I was looking around of the forums but couldn’t find an exact answer on this. I am wondering if it makes more sense to use a dust collector or a dust extractor for a CNC. The key difference being do we want high volume low pressure with a dust collector, or high pressure low volume with a dust extractor. I currently have a Harbor Freight 2HP dust collector but haven’t tried it with the CNC yet but is modified a bit to have a cheap 2 stage cyclone. I was considering getting the Hercules Dust Extractor from Harbor Freight but wasn’t sure if it was the right tool for the job.
If the dust extractor isn’t the right option, then I might take that money and use it for adapting my Harbor Freight dust collector to use a Wynn pleated filter and add a super dust deputy for chip extraction, but that’s a lot more work and cost than the extractor.
I, and a few others, use the Harbor freight dust collector with no issues.
Mine is modified with a custom built Thien baffle separator over a garbage can. it runs through about 20ft of PVC and drops a 2.5" hose down for the CNC.
I can’t tell you what is the “better” option, but I was happy enough with it on the LR3.
I’ve wondered the same thing. I already have a big dust collector, dust extractor, and shop vac. So I’ll do some head to head comparison when I’m done but likely won’t be helpful by then.
You should check out some other filter options. There’s nothing magic about Wynn you can find similarly spec’d filters for much less. I bought mine from filter professor. Check for the material type and surface area then form factor.
There are also some pretty cool options for DIY separator stages although they likely won’t come out that much cheaper than an off the shelf super dust deputy or similar but there might be form factor advantages. Capturing Dust is a youtube channel of a guy who’s only goal is to build the best 3d printed dust collector separation stage he can.
The spec I’d look at very closely is noise. I use my dust collector primarily because the vac I was using was so much noisier than the router itself. I do have a dust extractor from the green company as well, but in the end, the dull roar of the dust collector means I can run with noise canceling headphones rather than over-the-ear industrial hearing protection.
I’ll also add that the higher volume movement of the dust collector seems to do a better job for me than the vac did. Another reason I hadn’t tried the extractor. This is most definitely a YMMV subjective opinion though. It wasn’t drastically different for me between the two. I couldn’t go with the dust collector if was worse though.
I need to look at a filter for my DC though. Filter Prof looks more reasonable than the others I’ve looked at.
I made mine with spare plywood I had laying around. Added an optional clear side so I could see it in action, but the thin Polycarbonate sheet wasn’t that expensive either.
It takes a bit of work (not too bad), but if price is a consideration, this can be much more attractive than a ~$200 off the shelf option
I’ve been using this setup for more than a year and the separation is great.
I was unaware of this company. I’ll have to check them out and see if they have a suitable one for cheaper.
I’m sure it’s cheaper, however I already have a trash can separator lid for a 2 stage separator. The problem I have with it is it isn’t very good at separating the chips. I have a planer and a jointer and both have big chips that go straight through into the bag once the trash can gets just a bit more than half full. Same with fine dust, it doesn’t really seem to grab that fine dust very well. I have a regular dust deputy for my shopvac and that thing works wonderfully for all the chips and dust and barely anything gets into the shopvac itself until the bucket below the separator is absolutely full. You separator may be a fair bit better than mine so I’ll have to take a more thorough look.
I’ve looked at this guy before but he’s got a couple more updates on his system that prove its efficiency. Seems like a possibly more affordable option to get something close to the Super Dust Deputy but with more work. Not sure I like the collection bucket nor really the form factor as much though.
Cost is certainly never the only parameter to consider, but was meant only in direct response to the notion that it’s not worth it for the money you save. Some people have more time than spare cash, and it sometimes is absolutely worth it to DIY as a hobbyist.
I spent an afternoon in my garage, drinking a beer, watching football, and building a dust separator. That was worth the cash savings to me.
There’s also a cool factor, to me, to be able to say “I built that”.
I tried a similar thing, and it was pretty bad. that’s why I went this route.
I use it with a jointer, planer, table saw, miter saw, and the CNC. I have found 0 chips that have made it past. Fine dust is hard to judge, but after a year I opened the bag there was no buildup on it.
I’ve been very happy with it and have run at least 4 full trashcans worth of sawdust through it.
Even when it got full to the top where the chips stacked into the hole, they just kept swirling in the cyclone and didn’t make it into the bag.
I made a thein baffle and have it venting outside. I’ve been cutting mdf and it seems to me working ok. Some is definitely hating past the baffle but out the window it goes.
I spent a bit of time just looking into the principles of the Thien baffle and what makes it effective.
Angle of suction, degree range of opening, etc.
There’s quite a few different designs out there. I just searched a few and took some ideas from a few, and changed them to make it easy to build with the tools I had on hand at the time.
