Vlog #9: Shirts, Shop, Tool Giveaway #1

Show Notes

  • My dust collector situation sucks
  • My wife has planned a crap load of projects for the house
  • The shop will be moved around soon, I’ll cover everything in a future article
  • My planer setup
  • Go Lions!

As I said in the video, I’m giving away my Hitachi random orbital sander. It has a new hook and loop pad on the bottom. It works great but vibrates a little bit more than I can stand. If you would like it for free you can enter in the form below. No email addresses collected will be shared or used in any way other than to contact the winner. I’m definitely not going to use your email to sign you up for Viagra coupons. Due to the nature of this small giveaway I will not ship to to anywhere outside of the continental USA. Sorry!


53 COMMENTS

  1. Put a doggie door in the bottom of the garage door for your exhaust. And you didn’t even mention the Tigers!?! Four time AL Central Champions! #alwaysatiger

    • Not a huge baseball fan….but….GO TIGERS!!

      I don’t want to make any destructive modifications to the house or garage. Hopefully in 5-10 years I can build a stand alone shop in the back of the property.

  2. Jay,
    I believe there is a canister filter you can get for your model of dust collector. its a Wynn Enviromental 35A series filter. I think that might be the cheap approach so you dont need to do that much work. I personally dont have a true dust collector. I use a big shop vac and then i also have an air filtration thing i got cheap on craigslist. Then i can run the air filtration while i am not in the shop. I am working to get a timer wired up so i can then set it and let it run for a bit while i am gone. It works great for fine dust for sure. My big issue is that all my tools create a lot of dust and I dont want to take time to make it so they are better at dust collecting.
    Hope this info helps.

    On a side note i am enjoying your pictures for the VLOG videos. also stay positive on the Lions. You never know!!

    Jared

    • Hey Jared. My Thien baffle isn’t efficient enough to just hook up to a filter. Without better separation my filter would just constantly get clogged. And I am positive with the Lions. I just know their track record of shooting themselves in the foot!

  3. I have a Harbor Freight DC which I only used the motor and impeller mounted on top of a Clear Vue cyclone with two stacked canister filters. I took only a small amount of engineering to attach the motor to the Clear Vue.

  4. If I had a choice, and place, I would go with Clear Vue cyclones also. They use the Wynn filters. The 1800 series seems to be their flagship, but you may not want do that much. Talk with them (call and you CAN talk to a person), and see what they suggest for your setup.

  5. lol you sound like a Vikings fan!

    Anyway i did design my own DC, but i am using a motor from Harbor Freight. I seriously considered buying the 2HP DC from Harbor freight and modding that, but i had my impeller already built for the homemade one. My suggestion would be to buy one like that then really consider building your own cyclone or Thien baffle separator and upgrading the filter bag to a canister or 1 micron bag. Cyclones are insanely expencive yet rather easy to make from flexible clear plastic, and a Thien Baffle is even more so.

  6. I know you said you didn’t want to put any holes in the side of your house, but I wonder if you would consider a dryer vent style hole? They look fine, have several flap options to keep critters out and are pretty standard in size.You could route your DC vent out that way. With my previous shop being almost completely underground (basement) this was about my only option for outside venting.

    And THANK YOU for offering some of your tools to us via contests. I’m all about getting some “new” tools. You’ve been a great resource for me since I found your YouTube channel several months ago.

  7. You really made me laugh with the SketchUp shirt! !! When I use SketchUp and I use those commands I can actually hear you saying that!!! Really funny shirt!!

  8. What about building an 8-12 inch high “wall” to go under your garage door? Then bring the door down on top of it and install a locking mechanism to secure it. Then you will have somewhere to put a non-permanent hole.

  9. I can’t believe with your ingenuity & skills that you can come up with fantastic Dust System. And what is wrong with cutting a hole in the wall. I am sure you could make something that would look good.

  10. I had thought of doing this with a portable AC unit exhaust. But cutting a 4″ hole in my garage door and using a blast gate mounted to the metal. Then figuring out a way to lock it when not in use. Also would paint it white to match garage door. Just a thought, thanks for the videos and content.

    • There’s no way I’m going to modify my house to fit my woodworking hobby :) I just don’t want to make any destructive changes to the house just for my shop.

  11. Hey Jay, thanks for your generosity! Also, I am fixing to move into a new place with a four season room will be my shop. I will have limited space there. What about building a cabinet system that floor equipment will go under with storage overhead. Of course, the trade-offs would be cost vs beauty. I guess these pine cabinets might help with that!

    Thanks again for passing on your old tools. Gets the new guys like me all excited. Have a good one

    • Hey Scott. I’m not a fan of wall cabinets for storage. I prefer lots of drawers! I’m planning a few other shop builds that will incorporate a lot of drawer storage.

  12. I really learned what I am doing wrong with my planer set-up. i did the same thing you did, only I didn’t secure the ends of the plank I set in to replace the in feed out feed tables.
    I also understand that the blades might be dull leading to snipe?

  13. Why don’t you cut a hole in the wall or door? Just kidding.

    I don’t have a cyclone myself, but from what I’ve read and my experience with the dust collectors I do have they aren’t going to get the fine particles, which is where the real problem is. The way I see it the only advantage to a cyclone is in a high production environment where you want to get as much bulk separated into an easy to empty container prior to the final collection container. You still have to have a good filter to catch the fines and clean it regularly to maintain efficiency. Even then it’s going to leak fine dust, not to mention the dust that isn’t captured at the tool in the first place. In short, a cyclone is not going to be the magical solution to your dust problem.

    For your situation, which is pretty similar to my own, I would look at a dust collector with a canister filter or adding a canister filter to your existing collector. I think most of them come with the handle and paddle to knock the dust loose inside, but that would be a requirement in my opinion. This is probably the best at catching the fines and still maintaining efficient air flow.

    You should also get an air filtration system. I have one and run it any time I’m in the shop. I really don’t get the idea of running it only after you are finished working and leave the shop. I generally run mine on low and the noise isn’t bad at all. If I do something like cut a bunch of MDF in a short amount of time and the dust hanging in the air is visible I turn the filter up to high and within a couple of minutes the air is clear.

    My filter and dust collectors aren’t Grizzly, but I would look hard at them if I were to replace them. Grizzly’s 2 hp canister dust collector looks to be a good value to me. I have no relationship with Grizzly other than being a satisfied customer.

    • I can’t just add a canister filter to my current setup because the Thien baffle that I’m using is incredibly inefficient. The filter would just constantly clog. I don’t think I really need an air filtration unit for the shop air as I leave the door open most of the time.

  14. Doesn’t your garage have any air vents near the floor that you could modify to get the outside. Maybe not code in your area, but here in CA, all the garages have at least on rectangular air vent going to the outside.

    • Move away from the big dust collector. Get a festool/shop vac with a nice bag. It’s cheaper, smaller, and portable. I’ve never regretted getting rid of my space hog, I mean dust collector. Good luck!

      Mark

      • CA is crazy. Maybe someone decided auto exhaust was the way to go and CA reacted with the building code. Who knows.

  15. A dust extractor is the way to go with a random orbit sander but would be a joke on a table saw, planer, or jointer. If you do get a dust extractor besides considering if the connections are compatible with your tools be sure to consider the cost of the bags. Some brands are outrageous, others are merely robbery.

  16. I have the same dust collector as you. I watched your dust collector video a few times before I designed mine. I really wanted to vent outside like you but couldn’t. I located mine in the same place you put yours. Link to setup: http://i.imgur.com/KbDQpoK.jpg

    I put very little time into creating the baffle and it is really efficient. However, I think I just got lucky because I didn’t do any detailed design\measuring when creating it. Now I just need the wynn canister filter and I should be good to go.

  17. I read through all the comments hope I’m not repeating something here. I agree with no destructive changes in the walls. What about installing a window somewhere though, and just install the exhaust through the open sash like you would a window ac? Would bring in natural light, you could cover window as we’ll if you didn’t want someone to see in and the next homeowner would have a nice window. I think it would be an improvement if anything with an ugly hole to patch later.

  18. I don’t do nearly as much work as you in my workshop; however, I do want to keep the dust from ending up everywhere in the garage and in my house…so I bought a Dust Deputy kit and then rigged a larger bin that I can empty into my trash once per week. I use a Rigid Shop vac and I get at least 95% of all the dust right where it belongs…in the cans! The entire set up was less than $200.

  19. Jay, I’m not sure how old you are, but you mentioned allergies, so I’m assuming you already have them at your young age. Keep in mind that the older you get, the more allergies you will develop and the more intense the ones you currently have. This means that your dust extraction efficiency will make all the difference in the world to you and the family. I’m serious here, because at one time I had absolutely none, but around 50 they began creeping in on me. Not only that but my shih-tzu Charlie has begun having them to the point where my eyes are watering up when he gets close to my face. So his body is dumping all the toxins from his system.

    And all this is because of the sawdust from the shop in the basement. I’m currently in the process of customizing a HF dust collector and venting it outside. My basement shop has an unfinished ceiling, so I intend to run the piping through there and out to the back via an air vent. And I am also setting up a double Thien system before and after the impeller.

    I’m at the point where my eyes are watering up, and burning constantly. I’ve developed a cough, and my throat is sore in a low grade way. This has caused me to have to take allergy tablets on top of my other medication. And it really does Suck, pardon the pun. I seriously considered the Wyn 35a filter, but it too still doesn’t extract everything out of the air, and frankly I just can’t stand this anymore. So, I am going to vent out the remaining particulates, come hell or high water.

    Trust me, nothing is worth having your home a place where you can’t feel perfectly at home, due to allergies. Also remember, you are good with your hands, and can easily patch any hole you make. Working with sheetrock is pretty straight forward, so your “No Holes, Ever!” policy may be premature.

    I’m self-employed and make beautiful things for the interior design business, so I have my tablesaw going almost daily, for both business and pleasure. I cannot afford torturing myself any longer. You may want to rethink your position about not venting outside. Just a heartfelt suggestion.

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