New Dust Collector

[Rockytime]

Well not exactly new since I had it connected previously. It is now moved to a shelf above the garage. Attached are a couple of photos. Now it is just collecting from my lathe. I plan on putting in a gate to collect from the scroll saw. I'm putting my unused Dust Deputy up for sale on Craig's List. Anyone in Denver want a $50 Dust Deputy?

[hawkeye10]

Les why don't you connect the Dust Deputy to you dust collector and you will have to empty the dust collector maybe never. I have mine hooked to my shop vac and have never emptied the shop vac. 

[Rockytime]

Biggest reason is my Hawk has to go in  the empty space. My shop is 8'X14" and must accommodate lathe, Hawk, drill press, band saw, horizontal/vertical band saw, pen assembly bench and small work bench. Also the Hawk is so close to the DC that a gate is simple to do and I don't have the noise of a vacuum.

[lawson56]

Looks like a Nice setup.

[CharleyL]

I have my Dust Deputy in the attic of my shop. It separates the sawdust from the air just before my re-purposed Whole House Central Vacuum unit that is also in my shop attic next to the Dust Deputy. It would seem like you could mount your Dust Deputy in your garage next to your vacuum in a similar manor.  I have emptied the container under my Dust Deputy 4 times since installing it about 2 years ago, and there has never been anything in the central vacuum's container or the fabric filter in the vacuum when I checked them. Most of the sawdust collected is from my two scroll saws, but I also vacuum my drill presses and the smaller debris and sawdust off my shop floor, as well as vacuum my cars and trucks using the original long vacuum hose connected to an outside mounted vacuum port that connects into the line running up to the Dust Deputy. The real plus of having the Dust Deputy in the line ahead of the vacuum is that you never loose suction as the sawdust is collected, because the fabric filter never sees any of the dust.

Before adding the Dust Deputy to my system, I could lose 70% of my vacuum flow in just a few hours of scroll sawing because the fabric filter was plugging up. Now, with the Dust Deputy in place I can go months before even checking the vacuum filter and dumping the sawdust from the Dust Deputy container, which I have now replaced with a 20 gallon steel drum. With this steel drum in place, I probably won't need to dump it for a year or more at a time. The exhaust from my vacuum goes outdoors, so even the micro fine dust that might get past the Dust Deputy and the fabric filter in the vacuum never gets back into my shop, and having the vacuum in the attic made it so quiet that I had to mount a light in the shop ceiling to tell me when the vacuum was running.  I left it on a few times.

Since you already own a Dust Deputy, using it just seems like a no-brainer to me.  It's a whole lot easier and less messy to dump a bucket of sawdust than to remove a fabric bag filter, dump it out, and then have to turn it inside out and shake it or blow it out with compressed air to clean it.  In your case, the micro fine dust that gets through the filter bag is going to get all over your garage and the cars in the garage. Why not let the Dust Deputy remove most or all of it before it can even get through the filter bag.

Charley 

[OCtoolguy]

3 hours ago, CharleyL said:

I have my Dust Deputy in the attic of my shop. It separates the sawdust from the air just before my re-purposed Whole House Central Vacuum unit that is also in my shop attic next to the Dust Deputy. It would seem like you could mount your Dust Deputy in your garage next to your vacuum in a similar manor.  I have emptied the container under my Dust Deputy 4 times since installing it about 2 years ago, and there has never been anything in the central vacuum's container or the fabric filter in the vacuum when I checked them. Most of the sawdust collected is from my two scroll saws, but I also vacuum my drill presses and the smaller debris and sawdust off my shop floor, as well as vacuum my cars and trucks using the original long vacuum hose connected to an outside mounted vacuum port that connects into the line running up to the Dust Deputy. The real plus of having the Dust Deputy in the line ahead of the vacuum is that you never loose suction as the sawdust is collected, because the fabric filter never sees any of the dust.

Before adding the Dust Deputy to my system, I could lose 70% of my vacuum flow in just a few hours of scroll sawing because the fabric filter was plugging up. Now, with the Dust Deputy in place I can go months before even checking the vacuum filter and dumping the sawdust from the Dust Deputy container, which I have now replaced with a 20 gallon steel drum. With this steel drum in place, I probably won't need to dump it for a year or more at a time. The exhaust from my vacuum goes outdoors, so even the micro fine dust that might get past the Dust Deputy and the fabric filter in the vacuum never gets back into my shop, and having the vacuum in the attic made it so quiet that I had to mount a light in the shop ceiling to tell me when the vacuum was running.  I left it on a few times.

Since you already own a Dust Deputy, using it just seems like a no-brainer to me.  It's a whole lot easier and less messy to dump a bucket of sawdust than to remove a fabric bag filter, dump it out, and then have to turn it inside out and shake it or blow it out with compressed air to clean it.  In your case, the micro fine dust that gets through the filter bag is going to get all over your garage and the cars in the garage. Why not let the Dust Deputy remove most or all of it before it can even get through the filter bag.

Charley 

Certainly makes sense to me. Especially since you already have made the investment.

 

Ray

 

[OCtoolguy]

How does a person know if a shop vac is rated for constant use? I have been trying to get that question answered but so far have not been able to. Does a person have to spend a ton of cash to get one that is rated for constant use or are there low to mid priced units available?

 

Ray

 

[Rockytime]

5 hours ago, CharleyL said:

I have my Dust Deputy in the attic of my shop. It separates the sawdust from the air just before my re-purposed Whole House Central Vacuum unit that is also in my shop attic next to the Dust Deputy. It would seem like you could mount your Dust Deputy in your garage next to your vacuum in a similar manor.  I have emptied the container under my Dust Deputy 4 times since installing it about 2 years ago, and there has never been anything in the central vacuum's container or the fabric filter in the vacuum when I checked them. Most of the sawdust collected is from my two scroll saws, but I also vacuum my drill presses and the smaller debris and sawdust off my shop floor, as well as vacuum my cars and trucks using the original long vacuum hose connected to an outside mounted vacuum port that connects into the line running up to the Dust Deputy. The real plus of having the Dust Deputy in the line ahead of the vacuum is that you never loose suction as the sawdust is collected, because the fabric filter never sees any of the dust.

Before adding the Dust Deputy to my system, I could lose 70% of my vacuum flow in just a few hours of scroll sawing because the fabric filter was plugging up. Now, with the Dust Deputy in place I can go months before even checking the vacuum filter and dumping the sawdust from the Dust Deputy container, which I have now replaced with a 20 gallon steel drum. With this steel drum in place, I probably won't need to dump it for a year or more at a time. The exhaust from my vacuum goes outdoors, so even the micro fine dust that might get past the Dust Deputy and the fabric filter in the vacuum never gets back into my shop, and having the vacuum in the attic made it so quiet that I had to mount a light in the shop ceiling to tell me when the vacuum was running.  I left it on a few times.

Since you already own a Dust Deputy, using it just seems like a no-brainer to me.  It's a whole lot easier and less messy to dump a bucket of sawdust than to remove a fabric bag filter, dump it out, and then have to turn it inside out and shake it or blow it out with compressed air to clean it.  In your case, the micro fine dust that gets through the filter bag is going to get all over your garage and the cars in the garage. Why not let the Dust Deputy remove most or all of it before it can even get through the filter bag.

Charley 

Hi Charley, Thank you for your response and suggestions. Unfortunately the edge of the garage roof is over the shop so no attic space. The shelf the vacuum is on is too close to the ceiling for the Dust Deputy to stand upright. Also I do not worry too much about dust as I only spend a couple hours a week scrolling, spend a little time turning pens, a little time finishing a small steam engine and work nearly full time repairing antique clocks. I don't have a lot of time to spend in my shop. My clock shop and machine tools are in the basement where most of my time is spent. My dust collector has been in the garage for several years sitting on the floor, now it is up on a shelf out of the way. It has never been a problem.

 

[CharleyL]

My previous post was directed to member "rockytime" and his decision to sell his Dust Deputy before even trying to use it.

My Dust Deputy was bought used from a commercial wood shop that was closing down. It cost me $35. I had been planning to  buy a new Dust Deputy when this one became available, so this was just a cost saving for me. 

Before getting the Dust Deputy, I had been using the same  re-purposed Whole House Vacuum System, but I was having to clean the cloth filter and container of the vacuum unit about once an hour when I was  scroll sawing. These Dust Deputy's really work, and are surprising in how efficient they are at separating the dust from the vacuum  air stream.  Even if you don't vent your vacuum system to the outside, you will see a major improvement in how well your vacuum keeps working at it's peak, long after your filter bag in your vacuum would have been plugged up.

I know several people who have  Shop Vacs running for hours at a time in their shops and they have done this for several years. The motors in Shop Vacs are a very similar design  to the motor in my Central Vacuum System, hand drills, circular saws, etc. except for size.  They are all brush type universal motors, and eventually the brushes will wear out in all of them. The bearings may go bad in them too, but most of these motors will last many years before this happens. If you service these motors by cleaning and changing their bearings and brushes before they wear out, they will most likely last a a lifetime. If you fail to do this maintenance, you will be eventually  be replacing the motor. Shop Vacs are now designed so that the cooling air for the motor is from the outside of the case and not part of the vacuum / dust air stream. Years ago when vacuum cleaners and shop vacs passed the dirty air stream through the motor to cool it the motors didn't last anywhere near as long as they do now. I know one woodworker who presently has several shop vacs installed under his shop, one for each source of sawdust, and all of them have no filters in them. He vents these shop vacs through over size pipes into the wooded area next to his shop. He can get away with this, but most of us, including me,  have close neighbors who wouldn't approve of us doing this with all of our sawdust. The air coming out of my Central Vacuum that I vent outdoors is cleaner than the exhaust from most central vacuums in houses, because the Dust Deputy is removing more than the fabric filter in my  vacuum ever did without the Dust Deputy. Since most central vacuums in homes also vent to the outdoors, their micro fine  household dust is getting blown outside, where most of mine is not.

Charley

 

 

[CharleyL]

Leave the vacuum unit on the garage shelf. Just pipe the vacuum line from your saws into the Dust Deputy, even locate the Dust Deputy down on the garage floor or wherever it will be convenient to empty when it is needed, and then run the line from the top of the Dust Deputy up to the vacuum unit, wherever it is. It will then be so much easier and cleaner to empty the bucket under the Dust Deputy than it is to clean the filter bag on your vacuum unit. You will likely never have to clean this filter bag again if you do this.  

Charley