CamVac 63mm or upgrade to 100mm?

[RickG]

Hi all,
I'm a wood turner, but may get into routing sometime soon. So I have a lathe, bandsaw (50mm extract) and, maybe using a Triton router soon. Right now I own a wall mounted CamVac twin motor with a 63mm extract. I don't have it in use as I bought it used and I need to buy a hose. I also need to find a space on the wall to mount the thing - which could be a challenge in itself!

What I'm considering is to sell the CamVac I have and buy a smaller one with 100mm hose, but this would cost a bot more.

My question is: does the 100mm hose give you much better suction?

I've had a Record Power DX1000 in the past; with 100mm hose and wasn't too impressed with the suction on that.

 

[Droogs]

in laymans terms the type of extraction you need is based on the type of waste you produce. for instance a router produces a lot of very small particles and therefore needs a very high speed of extraction to ensure that they are all collected up and gotten rid of. This is best done with a smaller opening sucking a lot of air that will pull the dust particles in through the venturi effect. whereas a thickness planer produces lots of large pieces of waste in comparison and this is best removed with a tube that is large enough to accomodate it without getting block and due to the waste acting similarly to a feather a more gentle speed of air will suffice to coax it into the tube.

So the 63mm is better for your router

hth

 

[Astrobits]

I have the single motor CamVac with 63mm hose and it performs well with my thicknesser and routers via 63mm ducting round the workshop. Can't remember when I last had a blockage.
Nigel

 

[Eric The Viking]

It's a question really of air velocity at the collection point and in the pipe. You should be able to contrive a lot of airflow at the router table, but it may not be a good idea to have a wider pipe, as the air will slow down, and not be able to carry as much dust with it.

Personally I would stick with 63mm for now and see what happens. FWIW, my P/T uses wider pipe (100mm-ish), and the concertina flexi I use clogs often. I"m thinking of actually reducing the diameter, for that reason.

 

[Sideways]

Don't waste your time. Even a 3 motor cam vac can't create enough airflow to propely clear 100mm hose.

 

[RogerS]

Don't waste your time. Even a 3 motor cam vac can't create enough airflow to propely clear 100mm hose.

Nonsense.

My twin motor Camvac is very happy sucking all the debris that my Hammer chucks out.

 

[RickG]

Many thanks guys, I think I'll get the 63mm hose on order and get this "sucker" working!

All posts appreciated.

 

[Chippymint]

I've had the Camvac 386 twin motor (2kw 63mm outlet) for many years and its been an excellent bit of kit. I use it with routers, radial arm saw and sanding equipment. It has three stage filtering and to keep noise low it has special hoses connected to the exhaust ports - all great for my health. I also used to use it for extracting chips from my 10 inch planer thicknesser which it did fairly well - I connected the 63mm to a 100mm connector at the machine. I know have a central collector system for extracting dust etc from high volume equipment e.g. planner, thicknesser, table saw, spindle moulder etc, this is a great way to deal with dust from these machines. That said the Camvac is commendable. For me my Camvacs waste capacity is limited and it struggled to cope with two machines at the same time and not good with long pipe runs - static pressure becomes greater. In a nut-shell nothing wrong with the Camvac, you just have to recognise it's limitations and strengths. I would say make sure you follow the golden rules by minimising the length of hose flex, use as much straight pipe as possible and with as fewer bends as possible. Be prepared to experiment and possibly modify/improve dust collection at source. Good luck. Steve

 

[Robbo3]

I only use extraction when sanding on the lathe. Even if the extractor was powerful enough to catch all the shavings the collector would have to be massive to cope. The lathe has a deep shelf to catch the shavings which are brushed straight into a garden waste sack with a frame to keep the mouth open. On a single 300mm bowl I can often be knee deep in shavings.