Dust and Chip Collection 'System' - Again.... Sorry!

[CaptainBarnacles]

Hi All,

I know that there has been an almost immeasurable amount of discussion regarding dust and chip collection here before - I have read a great deal of it already. That said, I apologise if I am covering old ground. If anyone can point me to specific posts/threads I'd be very grateful as I have spent many hours trawling for information and not yet found a definitive answer.

I have a workshop that's about the size of a four car garage at the moment but I'll be relocating the workshop over the next year or so and I may have to downsize slightly. I run a Kity 619 saw, Kity 608 P/T, 19" Jet/Axi bandsaw and I want to set up a system that I can use with all these machines and will grow to accommodate at least one more machine. I currently use an old Scheppach 1/2hp two bag dust re-circulator on the machinery (I drag it around to each machine in turn, it gets very tedious!) and a Festool CT33 with a homemade cyclone separator for all my handheld power tools and router table etc.

When I relocate there's a chance that I will also upgrade my machinery so I need to consider that in my spec.

So I am looking for a 4" ducted system, wall mounted would be good but not essential, I like quiet running machines so induction motors would be preferable but I could baffle any noisy machine if I have to. I can likely vent it outside as I don't have any close neighbours although in winter I would prefer not to. It has to service 3 or 4 machines effectively, not take up the entire workshop, have the option of fine filtering and whilst I realise that my list of requirements probably can't be achieved I'll throw in one more for good measure - it would be nice if it were reasonably low-ish power consumption, say 1.5kw max.

I have set aside around £500-600 for the extractor (possibly slightly more if I can justify it - I know, I know, cheaper than a new pair of lungs etc.) plus whatever I need for pipework and fittings. I have been looking at these options:

CamVac 286W 4" Twin Motor with a cyclone separator
Record DX4000 or DX5000 with a cyclone separator
JET DC-1100a with a fine filter - possibly with a cyclone separator later
Scheppach WOOVA 3 with a fine filter and a cyclone separator
Startrite MDE-HCE with a fine filter and a cyclone separator

It seems that for the type of machines I am going to connect to the system the CamVac and Record would provide insufficient flow to to be effective, yet on the Record Power website it says "This unit is ideal for users wanting to run a full system linked to several machines.". The flow rates are much lower on the brush motor powered machines than on the induction motor powered machines so how can they provide enough 'suck' for a full system? Will any of these options provide enough 'suck' for this sort of system or do I need to be looking at a different class of machine? Can I hope to get even close to satisfying my list of requirements for this budget?

I am leaning towards the Jet or the Startrite at the moment as they seem well made and they shift a fair amount of air. I really don't want to be in the situation where I am looking to upgrade again in 18 months time though.

One more thought occurred, would it be better to buy two smaller extractors and run two ducted systems, one in each half of the workshop, or should I just look at one big machine?

Again, apologies for overlap with other threads. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Paul.

 

[siggy_7]

If going for a chip collector, I would suggest at least 2HP. Most of the cheaper machines on the market are 3/4 to 1hp and don't have sufficient oomph in my experience - my Dad has a low powered Axminster machine that struggles with bigger machines (table saw, planer thicknesser) even though it's connected directly to the machine. I presume you are looking to use your ducted system with high-flow machinery only and keep your Festool vac for power tools? In which case I would rule out the brush motor vacuum type machines, because the flow rates are much lower and the noise is much higher. As for running this type of extractor on a ducted system, I can't see any real problems - I run a DX4000 connected directly to machines, but the pressure losses over longer lengths of large diameter tubing aren't that large, particularly at lower flows, and in any case the HPLV machines are better equipped to deal with losses because they develop higher stall pressures so the performance won't be impaired by running connected to a ducted system.

If you go down the chip collector route, try to avoid using a filter if you can as they add a big pressure drop to the system which impacts quite a bit on performance of chip extractor type machines, use a good cyclone instead to capture fines. Regarding the suck that a blower generates, all chip extractors I've seen run at 3,000 RPM - for the same blower speed, the suction pressure produced is directly proportional to the rotor diameter so I would get the most powerful, biggest diameter blower you can get. I'm led to believe the SIP 3HP extractor is good value (01954), although I've not run one myself. Costco sell this for £200.