dust collector vs shop vac

[Dean A]

going next Saturday to look at some woodworking tools that my friends father has. Unfortunately he is too ill to use anymore.

 The one item he does have is a dust collector unit (not sure what kind yet), but my questions are

 1) dust collectors louder than shop vacs? My shop is located in the basement and there is a nice cubby either item would go in. I just want to know if the sound is going to upset people upstairs trying to watch tv .

 2) Are dust collectors more efficient in removing dust, such as electrical bill wise vs a shop vac

 3) I noticed some bags are 5 micron, is that small enough to keep down the dust, or can you upgrade to a smaller micron bag.

 4) CFM, whats a good start. Machines I will be using that requires dust collecting are , scrollsaw, drill press, some type of sander (disc, belt ...not sure yet)

 I am researching stuff online, I do appreciate advice from the people who have already tackled this problem.

  I have never built my shop in a basement before, so the more I think about it, the more questions keep arising. Thank you in advance for your suggestions

  Dean

[dunk]

1. depends on the two machines, typically a dust collector is a bit louder.
2. Yes they (dust collector) are better at the task and it is not recommended to run a shop vac for extended periods of time as they can actually over heat and cause a fire.
3. You should upgrade to 1 micron...

[Leldon]

Personally I do not use my shop vac or dust collector on my scroll saw. I just haven't taken the time to build a port for it. The main thing I use my collector for would be the planer and bandsaw. I also use it on my table saw and sometimes miter saw. Sound wise it's quieter than my older shop vac and maybe a bit more noisy than my smaller newer one. I don't know how much more expensive the dc is than the shop vac because their use is such a small part. I figure, my bandsaw uses more power than both.  If you can get it at a good price I would. It saves so much time on clean up!

[Rapid Roger]

Like most things in woodworking......It depends on what you are doing and what results you expect.
In my shop, it is a tossup as to which is louder or noisier, the dust collector or the shop vac as I have both. I use the dust collector on my table saw, router table and planer. I use the shop vac for general clean up.
If you are mostly concerned with your scroll saw, I recommend a box fan blowing away from you with a furnace air filter in front of it for the finer dust and when the heavier saw dust gets about ankle deep, grab the shop vac for a quick clean up. 
I would agree that it is not a good idea to leave a vac run for long periods of time but, the same can be said for a dust collector. An hour or two is not too much for a dust collector but it a loooooonnnnnnggggg time for a shop vac.
Dust collectors are not much fun to empty out when they get full but, if you stay on top of it and not let it get over full it isn't too bad. My shop vac has a paper bag liner so, it is fairly simple to replace if I remember to check it at least once a month.


Rog

[ChuckD]

Anything, noisy or not, is better than blowing the dust in the air.  If you have doubts, check your glasses.  If they are dusty, that same dust in going into your lungs and I am sure that is not good.  I have vacuums on both my scrollsaws and and the dust collector is attached to my sanding table, drill press, table saw, planner (for sure), and joiner.  They are not all operating at one time of course so I can change the hose to the one I am using.  The reason for the vacuums being attached to scrollsaws  and not the dust collector is they way I have the scrollsaws and vacuums running at the same time.  Good luck and keep the dust out of the air.

[dgman]

Hey Dean, I use a dust collector in my shop and do have it hooked to my scroll saw. For me the most important factor is the dust collector takes in all or most of the airborne dust. I no longer have to wear a dust mask. Before I had the dust collector hooked up, I would hack and wheeze all day. If I blew my nose, tons of wood dust would blow out, and my voice would get horse. This no longer happens.
My dust collector is much quieter than my shop vac and is designed to run all day without any problems.
Here is a link for a thread on my system. I have changed the position of the lower port to directly below the tilt knob as it collects the dust better there: http://stevedgood.com/community/index.php?topic=8625.0

[Dean A]

Thanks dgman, a picture is worth a thousand words.

 That unit gets high remarks too I noticed.

 So the extra barrel you have ....the larger debris goes in the barrel and the lighter stuff goes in the bag? Seems like it would take some time to fill that up

[dgman]

Yup, 95% of the dust and debris go into the separator. Very little dust goes into the bags. The efficiency of the DC stays high because most of the dust stays in the separator. I only have to empty the bags once a year. I empty the separator once or twice a month depending on how much planing I do.

[ChuckD]

I also have the trash can in line for my dust collector.. I tried to put a plastic bag in the trash can and it got sucked into the hose.  I then cut a wire fence big enough to fit around inside the trash can bag and that solved that problem.  Just shake it out of the can when you empty it. 

[budprine]

Hi

I skinned this cat another way.  I have a shop vac and yes it is noisy.  What I did was get an extension hose for it and put in where I couldn't hear it.  In my case I work in my garage and I set it outside around the corner.  I can hardly hear it.

Hey, works for me.

[jrpeteo]

I'm with budprine, I have a shopvac in the next room. Goes up through the drop ceiling into another room. I have a cordless remote to turn it on from the saw. I have it connected to the saw (top and bottom) and the drill press. Works realy good.
Pete