Fein vacuum or 1hp dust collector?
tcbaldmtn
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
My question is do I buy a Fein vacuum at $300 or 1hp dust collector for the basement?
I moved my bench and hand tools into the basement to stay warm. The rest of the power tools are still in the garage. I have dust collection in the garage. I also bought my son a mini lathe for Christmas this year. I also use my router downstairs for joinery.
Or should I buy a new Craftsmen at $89?
Replies
They're kind of two different ideas... A dust collector is for machines. A vacuum is for hand and and hand held power tools.
I have both in my shop. Assuming all you are doing downstairs is hand and hand held power tools, get the vacuum. I hook mine up to the router and orbital sander and it controls most of the dust at the source. If you want to keep your hearing (without the hassle of earmuffs), get the Fein. It's definitely worth the money.
Which Fein should I get the Turbo III or Turbo II?
The basically have the small, medium, and large. I have the medium size, and you have to empty it a lot if you use it for anything but shop cleanup or smallish tools. If I were you, I think I would opt for the large model. It's not that much bigger in size, but there is quite a lot more capacity (for dust).********************************************************
"It is what we learn after we think we know it all, that counts."
John Wooden 1910-
They're about the same. It just depends on how much you want to spend and how often you're willing to empty the bucket. If you plan to hook it up to a portable planer or you do a lot of hand planing, get the bigger one. The shavings take up a lot of space and there's not a lot of it in the Turbo II.
One little thing to note: if you have a wife and she hears it, you'll find yourself looking for it. Mine's usually vacuuming out the cars and the stairs. It gets "borrowed" all the time. Caution your family to not use it as a wet vac or it'll ruin the felt filter (I keep my old whiner around for spills and such).
Rod
As a rule of thumb for dust, go by the size of the port on your tool/machine. Three inches and up use a DC for volume. Three inches and down, use a vac for suction power(static lift).
In your case, the Fein Turbo III should work well as a solution. It has a 2 1/4 hose and you can also get a 1 1/4 hose as an accessory which will work better with the smaller tools.
jericho
Somebody (woodcraft?) has or had the little one on sale. I've had one now for four or five years (the little guy). I love it. I've backed up sanders with it, the first dustport I added to my old Delta bandsaw was connected to the Fein (an incomplete success, but still a significant improvement, and a lot to ask). It gets to vac out our antique cookstoves when the summer comes, as well as the odd flood (don't forget to remove filter/bag before hand, as was pointed out above.
The small one comes with wands, etc, for vacuuming floor, tools, etc. They are a bit on the cheap side, but they do the job. I use Shopvac bags in mine. They fit OK, and are much cheaper than the Fein bags. It's a solid piece of equipment, I don't think you'll regret the purchase.
Ed. the small one is the one my dad got after I recommended one to him. The only difference, is that it doesn't have to automatic tool on circuit. When I hook up my sander, it's far easier to turn on the sander and have the vacuum automatically turned on and off by the tool, than to turn on the vacuum, walk over and turn on/off the sander, then turn off the vacuum.
I have the Turbo II and bought a 2 1/2" hose for it w/ fittings.
I sure do like my Porter-Cable vac. It was about $220 at Amazon, with a $30 discount for getting their charge card. Might be a good way to split the difference between the Fein and the Shop-vac.
Before our house was built, I bought the turbo III, left it on-site after close-in and the tradesmen liked it for the power and low noise. The turbo II was quite a bit more $$ and offers portable machine connection features - perhaps you've seen?
I buy the generic insert bags for the turbo III - they work well and preserve/extend life of the pleated filter. Also, we now use the turbo III for vacuuming hardwood floors in our 1.5 storie cape - the mrs. says "it be good" and has adopted it. So now I use an older Shop Vac in the cellar for weekend cleanup.
I have a 2HP Penn State cyclone and 6" / 4" ductwork for stationary machines in the cellar. As others have stated, DC and vacuums have different goals/purposes. BTW, I use a 3HP Fein router in a BenchDog router table - its worked prettty good with an opt. extension knob.
Went into Woodcraft today and picked up a Jet DC-1100 w/ 2 micron cannister and remote. Nice and quite.
Would it be possible to plum your exsitiing DC in the garage into the Basement?
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