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Post by johntx on Feb 12, 2019 1:21:29 GMT -5
I couldn't find a thread that specifically addresses this, although it's been brought up elsewhere. I don't mean to spam.
What dust collection/extraction system do you all use? The dust shoe is for 4" hose, so are all of you on 4" systems or is anyone doing a shop-vac with a 2"-4" reducer?
I realize everyone's use case is different, in my case I'm not making a lot of chips and I need to keep the noise down; but the chips I do make I need to extract before they melt around the bit! (Plastic, obviously). So personally I'm looking at some of the higher-end shopvacs like Fein and Festool. BUT don't know how well that performs when it's in that dust shoe with a 4" opening - if air velocity is too low in the large diameter area, despite the static pressure, it won't move chips into the hose. I don't want to spend $300 on a shopvac that won't pull sawdust, but I don't want to have spent $7K on a CNC that runs quietly but is attached to a giant Harbor Freight dust blower that wakes the neighbors. Thoughts?
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johnb
Full Member
New owner @ March 2019, AR16 Elite, Aspire, 4th Axis & Laser
Posts: 326
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Post by johnb on Feb 12, 2019 9:00:17 GMT -5
Grizzly has a bottom-of-the line wall mounted collector that would work fine for your installation for about $200. That has a 30 micron bag (useless) that can be upgraded to a 3 micron bag for another $60. You could build an enclosure to "soundproof" it and drop the 77-79 db down quite a bit. Put another final filter in the wall of the enclosure to bring the air that's flowing back into the shop down to something in the 1 micron (or less) range...or vent it outdoors with something other than a "straight through the wall" pipe. You might even get creative and put a plenum box on the outside of the wall and soundproof the inside of it, directing the ultimate discharge downward (or enclose the whole thing outside if you have the space). If you can get the db down to the mid 60 range, it shouldn't bother anybody.
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johnb
Full Member
New owner @ March 2019, AR16 Elite, Aspire, 4th Axis & Laser
Posts: 326
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Post by johnb on Feb 12, 2019 9:06:44 GMT -5
Further thought...if you're doing purely acrylic, you really do need to maintain good air quality in the shop. Whether you realize it or not, you are producing a fine dust as well as the chips. While the acrylic dust is likely heavier than the fine wood dust particles (and won't "float around as long"), any of that stuff that you breathe in is gonna be REALLY bad for you. The little bitty stuff gets deep in your lungs...where it will NOT biodegrade.
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Post by traindriver on Feb 14, 2019 20:57:48 GMT -5
When I first got my AR8 Pro, I used a 16 gallon shop vac that I already had for dust collection for my drum sander (aka sawdust volcano). I got a pvc adapter from Lowe's to go from 4 inches to 2 1/2 inches (or maybe 2, I don't remember), and used that for about a year and half before purchasing a Supermax 1 1/2 hp dust collector, which works fantastic. (I now have 3 scattered around the shop). The shop vac was the minimum recommended by Jet for the drum sander, and worked fine on the router as well. Since the PVC fitting wouldn't actually fit on the 4" dust port on the shoe, I used duct tape to hold it butted up against the shoe. I used the actual metal duct tape, so it held for a pretty good while before needing to be changed. I had the shop vac hose zip tied to the gantry, so it wouldn't put too much strain on the duct tape holding it on to the PVC adapter. I thought I had a posting on here showing what I did (because someone else asked a similar question a few years ago), but I can't find it, and I can't find the pics I took of my setup at the time. :-(. If I find either one, I'll post them here.
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Post by uzumati on Feb 15, 2019 8:17:53 GMT -5
I got an el cheapo grande harbor freight 2hp collector and frankenstiened it to a dust deputy and 55 gallon poly drum with it exhausted out side the shop. Piped it across the workshop with blast gates at each tool,works great. The AR9Pro+ took the spot of the table saw.
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Post by traindriver on Feb 17, 2019 19:51:11 GMT -5
I got an el cheapo grande harbor freight 2hp collector and frankenstiened it to a dust deputy and 55 gallon poly drum with it exhausted out side the shop. Piped it across the workshop with blast gates at each tool,works great. The AR9Pro+ took the spot of the table saw. Nice set up! I had the small harbor freight dust collector for a while before I bought my first supermax dust collector. It worked fine, except it leaked sawdust from the seam where the two halves of the blower are connected. A little bit of silicone fixed that, though. It was much better than the 16 gallon shop vac I had been using.
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Post by buildswithbrian on Feb 21, 2019 6:49:22 GMT -5
I use a 15 gallon shop vac hooked to my AR8 pro (for ease of use) but then I also have a dedicated Laguna dust collector piped to the tablesaw, jointer & planer. the shop vac works great, see no reason to change it.
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