I’ve been running my small woodworking business out of the garage for about three years now, and I’m finally at the point where I need to upgrade my dust collection system. The problem is that I don’t have a ton of space, and my current setup—a Shop-Vac with a Dustopper separator—just can’t keep up when I’m running my planer or table saw for more than a few minutes. The fine dust settles everywhere, and I swear it takes me an hour of cleanup for every hour of work.
I’ve been looking at the Harbor Freight 2HP dust collector that everyone talks about, but I’m not sure if this matters much: my garage ceiling is only 8 feet high, so I can’t really hang ductwork overhead without feeling cramped. I also considered a portable unit like the Jet AFS-1000B, but the reviews say the filter is pretty mediocre unless you upgrade it right away. My budget is around $500, maybe a bit more if it really makes a difference. I’ve already measured my tool connections—most are 4-inch ports, but my miter saw uses a 2.5-inch adapter—so I know I’ll need some reducers and a quick-change system.
The big kicker is that I share the garage with my wife’s car, so the dust collector has to be moved out of the way. That rules out any permanent cyclone setup, I think. I read about the Wen 3410 as a cheap alternative, but then you’ve got to add a Wynn filter and a Thien baffle, and suddenly you’re at $400 with no guarantee it’ll handle the volume. I’ve been leaning toward just buying a used Delta 50-760 from Facebook Marketplace, but those seem to pop up infrequently around here.
So what would you do with a small space and a modest budget? Is the Harbor Freight unit worth the time and tweaking, or should I just save up for a better portable like the Oneida Supercell? I’m open to DIY mods if they save me money, but I don’t want to waste weekends on something that barely works.
I’ve been looking at the Harbor Freight 2HP dust collector that everyone talks about, but I’m not sure if this matters much: my garage ceiling is only 8 feet high, so I can’t really hang ductwork overhead without feeling cramped. I also considered a portable unit like the Jet AFS-1000B, but the reviews say the filter is pretty mediocre unless you upgrade it right away. My budget is around $500, maybe a bit more if it really makes a difference. I’ve already measured my tool connections—most are 4-inch ports, but my miter saw uses a 2.5-inch adapter—so I know I’ll need some reducers and a quick-change system.
The big kicker is that I share the garage with my wife’s car, so the dust collector has to be moved out of the way. That rules out any permanent cyclone setup, I think. I read about the Wen 3410 as a cheap alternative, but then you’ve got to add a Wynn filter and a Thien baffle, and suddenly you’re at $400 with no guarantee it’ll handle the volume. I’ve been leaning toward just buying a used Delta 50-760 from Facebook Marketplace, but those seem to pop up infrequently around here.
So what would you do with a small space and a modest budget? Is the Harbor Freight unit worth the time and tweaking, or should I just save up for a better portable like the Oneida Supercell? I’m open to DIY mods if they save me money, but I don’t want to waste weekends on something that barely works.
