[kp91]

Tool: Dustopper High Efficiency Dust Separator, 12 in. dia, with 2.5 in hose, 36 in. long

Reviewer: Doug KP91
Tool Rating: 9

Picture: see below (and I don't know why, but every picture taken by my iPad shows up upside down!!)

Review:

I converted the dust collection on my CNC from the smaller dust hood to a 2 -1/2 inch connection dust hood to increase efficiency. I cut a lot of Corian and similar products, and the dust would stick in the smaller hood because of the static and foul it up. Going to the larger hose has been a vast improvement in both effectiveness and noise reduction.

My big shop vac has a clean-stream hepa filter on it, and it clogs quickly with the fine dust, and has to be cleaned a lot. To reduce the intervals I have to clean it, I thought I would try this little cyclone that sits on top of a bucket. It was not sold in my store, but I saw it when I was up helping out my parents and had to make a HD run. It was about $35, I already had the bucket.

The unit is pretty simple, you get the separator head and a length of hose to go between the cyclone and the vacuum. You use your hose on the inlet side. Nothing complicated.

I emptied the shop vac, hooked up the separator to the CNC, and took a 2 thousandths cut on the spoil board. After surfacing 8 square feet of MDF, I took a look inside the shop vac and the separator. I think the pictures show the results pretty dramatically.

So far the only complaint I have is that the lid fits almost too tight on the bucket. The effort it takes to get the clips loose is much more than I expected. I am using a 7 gallon bucket, maybe I will try it on a 5 gallon Home Depot bucket and see if it is a little easier.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dustopp...ia-with-2-5-in-hose-36-in-long-HD12/302643445

 

[hawkeye10]

Doug, do you think this is as good as the Dust Deputy? It's quite a bit cheaper and that is good. Thanks for posting this. It will help a lot of us have more clean air.

 

[Herb Stoops]

Doug it looks like it collected all the dust into the Dustopper can,and the Vac was clean? That is a lot more compact than the Dust Deputy, I have the same shop vac and just hate to clean the filter in it. Thanks for posting, never knew about one before.
Herb

 

[kp91]

I can't compare to a dust deputy, but I think it lives up to the promise of catching almost all of the dust

 

[DonkeyHody]

I think you need to do more testing and report back. I like the low-profile design, and the fact that it comes ready to fit a standard bucket, and the fact that it comes with a hose to connect to the vacuum. Even if it's not quite as efficient as the dust deputy, it could still be a great alternative.

As for me, I'm already invested in a dust deputy and a shop-made 17 gallon dustbin to go under it, as well as a lot of piping and valves so mine operates like a central vacuum system. I'm totally sold on the cyclone dust separation concept. I go for months instead of hours between filter cleanings.

 

[MEBCWD]

Doug thanks for the post. I guess this is something new they are selling. Looks like it works good. They are not available in the stores around me but they do offer free shipping to your home.

I do have a dust deputy and have been thinking about getting another one so I ordered one of these and will compare how they work. I know when I got the dust deputy I cleaned the shop vac filters and ran it for about 3 months and it still had plenty of suction. In that time I emptied the DD 3 times when it was 2/3rds full and finally thought I should check the vac. There wasn't very much dust at all on the filter. The dust was 80% to 90% fine sanding dust.

If the Home Depot unit works half as good it will be well worth the cost.

 

[MT Stringer]

Even with a Dust Deputy, I still have a filter bag in the Shop Vac. The filter cartridge never gets dirty.

 

[kp91]

Doug thanks for the post. I guess this is something new they are selling. Looks like it works good. They are not available in the stores around me but they do offer free shipping to your home.

I do have a dust deputy and have been thinking about getting another one so I ordered one of these and will compare how they work. I know when I got the dust deputy I cleaned the shop vac filters and ran it for about 3 months and it still had plenty of suction. In that time I emptied the DD 3 times when it was 2/3rds full and finally thought I should check the vac. There wasn't very much dust at all on the filter. The dust was 80% to 90% fine sanding dust.

If the Home Depot unit works half as good it will be well worth the cost.

Mike,

I can't wait to see the side by side result. You will be the expert on this one!


I was doing my ritual cleaning last night that I do each time before I go to sea, and I sucked up leaves, wood chunks and shavings, no problem. Even though that's not what it's designed for, there doesn't seem to be any difference in the suction of the vacuum with or without it from that 'scientific' test. I didn't get much time to play with it connected to the CNC because my Z axis flex coupler broke... but that's another depressing story.

My original intent was to a cheap, small DC like the HF 1 HP that I could dedicate to the CNC (mainly for dB reasons...) but this is working well enough for now.

 

[MEBCWD]

I also have the Rockler Dust Right Separator so I'll include that in the side by side comparison after I get the Dustopper.

 

[TenGees]

Looks nice. Hope they become available in Canada too.

 

[Herb Stoops]

I also have the Rockler Dust Right Separator so I'll include that in the side by side comparison after I get the Dustopper.

I had a rockler years ago and it collected the shavings from the planer very well ,but the dust from the drum sander ended up in the filter. That is when I put in a full sized DC system. I have a mini cyclone I bought off Banggood for $15.00 I was going to hook up to a bucket for catching the dust off the ROS with a vacuum cleaner.

Herb

 

[sgcz75b]

I saw a youtube video comparing the Dust Deputy and the Home Depot Dustopper. I went with the Dustopper for 40 dollars. Thirty minutes after getting home I had set up the Dustopper with a 25-year-old Craftsman vac, a 50-year-old car creeper, and a milk bottle plastic bin. I was in business.

Works great, Almost nothing gets through to my vac. It's so successful that I'm going to get more for each work station and find used shop vacs for 25 bucks or less. Even new shop vacs can be purchased for 50 bucks on sale.

To me it's cheaper and so much easier to set-up and use than a huge shop-wide dust collector system. If I had one for each tool (table saw, router, band saw, drill press) I still come out cheaper and just as effective in my opinion.

I also use these to clamp hoses onto dust ports. Zip ties w/a quick release. I picked up two more today. About 3 bucks each at HD.

Steve

 

[MEBCWD]

Steve I like those cable ties. I got some similar to them at Lowes several years ago but mine are hinged at the bottom and not flexible. I did break one of mine a couple of months ago when moving tools around the shop so I think I'll buy one or two of these and try them out. I'm not sure what I would do without the ones I have, they are handy.

I did a test between the Dust Deputy, the Rockler Vortex and the Home Depot DustStopper https://www.routerforums.com/shop-safety/135073-dust-separator-comparison.html

I agree that the DustStopper is well worth the money.

 

[DesertRatTom]

I recall search on dust collection and found a unit that had four miniature cyclones on it. I wonder if you could do something like that with these units. I have the Rockler units now on 30 galloon fiber drums. Works quite well, but it would be very simple to convert them to the larger Dust Deputy cyclone in one of the two holes in the lid, and fill the other hole with a clear plastic window so I can more easily check dust levels.

 

[RickKr]

I have the Dust Deputy and love it. I've had a similar experience where the filter bag in the ShopVac does not fill at all. I'm a dust sucking fiend now.

BTW, regarding your photos, are you sure you're holding the iPad they way it thinks is up :wink:?

On a more serious note, I've had similar problems with my iPhone when taking pix landscape and they turn out 90º rotated. I tried rotating them in my PC photo editor, but on one forum, they still turned out 90º off. It has something to do with the embedded properties. So, I have taken to editing them while still on my phone, by rotating them and saving, and then sending them to my PC (I edit on my PC to crop and reduce file size to 640x480 for better handling in web posts) from where I post to the forums. That helps keep things oriented correctly, for me.

Rick

 

[sgcz75b]

It's funny, but the next to last thing I do in the shop at night is vacuum and empty the dust collector. I guess it comes from having a Mom who didn't like leaving dirty dishes in the sink overnight. She found it depressing to get up in the morning to dirty dishes.

The last thing I do is look around the shop and smile. Whether I made something beautiful or screwed up everything, it's still a pleasure to be alive.

Steve