School me on dust collection

[Nick2cd]

i need dust collection in my shop. plain and simple. i have a small shop. im considering the harbor freight 2HP dust collection unit, as i have seen many people here who are quite happy with it. my biggest problem is real estate.....it's gonna be tight finding floor space for this unit, but i think i can make it work. anyways, i don't know anything about it. do i turn on the dust collection first and then turn on the tool i want to use? or is there a way to flip on a tool and have the dc system automatically turn on? do i route everything with 4" flex hose or do i use 4" pipe where i can? i need some serious help! please drop some wisdom on me, fellow Normites!

[decibel]

i need dust collection in my shop. plain and simple. i have a small shop. im considering the harbor freight 2HP dust collection unit, as i have seen many people here who are quite happy with it. my biggest problem is real estate.....it's gonna be tight finding floor space for this unit, but i think i can make it work. anyways, i don't know anything about it. do i turn on the dust collection first and then turn on the tool i want to use? or is there a way to flip on a tool and have the dc system automatically turn on? do i route everything with 4" flex hose or do i use 4" pipe where i can? i need some serious help! please drop some wisdom on me, fellow Normites!

Dust collection lots of wisdom to be dropped here . Well first off Dust collection can get quite involved in quite a hurry. So you may want to decide what your goal is, are you trying to pick up most of the big junk (chip collection) or are you going after the fine dust. Gathering a large % of fine dust requires quit a bit of HP. Probably one of the most complete sources about dust collection you will find is Bill Pentz site on dust collection it's is quite the read so be warned. It seems quite a few folks upgrade the top dust bag on the harbor freight unit to the canister style filter. Wynn Environmental has a kit here.

As far as ducting you'll see some info on that at Bill Pentz site but to sum it up you'd run the largest pipe you can and then only reduce when necessary. Say a 6" main run with drops that may reduce down to 4 but you'll see he recommends keeping the largest diameter hose possible. You'd like to use pipe when possible over the flex hose.

Regarding when to turn it on, I supposed you could "rig" up something to do that but I haven't seen one, usually you turn on the dust collector first and then your dust producer. Some dust collectors come with wireless remotes that make it easier and that's what I use with mine. If you collector doesn't come with one you can find a kit to add that feature to yours from several vendors. (I believe amazon and grizzly both sell one).

[Beechwood Chip]

Unless you have a zillion horsepower dust collector, you need to open and close blast gates as you move from tool to tool. So, you might as well turn on the dust collector with the remote at the same time that you open the blast gate, and turn it off when you close the blast gate. If you look for "X10" or "INSTEON" you'll find relatively inexpensive and simple ways to remotely control a dust collector.

If the dust collector and tool are the same voltage (110 or 240), and they can both plug in at the same place, there are gizmos you can buy that will turn the dust collector on when the tool is turned on. It can handle multiple tools, as long as everything is the same voltage and all the cords run to one location.

Then, if you want to get spendy, there are sensors that detect vibration at the tool and automatically turn on the dust collector. But that seems gimmicky to me.

Finally, you can always go into the shop, put on your hearing protection, turn on the dust collector, and leave it running until you leave.

Another thing to consider is an air cleaner. This is a unit that you run after you leave the shop, on a timer, that picks up the tiny dust that's floating around and filters it out of the air. That way when you come back into the shop you aren't breathing all that dust.