Hello to all fellow woodworkers, My name is Jim and I have been a health and safety professional in the fields of healthcare and education for most of my life. Retirement is just around the corner (June) so I look forward to doing more in the shop. I have been woodworking since I was a kid when I shared a workbench with my Dad. He taught me the value of trying to do things for yourself. Needless to say it has become a hobby I would like to continue with. I have a 16' x 22' shop attached to my garage which is very comfortable and I have collected some good tools over the years. I also plan on purchasing a good dust collection system and would appreciate any advice anyone can offer based on thier experience. I live in Ontario Canada so if you have some recommendations, I would love to hear them. Thanks to all, I look forward to being a part of this forum

Welcome, Jim!

You can get a lot done in a 16' X 22' shop.

My biggest problem is, I do Metal and Woodworking, in a barn not a whole lot bigger.
24' X 32' and I'm still running out of room.

Sounds like you have a bunch of high quality tools, don't forget to post lots of pics.

Hi Jim. Welcome to the forum.

There are numerous strings on dust collection.

You can get 4 inch clear plastic, flexible hose from Rockler and most other suppliers. I have a somewhat smaller shop and found the 21 foot hose perfect to take around to every machine as I use it. Another 10 feet of this hose will be needed to run from a chip collector to your blower.

Harbor Freight has a large blower that works well for me. ULead has 30 gallon and larger fiber drums you can use to collect chips before then enter the blower. Rockler has a pair of ports meant to go through holes you cut in the metal top of the drum, one sucks dust in (where the larger chips drop down into the drum, the lightest dust particles are sucked out by the blower and blown into a filter bag.

Read the threads on dust collection.

Having build two of these (my planer and jointer are in the garage, the shop is too small for them), if I had a larger shop such as yours with all machines in it, I would have been better off buying a smaller dust collection unit. Delta and many other manufacturers make them. They seem expensive at first, but you only need a couple of attachments and ports to make them work. Plan on $500 to $800 for all the attachments, ports, hoses, floor vacuum attachments and whatever collection unit you buy.

I'm a throat cancer survivor so I think dust collection is a very serious issue and I'd make sure you don't stint on it. You may also wish to purchase or make a dust filter that hangs from the ceiling to keep the air clear of dust--there are always particles that get away and a filter really helps.

I found a battery operated mask that blows air in through a filter--which is great because your glasses don't fog that way and positive pressure keeps out stray dust. For quick cuts I keep a box of surgical type dust masks that have elastic top and bottom that stretch over your ears.

Dust collection took far more attention and money than I figured but it is pretty dangerous to try to do without. Check the forum for dust collection and there is plenty of help available there. Or search for DesertRatTom for a far more extensive and detailed description of a home made system.

Welcome to the forum I see you live in Ontario where about I live in Milton area Andy

Hi Jim,
Welcome to the forum. I live in western Quebec near the Ontario border, how close are you? I made the mistake that many woodworkers make when I bought my dust collector. I couldn't afford a big one so I bought a 1 HP unit. It actually works great if you don't plan on having it stationary and using a tube system with ports. It's obviously much less expensive but you must move it to each machine as required which can be a pain to say the least. I bought a King and paid under $200 a few years ago. The King brand is much better than many people claim. I use my tools as a hobby not to earn my living and have never once had a problem with any of them. My biggeat router is a King and has a 2 1/4 HP motor and I only paid $99. A circular that came in yesterday has it still at the same price and I've had mine for 5 years +. I agree that an air filtration system is also a necessity. I don't have one yet but it's next on my wish list. So, if you want a stationary dust collector invest in at least a 1 1/2 or 2 HP unit that can handle the task.
Have fun,
Dan

Thank you Harrison for your warm welcome. I understand how you feel, I beleive that we all feel we could always use more space and that we never have enough. To my advantage, I still have the three bay garage to use if I ever need to make something large. My father in law' s shop is very nice and everything is stored nicely. All his large tools are on castors so that he can move them around when needed...needless to say, he is very organised !. Trained as a tool and diemaker/machinest he thinks in small scale and everything is maticulous. Unfortunately his shop hasn't seen much activity lately has he is suffering from Alzheimers. He no longer has the passion or the confidence he once had. This disease has stripped him of one of his great passions in life.

One of my first projects will be to redo the shop. I will be bumping out the shop to take over the garden shed. I bought a beautiful used garden shed for cheaper than I could build one. It is solid wood 13' x 9'. It is a salt box style finished in 5/4, 1 x 10 cedar in a board and batton finish. I had to pay a buddy a case of beer to float it down from a small town about 30 minutes away, all in all it cost $600.00 beer and gas included!!! a great bargain indeed.

Again, thanks for the welcome. I will send pictures of the shop

Good morning Dan

right now, I live on a farm in the Elora area near Guelph/ Waterloo. I was born and raised in Ottawa and lived in the Ottawa Valley (Pembroke area) for 12 years. I try to get back to that area a couple of times a year to visit friends. I still have lots of family left in Ottawa so I go up usually once a month to visit my Mom. I also get up to my sisters cottage at Lac Gauvereau in the Wakefied area at least once a summer. I have been told that when I retire that I could make a living doing small jobs for her friends. I guess there is a shortage of people wanting to take on small jobs in that area. I went up 2 summers ago on what was supposed to be a 2 week holiday. I ended up rebuilding a deck for a friend who was desperate and couldn't find anyone to do the work. She was supposed to host a family reunion and was thinking of cancelling it because she was woried about the deck. Several of her friends asked me if I could work for them while I was in the area...something to consider for the future maybe. Thanks for your info, I found an older 1 HP Mastercraft dust collector available for $50.00. When I spoke to the gentleman, he admitted that it just didn't serve his purpose. He found it too small and it didn't have enough draw. He also found that moving it around his shop was a pain and very inconvenient. He felt that it would be good for one or 2 pieces of equipment that were close together. I am looking at a system from Lee Valley, however I have not made any decisions yet and wanted to hear from others experiences first. I only want to purchase one system so I would like it to be a good one. I can wait and am in no hurry to get it

Hi Andy, we are very close geograhically. I live on a farm in the Elora (Guelph/Waterloo) area and travel to Burlington every day. I will retire from full time work at the end of this school year and l will look for something after that. I am not to sure what I will do then, however, I do plan to spend lots of time in the shop.

Thanks James, I look forward to being on the forum and I hope that I can be an active participant.