tomlt
Established Member
..in a good way!
So today I got my brand new Jet JCDC-2 cyclone assembled and tested for the first time and I am well impressed, it aint cheap but it lives upto my expectations which is all I could hope for. So heres my review...
Firstly it's packed really well, it came in a crate about 2ft x 4ft x 4ft and was extremely well packed, even down to how they'd fitted all the stand bits into the polystyrene, so kudos to the packaging guy!
Unboxing was pretty easy, although you do have to trash the very solid box to get all the bits out, most are fine except for the main impeller housing & motor assembly which should really be a 2 person lift, I would estimate it weighs 40-50kg. Assembly instructions were surprisingly good, although you need to make sure you select the right fittings which means referring back to the parts list often to ensure you get the correct lenth bolts. A cheap spanner is included and is perfectly adequate if not a little slow. Assembly went well with me doing all the "easy" bits on my own the evening it arrived, I had to wait until today to get a lift from a friend to help assemble the impeller housing & cyclone onto the stand. The manuals says it's a two person job, and we managed, but it wasn't easy, so a hoist or 3 people (2 to lift & 1 to bolt) would make life easier. Everything else was pretty easy except trying to wrestle the damned flexi hose that connects the bottom of the cyclone to the dust bin lid. This is a total pain in the rear and after much swearing it was finally done, essentially the problem seems to be that the hose naturally likes to remain compressed and it's already a very tight fit over both the cyclone base and the bin lid, this is fiddly and again really needs 2 people.
So whats it like in operation? Simply Awesome, it's much quieter then I expected, somewhere between my festool midi and my old chip extractor, certainly not unpleasant to have in the workshop. The manual dust dislodger was one reason I picked this over the similar axminster machine, although auto filter cleaning sounds good, that noise for 60s everytime I switch on/off would seriously do my nut in. Also I love the fact the JET comes with a remote control, I have all my other extractors on remotes so this feels natural to me, I'm not sure I'll use the timer functions, but you never know.
So I did a couple of tests today and I was very pleased, the amount of suck is massive compared to my Numatic NVD750 or my 1hp Axi/Jet Chip Collector, the latte always struggled on my Jet 260 planer, especially with stringy timber like sycamore. Since my friend was over we re-sawed, edged, planed & thicknessed about a cubic foot or so of sycamore for him, filling the drum a couple of times over in 4hrs. It picks up from both my MJ12-1600 panel saw, Jet 18" bandsaw and Jet 260 planer/thicknesser just great. We even ran 2 machines together and it still performed extremely well, theres a small change in the amount of "suck" with both ports open, but not enough to worry about. Even connected to 10m of 100mm duct running around my workshop there was still significantly more "suck" than with either of my old collectors connected directly.
Anyway heres some photos of the manchine being unboxed and once in its new home, if anyones in the market for a cyclone for a medium sized workshop (30-50m^2) then this is ideal, it doesn't take up too much room, doesn't need massive height and with the castors is easily manoeuvrable on a smoothish floor.
Got some 150mm spiral duct coming next week, so I'll post an update once I get this system fully plumbed in.
So today I got my brand new Jet JCDC-2 cyclone assembled and tested for the first time and I am well impressed, it aint cheap but it lives upto my expectations which is all I could hope for. So heres my review...
Firstly it's packed really well, it came in a crate about 2ft x 4ft x 4ft and was extremely well packed, even down to how they'd fitted all the stand bits into the polystyrene, so kudos to the packaging guy!
Unboxing was pretty easy, although you do have to trash the very solid box to get all the bits out, most are fine except for the main impeller housing & motor assembly which should really be a 2 person lift, I would estimate it weighs 40-50kg. Assembly instructions were surprisingly good, although you need to make sure you select the right fittings which means referring back to the parts list often to ensure you get the correct lenth bolts. A cheap spanner is included and is perfectly adequate if not a little slow. Assembly went well with me doing all the "easy" bits on my own the evening it arrived, I had to wait until today to get a lift from a friend to help assemble the impeller housing & cyclone onto the stand. The manuals says it's a two person job, and we managed, but it wasn't easy, so a hoist or 3 people (2 to lift & 1 to bolt) would make life easier. Everything else was pretty easy except trying to wrestle the damned flexi hose that connects the bottom of the cyclone to the dust bin lid. This is a total pain in the rear and after much swearing it was finally done, essentially the problem seems to be that the hose naturally likes to remain compressed and it's already a very tight fit over both the cyclone base and the bin lid, this is fiddly and again really needs 2 people.
So whats it like in operation? Simply Awesome, it's much quieter then I expected, somewhere between my festool midi and my old chip extractor, certainly not unpleasant to have in the workshop. The manual dust dislodger was one reason I picked this over the similar axminster machine, although auto filter cleaning sounds good, that noise for 60s everytime I switch on/off would seriously do my nut in. Also I love the fact the JET comes with a remote control, I have all my other extractors on remotes so this feels natural to me, I'm not sure I'll use the timer functions, but you never know.
So I did a couple of tests today and I was very pleased, the amount of suck is massive compared to my Numatic NVD750 or my 1hp Axi/Jet Chip Collector, the latte always struggled on my Jet 260 planer, especially with stringy timber like sycamore. Since my friend was over we re-sawed, edged, planed & thicknessed about a cubic foot or so of sycamore for him, filling the drum a couple of times over in 4hrs. It picks up from both my MJ12-1600 panel saw, Jet 18" bandsaw and Jet 260 planer/thicknesser just great. We even ran 2 machines together and it still performed extremely well, theres a small change in the amount of "suck" with both ports open, but not enough to worry about. Even connected to 10m of 100mm duct running around my workshop there was still significantly more "suck" than with either of my old collectors connected directly.
Anyway heres some photos of the manchine being unboxed and once in its new home, if anyones in the market for a cyclone for a medium sized workshop (30-50m^2) then this is ideal, it doesn't take up too much room, doesn't need massive height and with the castors is easily manoeuvrable on a smoothish floor.
Got some 150mm spiral duct coming next week, so I'll post an update once I get this system fully plumbed in.
