Dust Collector

If you have a just a table saw and maybe a power miter saw you can get by with a shop vac. If you also have a jointer and/or a planer you need a dust collector system. But dust collectors are noisy and even with 1 micron bags, some sawdust will make it into your shop - UNLESS you isolate the unit from the rest of the shop.

The dust collector is a Delta 80-850 which is supposed to do 1100 CFM but it's probably more like 500 CFM and that's with the 1 mciron felt type bags. Note that it has two 4" dust ports, i set it up so the spare port points down, catching some of the clunky stuff that makes it through the cyclone can and providing access to the impeller - AFTER UNPLUGGING THE UNIT.

I built a 4x5 foot room inside the left half of the shop. The walls are 2x4s, the oustside skins are 3/4" ply, the space between the studs are filled with drywall, the door is solid core and weeater stripped. I put the other big noisemaker, the compressor, in the same room. There's air intake and air exhaust to the outside world. Putting the cyclone lidded can above the compressor made it possible for everything to fit AND with room to get to everything.

The dust collector is turned on and off with a Lone Ranger II remote and I used an X10 remote for the compressor.

Here's the Delta dust collector with cyclone lidded garbage can

I used ABS pipe and fittings to connect the dust collector to the dust and chips generating tools. Rather than T's I used Ys and instead of using 90 degree elbows I used two 45 degree elbows. The results are long radius directional changes which cause less drag in the dust line. The dust lines all have blast gates. I included a connection for a shop vac hose over the assembly bench - real handy - can use it to vac the bench top and vicinity and it can be connected up to sanders. Handy and convenient.

Finding adapters for connecting 4 inch ABS to flex hoses was fun since there seems to be no standard sizes for dust collector lines. The SCMS dust port is one size, the 12 inch disk sander and ROS dust ports are another size and so on. Took a bit of hunting and winging it to connect everything.

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