I just made the purchase for a foreman elite. While I am waiting, I want to figure as much as I can out. One of the biggest things I am having a hard time deciding on is dust collection.
The machine will be in an unused bedroom turned into workshop on the bottom level of my parents house. It isn’t adjacent to any anyone (the rest of the family lives upstairs; this room is downstairs).
Because it is still inside, I want to take dust collection seriously. So, my first priority is making sure that whatever dust collection system I end up going with can have a HEPA filter to filter down to 1 micron or less.
The room is 140 sq ft, so noise is another important factor.
And of course, dust colIection ability is also important, as I am getting the 2.2kw redline spindle and the big stiffy for extra rigidity, so I can push the feedrate if I need to.
I am strongly considered Festool or Fein, as those are relatively quiet and have HEPA filters, just I am not sure if the CFM will be enough. I could get an actual dust collector like a grizzly or something, but I imagine the noise would become an issue in a small workshop like mine, and I really need the ability to filter down the fine dust. Do you think a fein or festool will be ok? It would just be for the 1F and that only.
I had a Fein but now have a wall mounted 1hp Grizzly. It moves a lot more air so now the fine dust around my 1F has been reduced. I had the Fein for hand sanders. It worked good and wasn’t too loud. I even used it with a router in my table saw. But in those conditions the dust was concentrated.
In a bedroom I would think about putting the 1F inside an enclosure. The biggest noise issue will be the router (if you are using one vs a spindle) and the bit you are using. An enclosure will also help with cutting down that noise. If you do go with a wall mount dust collector don’t mount it to a wall. Make a stand mounted to your table to help isolate vibrations from transferring to other rooms.
I have a 2.5 gallon shop vac with a low profile separator. If I want to believe the particle sensor in my office, it sucks nearly everything up with no fine dust floating around. Only problem is if you don’t empty it before it fills up the suction goes to
I did end up venting the outlet to the next room to keep the heat down and some of the noise. It is inside a closed cabinet if that matters.
Did the Fein not keep up with your chip demands on the 1F? And were you able to get a HEPA filter on the wall mounted Grizzly?
I am getting a spindle instead of a router, so my guess was that the vac system would likely be loudest. The enclosure I can always decide to build later if I deem it necessary (but prefer not to have on if not necessary). The good thing is that none of the walls of the room are next to any other rooms that people reside in. It’s on ground floor, and everyone else is upstairs.
I am surprised that shop vac works well for you as I see its rated at 55 CFM. That makes me more confident that a FEIN or Festool would be just fine as those are I believe around 130-150 CFM. I didn’t even think about a particle sensor, but that’s a great idea, and I will definitely get one. I am most definitely willing to splurge on things the contribute to as safe an environment as possible when it comes to dust particles.
The Fein worked ok but it’s not on the same level of chip and dust removal as the Grizzly (actually it’s Grizzly’s shop Fox brand). It’s this one. The Fein is 150 cfm while the shop fox is well over 500. It’s also easier to see when it’s getting full and needs to be emptied. To clean the dust out of the filter you just rotate the handle until the dust stops falling.
I had one of those chip separators that goes on top of a garbage can but it cut down on the air flow of the Fein. I don’t bother with it with the Shop Fox. It also removed its best feature of being very portable. I found that I rarely moved it though. I have a larger dust collector for my other shop tools so the only other time I used the Fein was with a palm sander. I ended up making a down draft vac (with my 1F) table for sanding. Now I use it as a central vac for the house.
From what I can find, it seems the only real complaints about it are that it’s annoying to change the bag, and that the filter clogs up quickly. I am guessing that both of these things would be pretty much solved with a cyclone unit hooked up before it. To me it looks good on paper at least, filtering down to 0.2 microns and not taking up a ton of space either.
I have a fein - it isn’t good enough for me.
I have ordered a camvac 3 motor system from Stock Room in Canada
I also have a Delta remote control dust filtration system hanging from the ceiling.
I have an additional cyclone and additional hepa filters.
A bit steep shipping cost of around $300 for my location (NJ) puts it at around $1150 or so, but this seems to tick off all the marks for what I am looking for: runs on 110 outlet, seems quiet at 70db at 10ft away, has 700(or 750)cfm, and has a pleated HEPA filter. There aren’t many user reviews, but the few ones do seem promising.
I want a cyclone to extend the life of the air filters. I don’t get the dust pickup with the fein and a cyclone when chewing through MDF on my elite foreman.
I like the 3 motor camvac as certain type of carves can work with 1 motor (quieter) but you have all the power you need with 3 motors 891 CFM.
90 liters is big enough for my 2 car garage shop.
I’m not sure how much extra going to .5 microns will buy you over a 1 micron system. It does add a fair bit to the price. Unless your CNC is in an enclosed box dust will escape. A dust boot just can’t collect every bit of it. That being said finer is always better. If 1 micron is good enough for you then there are plenty of companies that make DCs for around $500 similar to the CWI. If you plan on sanding (that’s going to produce very fine dust) then spending the extra money for the extreme dust collector. Your lungs will thank you.
I agree an enclosure is the way to go, but this limits your pass through for tiling unless you design the enclosure with that in mind. Not sure you would gain anything from a quiet dust extraction.. the spindle although almost silent, once cutting will be LOUD certainly louder than most of the quiet dust collection. I would go for a ceiling hung extractor with filter this would keep the airborne dust to a minimum and therefore not transfer to teh house. Good luck
I have my CNC in my upstairs office since I don’t have a garage. As you will see in the photos I am using a makita vacuum with a cyclone system in a closed system that I built from plywood with sound insulation between the panels and it works very good and removes 60% of the sound. For the window I used 4 layers of plexiglass with the two middle panels set at an angel for better sound reducing. Hope this helps.
I’ve got a Powermatic 1300 on my Elite Journeyman, that I also use for other tools. It would be overkill for you, but you could look at the smaller ones, like Rocklers that hang on the wall. Just put a decent filter on it. I’ve also got a Jet AFS-1000C hanging on the ceiling and a old 16 gallon Craftsman shopvac with a Dust Deputy for the floor and other tools. I generate a lot of sawdust and I try not to inhale it.
In my view, your best bet is the enclosure and, depending on the weather, a box fan in the window so you can get as much of the fine dust out of the room (and rest of the house) as possible. The more you can send out to the great outdoors the better off you (and your family) will be. You can vent the enclosure with an inline fan to the outside to get most of the fines out while carving. The heavier stuff can be handled with a small dust collector and a shop vac/cyclone.for the rest. If you go the HEPA route, you’re likely going to go through a lot of filters.
Live and learn I guess.
