Dust collectors to stay away from?

[Tom Frei]

Looking for a dust collector for a thickness sander, any models to stay away from? I see in my area Deltas and Jets mainly.

[Charlie Schultz]

I have the Jet 1100CK (> 10 yrs old) and it's been good (the pleated canister was a big step up from the cloth bag). It might be overkill if you're only going to use it for a sander. I think there's lots of info out in cyberspace on rolling your own cyclone-type collector.

[Bob Gramann]

I have the biggest Penn State that will run on 120 volts with a 1 micron canister that I added later to replace the bags. The canister increased the performance of the unit by several times and also reduced the dust in my shop even though I already had 1 micron bags. The Penn State collector has been good for me. I've had it for 9 years with no problems. I rewired my shop for 220 a couple of years ago. If I had it to do over, I'd probably spring for a bigger unit with a cyclone and a .5 micron filter. The convenience of emptying the collected dust is worth a little money, too. With the bags supplied with my collector, emptying was a big mess. The canister changed that since the dust now drops into a plastic bag which is discarded with the dust.

[Tom Frei]

Can you line the bag with a plastic bag, and just have a hole or 2 in it, (then duct tape it shut?)

There is a jet with 650CFM for 250.00, is that enough volume? Will that handle a 1mcr filter?

[Bob Gramann]

The filter bag needs its whole surface to pass the amount of air that the dust collector fan generates. As it fills, the air volume goes down. My collector had an upper and lower bag. Changing it involved putting a canister on top (with 4 times the surface area of both bags) and replacing the lower bag with a large plastic bag. The filter canister had a scraper that would shake it and drop the upper dust into the lower bag. I don't know the Jet unit. Whatever volume you have, you'll want more later. The more air you can move, the less dust escapes around the tool into your shop. I'm sure that you can work the sander with a 650 cfm collector. You'll probably want more later.

[David King]

I have the little Grizzly 650 which has been going strong for 20 years, I changed the bags 3 times going finer and finer each time. I ended up with the Grizzly .3 micron bags which I'm not sure they sell anymore but they have been fantastic for the money.
I also have a JDS 2100-CK which is a sort of hybrid cyclone that sort of works. It pulls a lot of air through but the cyclone seems to send much of the dust into the filter which I have to vacuum out at regular intervals. It also sends a lot of dust into the air although I've never been about to track down where the leaks are coming from. It's somewhat portable but it takes an awful lot of room in the shop and doesn't really seem suitable for a remote system which is why I got it. For the current price I can't say I'd recommend it.

As a budget system I'd recommend a used DC1100 or 650, the Wynn Environmental canister and a Oneida Super Dust Deputy cyclone separator and figure out an efficient and compact way to connect them together.

[Greg Robinson]

It's very tempting to rename this discussion "Dust collectors that don't suck"...

[Bob Menzel]

Another vote for adding a cyclonic separator upstream of your vac. I 'rolled my own' and it really sucks. Literally none of the flour makes it to the vac's filter so there's no loss of suction.

[Tom Frei]

Well, I use a 5 gallon bucket as a sort of poor mans cyclonic separator, and it works like a charm. I don't even have room for the *$(&@(#@ sander. What am I doing? Ah, well, back to the wood again.

[Bob Menzel]

I don't even have room for the *$(&@(#@ sander

LOL. Same here, it's a real beast. That's when you know you have a serious addiction to this 'sport'.

[Tom Frei]

Well, I got me one! What do you final sand tops with through this? 150? And where is a good place to get rolls? Looks like you can buy a reduction unit for the dust vent.

http://www.amazon.com/Woodstock-W1044-4 ... _hi_text_b

[Bob Gramann]

I have bought rolls that I cut myself and the expensive precut rolls. I've tried 60 through 120 grits. The 60 and 80 hog material off pretty fast but leave grooves that are hard to sand out. Right now, I'm using 100. It's a good compromise on getting to the thickness and leaving a surface that's easy to hand sand or finish with a random orbital sander. I've had mixed experience with the rolls that I cut myself. In spite of ad copy that claims they're for a drum sander, some have come with paper too thin to last on the drum. At the moment, I'm being lazy and using precut rolls (that always seem to be thick enough) from Klingspor. The stock number for the 100 grit is DT31818.

When I do a top, I stop 5 or 10 thousandths from the final thickness and install the rosette. After the glue from the rosette installation dries for a couple of weeks, then I take the top to near final thickness, leaving a bit for smoothing after the guitar is assembled. (Remember to let the top joint dry for a couple of weeks before you sand or you'll have a depression at the joint later when it shrinks.)

[Chuck Tweedy]

My experience with 60 & 80 grit is the same as Bob's.
I now use them to hog-off material, but you need to stop a good 30 to 40 thou short and switch to a finer grit.
And, like Bob, I'm using 100 as a "super utility" grit that can both take off some material and leave a reasonable surface.

I use the 3" cloth backed rolls I get from McMaster-Carr (http://www.mcmaster.com/#sanding-rolls/=h17dao).
I have a Jet 16/32 and use an old Jet roll as a template to cut the ends.
The stuff from McMaster really works well - I'm getting better life out of it than the Jet stuff (Could be that I'm better at using the tool now, but it's hard to say)

[David King]

Unless I'm dealing with a very sticky wood like ABW or cocobolo I go right to 180 grit and clean it between every pass. Drum sanders leave much deeper grooves than belt sanders. The only way to avoid this is to start finer or make a mechanism to slide the wood from side to side as it passes under the drum. Same principle as an oscillating spindle sander.

I get my sandpaper from Klingspor woodworking store. It's not the cheapest but seems to hold up well. They often have deep discounts on "overstock" rolls.

[Tom Frei]

You mean get one of those big rubber erasers? Anyone not like this brand sanding rolls?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000DD2JU/ref ... B0000DD2JU

[Tom Frei]

Ok, can you use 3" rolls on the Delta? Anyone know?

[Bob Gramann]

Mine came with and uses 2" rolls. I would guess that a 3" roll would require more cutting at the edges to get the ends into the clips and the outer edges even with the drum edge. I don't know if that would make the belt attachment significantly weaker and the belt more likely to tear. You could experiment by making a wrapping paper belt and see how it affects the geometry.

[David King]

The 3" rolls are for Performax machines with a 5" dia drum. The 4" wide rolls are for the General dual drum sanders

[Tom Frei]

Ok, thanks...

[Chris Flynn]

the only dust collector to stay away from is " no dust collector" even if you use a shop vac it is better that none, I build cabinets, and furniture for a living, and dust a a major problem, I use a grizzly with a trash can separator and dump the thing once every two days. take care or you lungs, because my mentor did not have the technology that we have today for dust collection and he can hardly draw a breath. so I guess what I am saying is anything thing that works is better than none. sorry just passing the butt chewing I get from my mentor. HA.