harbor freight portable 13 gallon dust collector

[Gethenet]

My lathe is on the upper floor of the work shop. I have a big vacuum system that runs everything on bottom floor. I'm looking for something that I can use at lathe upstairs. Portable would probably work best, because I may want to move lathe at later date.
anyone have any pros and cons about this system? I'm aware at $129....you get what you pay for

 

[wwneko]

Any chance of running a feed up through the floor from your "big system?" with a remote switch that would be ideal. As long as the run isn't too far, that's what I would want to do.

 

[Gethenet]

If I knew for sure that was the last place I would have it ....yes I would do that. However it's at my father in laws shop, and he is always wanting to move things...lol I personally don't think upstairs where the stain glass is done is the place for the lathe, but what do I know. I told him it was going to be a tad dusty...

 

[wyone]

I would NOT use a dust collector.. make a couple pens.. then see his thoughts on where is the best place to locate your lathe and decide on dust collection from there

 

[Gethenet]

I would NOT use a dust collector.. make a couple pens.. then see his thoughts on where is the best place to locate your lathe and decide on dust collection from there

Do not use a dust collector? Um I have made 100's of pens up there, he knows how much shavings/ dust there will be and is. It really needs to be on ground level....but he wants it there, I just don't want to tap into the big system and run a seperate pipe up to it. Still trying to find thoughts on the HF portable collector

 

[Bill in Buena Park]

I think that should work fine if just used for the lathe, but would use something like this lathe hood from Rockler to ensure good control of the airflow. It would be better if you could add a chip separator in the line, keep you from having to empty that bag out all the time...

 

[raar25]

So back to your question, I used that for about a year and it worked great for one tool. As I ran more flex duct off of it the suction dropped off quickly and I ended up going with a larger 2 HP unit which does my whole shop. Note the impellor is plastic so you may want to put a 2 stage separator between the lathe and the DC.

 

[wouldentu2?]

Whatever father-in-law wants is whats best, where do you think your wife learned it from.

 

[dogcatcher]

I will go with a yes, but add a cyclone bucket in between to catch the chips.

 

[plano_harry]

Probably adequate suction. Main problem is the bag. You are going to be blowing the most harmful stuff straight through the cloth and all over the shop in a very uniform suspension in the air. If you can duct it outside or put a half micron filter, should be ok. I think they are pretty loud compared to some of the better units. I returned the smaller red one, so if you don't like it, you can take it back.

 

[sbell111]

I agree that the bag is the weak point of the plan.

I would probably build a bucket cyclone for the input side of the collector and replace the bag with a canister. That doesn't make for a super inexpensive solution, but it would get the job done for just a few bills.

 

[ironman123]

I have HF 1 HP green 1 bag dust collector hooked to a mentioned dust hood on my wood lathe and it works great. I roll the collector to the double door and place the bag outside.
I also have their 2 HP unit but it is still in the box.

 

[raar25]

Rocker sells a better bag for the unit it is either 1 or .5 micro. Definitely worth the investment since the 1-5 micron particle size are some of the most common output for sanding processes and some of the worst for your health.