Shopsmith Forums

heathicus wrote:jsburger, you've got me thinking. I don't have the head room to mount an air cleaner on the ceiling, but I wonder if I could mount it outside of the building. Mount it on an exterior wall, cut a vent in the wall for the air intake, go through the purifier, then output back into the shop through another vent. I'm thinking...

I don't see why that would not work.

Another idea which may have merit is to build a small enclosure for the dust collector and then vent the air back into the shop through a purifier. Do those purifiers have cfm that is close to 1750 cfm or better to match the dust collector ?
Paul

How does the Shopsmith dust collector compare to the Harbor Freight one? I found one listed relatively locally for $50.

Figured I'd post this since I am using wall mount HF DC that vents outside. Two stage and works remarkably well I thought even with the belt sander. I started without using anything, just a mask, then went to woodcraft and got a proper fitting. Awesome. Waaaaay better than the SS DC I had.

So should I go to Harbor Freight tomorrow and use that 25% off coupon (only good today and tomorrow) on the dust collector even though I have no idea how I'm going to implement it?

heathicus wrote:So should I go to Harbor Freight tomorrow and use that 25% off coupon (only good today and tomorrow) on the dust collector even though I have no idea how I'm going to implement it?

Heath, I just used my new 2hp HF dust collector for the first time yesterday. I have a very similar Jet unit, but with a 3-phase motor and a VFD that I added. It’s currently being used for fume-extractor duty in a different room, because of the variable-speed capability. So bought the HF unit as a pinch-hitter for the workshop, and I’m using the Jet 2-micron cannister filter on it.

So far, I’m quite impressed with the HF dust collector. The fan has some very noticeable wobble, but it doesn’t seem to affect operation. The supporting structure is actually a bit better than the Jet. Noise is pleasantly low — about the same the Jet at full speed, or maybe a bit less. For $160 (with a 20% coupon), it’s a whale of a bargain. That’s a good price for the motor alone.

As for the 25% coupon, it will save you $10 more than a “standard” 20% coupon, which I’ve always been able to download anytime I need one.

One thing that I recently had to repair on my HF dust collector was the plastic ducting from the fan to the bag. Since mine melted in the Las Vegas sun I replaced it with metal ducting. I don’t have a way of measuring it but it seems to push more air now. The metal ducting is smooth on the inside and the plastic ducting was ribbed. That is the only difference but it is a noticeable improvement.
Paul

I finally picked up the HF dust collector a couple weeks ago. It sat in a box until this past weekend when I was finally able to get to doing something with it.

I assembled it as designed stock to give it a good test. My test wasn't so great because I don't have any 4" flex hose to connect to the inlet. So I 3D printed an adapter to connect my 2" Shop Vac hose to one of the inlets. That significantly restricted the airflow and it didn't generate the "cyclone" effect in the bag, but it still performed better than the Shop Vac and was enough to help clean up. I could tell the top filter bag was useless.

So yesterday I set about modifying it. While I'm doing some of the details a little different, conceptually I'm following this instructable, using the same style of plastic drum, putting the separator with a Thein baffle on top of it, and the motor/impeller on top of that and venting outside: http://www.instructables.com/id/Making- ... t-collect/

After a late start, some trial and error with the circle routing jig (neither the drum nor the separator were perfectly round), I only got as far as getting the separator/baffle on the drum.
I could have gotten further, but I mainly didn't want to walk through the rain to the storage shed where another piece of plywood was at. And I still need to get some hose and pipe to fully implement it. I still have a long way to go, but I'm glad to finally be making progress.

I also had another idea. Instead of a separate "air cleaner", build a box on my ceiling with some vents around it and pipe the dust collector to draw from it. When I'm using another tool, just close the blast gate to it, when I'm not, open its blast gate. It may not be perfect, but it's at least worth testing out.

masonsailor2 wrote:One thing that I recently had to repair on my HF dust collector was the plastic ducting from the fan to the bag. Since mine melted in the Las Vegas sun I replaced it with metal ducting. I don’t have a way of measuring it but it seems to push more air now. The metal ducting is smooth on the inside and the plastic ducting was ribbed. That is the only difference but it is a noticeable improvement.
Paul

Hi Paul
Along those lines I tried a few years ago to use a 4" corrugated solid (no holes or slots) to move some warm (not hot) air from the old furnace I use as an air handler out to a part of the west wing that didn't have ducted air. I only tried using it because it was there through a "slither space" (only a cat could walk through it) and it had carried some wiring (TV, phone, computer etc.) through it. Once the wiring was removed after a change I tried it with air. Off of the furnace of course the air was just pushed by a normal squirrel cage blower, not a high pressure fan of any kind. Still I had pretty impressive output coming from the furnace but by the time it traveled around 30' through that corrugated pipe you could barely feel it coming out the other end... In comparison there was another 4" metal line that ran from the same area of output in the same direction that just fed a register in a mud hall closet. Its only job was to dry damp work clothes hanging in that closet and to warm any cold air that came into the mud hall since the closet had louver doors on it. The difference was like night and day. The force of air coming out of that 4" metal line was maybe 10 times of that coming out of that corrugated line.
I expected a difference but I did not expect that kind of a difference. That was when I decided that my dust collection was all going to be in smooth wall pipe either metal or plastic (or some of both).

robinson46176 wrote:

masonsailor2 wrote:One thing that I recently had to repair on my HF dust collector was the plastic ducting from the fan to the bag. Since mine melted in the Las Vegas sun I replaced it with metal ducting. I don’t have a way of measuring it but it seems to push more air now. The metal ducting is smooth on the inside and the plastic ducting was ribbed. That is the only difference but it is a noticeable improvement.
Paul

Hi Paul
Along those lines I tried a few years ago to use a 4" corrugated solid (no holes or slots) to move some warm (not hot) air from the old furnace I use as an air handler out to a part of the west wing that didn't have ducted air. I only tried using it because it was there through a "slither space" (only a cat could walk through it) and it had carried some wiring (TV, phone, computer etc.) through it. Once the wiring was removed after a change I tried it with air. Off of the furnace of course the air was just pushed by a normal squirrel cage blower, not a high pressure fan of any kind. Still I had pretty impressive output coming from the furnace but by the time it traveled around 30' through that corrugated pipe you could barely feel it coming out the other end... In comparison there was another 4" metal line that ran from the same area of output in the same direction that just fed a register in a mud hall closet. Its only job was to dry damp work clothes hanging in that closet and to warm any cold air that came into the mud hall since the closet had louver doors on it. The difference was like night and day. The force of air coming out of that 4" metal line was maybe 10 times of that coming out of that corrugated line.
I expected a difference but I did not expect that kind of a difference. That was when I decided that my dust collection was all going to be in smooth wall pipe either metal or plastic (or some of both).

Corrugated duct??????