust collector. People will be lured into a false sense of security thinking a shop vac is protecting them, but in reality it's not moving near enough air to get all the smallest, most dangerous particles. A good dust collector will move a large amount of cfm which will pull the smallest dust into your filters. Put your hand a foot away from the end of your shop vac and see if you can feel the air moving, and then compare that to a dust collector. There will be a huge difference. I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but you only get one set of lungs. This is coming from a very healthy person who developed asthma at 37 years old from guitar building. I haven't had a single attack since solving my dust problem.

John

Jim,

Go back to 3/4/07 where in your very town, David Collins offered up a small dust collection setup for $100! If I were you, I'd be giving him a call!!

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DES - Shepherd, MI

Todd nailed it on the volume issue. It's all based on cross-sectional area of the passageway. Now, if your shop vac can't pull enough to max out flow through a 1-1/4" hose, and you hook up a dust collector, you'll see an increase, but if the shop vac can max out flow a dc won't give you any more. I've tried it.

Going back to the shop vac with HEPA filter, they do clog quickly as John mentioned, which impedes the flow of an already minimal flow. I use bags and HEPA filters on the shop vac for shop cleanup. Makes it reasonable. The Jet 1100 CFM with a 1 micron bag conversion is barely adequate for the TS. And I don't even have a thickness sander yet. I hate sanding dust in the shop enough that I might just stick with the Wagner and scraper for thicknessing.

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com