I got an email from HF yesterday to advertise their latest sale. There's a coupon in it for the 2HP dust collector at $169.99 Had I not just given them a bit over $500 for a generator I'd be there buying a new DC. The coupon is good until 1-28-18.
Harbor freight dust collector
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I like mine very well. I have two, one in my small shop another in the Garage where the wood prep gets done. Stick suggest checking out name brand units for long term superior performance, and yet so far, I don't recall seeing any other negative post on the HF unit. Some have replaced the stock impeller with one from Rikon (about $90) to increase flow. A few of us have replaced the bag with a Wynn canister filter (about $160) which lets you vent the air back into the shop. Grizzly makes a canister filter with a built in paddle to knock accumulated sawdust off the filter. I just knock the heavy stuff off by slapping the canister, then blow air back through the outside of the canister to refresh it. You will also want to set up a chip collector to catch larger items, screws, etc. before they bang into the impeller.
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I bet they sell a few of those, that is cheaper than a good Vac, a guy could have one for every machine, and a couple of extras for future machines he hasn't bought yet.
Herb
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I've had mine for about 15 years. First thing I did was get a cyclone type lid for 35 gallon trash can. With that placed close to the collector, it catches the chunks that could damage the impeller plus about 90%+ of the dust. Then, I got rid of those bags and vented the DC to the outside. Doing that saved a ton of space and a whole lot of hassle. Some have said that my system would pull heated air out of the shop and/or create negative pressure in the shop. Not so, in my case.
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Gene if you don't have negative pressure in your shop it's because you have enough air leaking in to replace what the DC is pushing out.
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That is undoubtedly true, Chuck. :smile: Hermetically sealed, it aint.
A caution, though. I don't have a furnace or hot water heater sharing my shop. Although, there is a flameless heater. I've been told that my system could cause cause a pilot light to go out if the shop were tight enough to cause negative pressure. That could be dangerous. My heater's pilot isn't affected.
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If the pilot goes out, doesn't the bimetal controlled valve shut off the gas? I have to manually hold the gas on when lighting the pilot until the valve gets hot enough to stay open by itself. I think that is a standard safety feature.That is undoubtedly true, Chuck.Hermetically sealed, it aint.
A caution, though. I don't have a furnace or hot water heater sharing my shop. Although, there is a flameless heater. I've been told that my system could cause cause a pilot light to go out if the shop were tight enough to cause negative pressure. That could be dangerous. My heater's pilot isn't affected.
Hermetically sealed, it aint. Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
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Yes it should stop the gas flow. The pilot uses very little as it is. Back about roughly 30 years ago when the move to seal buildings better started there were and can still be issues with gas burning appliances because vent fans can reduce the pressure inside a house to the point that flames may not burn properly and those appliances not vent properly.
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Don't worry Ken they run them on sale all the time. :smile:
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What do you mean by "standard" dust collectors?
This is the dust collector most people buy from there.
https://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html
This is the dust collector most people buy from there.
https://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html
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Harbor Freight doesn't manufacture anything. They resale tools mostly or totally from China or Taiwan. "Standard" dust collectors really don't do much to collect dust. They mostly just collect the coarser debris.
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I agree with Chuck, they are designed for housekeeping. not lung saving.
Just saying,
Herb
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Have 2, one with bag,the other with .5 micron Wynn canister filter. They both have chip collectors, one cyclone, the other the Rockler connectors in a 30 gallon fiber drum. The both connect to one machine at a time. If I were buying a filter now, it would be one with a "beater bar" that knocks the lodged sawdust off the inside of the filter. And yes, they are on sale frequently, and if they have a 20-25 percent off coupon, the price drops into the $160 range. These are really will packaged, btw.
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Devil's advocate time. Stick prefers a different brand and thinks in the long term, that the HF unit isn't really going to last. He also speaks about upgrading the HF unit with a replacement metal impeller, which is about $100 from Rikon. I have not done that upgrade, but someone did and it upped the air flow considerably. I won't be making that upgrade. Very happy with the HF machines.
I agree, Stick, if I have a business with employees, payroll taxes, contracts, deadlines, overhead, etc. In that case then buy it ready to run, sized to suit your current and future needs and budget, and go make your product now rather than later.
But if you're on the hobby side or even one-man heavy hobby/small business side and can afford the time and enjoy the process of modifying an existing platform or building from scratch then it's a different story. I have a blast building things from scratch or seeing if I can make something work better by modifying.
My plan was to be modifying our HF single-stage unit by converting it to a two-stage unit this week. But we got an order that is going to take me a couple of weeks to produce and the dust collector mod will have to wait but it's serving the function ok right now so it's not a big deal. I am looking forward to the mod process, though! :grin:
David
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