# Opinions on dust deputy



## snookfish (Jan 10, 2011)

I've been researching online and looking through this forum but none answer my direct question so here it goes.

I have the 6 gallon shop-vac and a 20 gallon heavy duty plastic trash can. I don't really want to spend a lot of money on a whole dust collection system. So how effective would the dust deputy be on the 20 gallon trash can with my 6 gallon shop vac being the suction? My shop is a 2 car garage and I have all the standard power tools, table saw, band saw, planner, jointer, router table, and drill press are my main dust concerns. I realize this is not the optimal setup for DC, but I really don't feel like putting several hundred dollars into a whole system if I can do well with this setup and a dust mask.

Fire away!


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

snookfish said:


> I've been researching online and looking through this forum but none answer my direct question so here it goes.
> 
> I have the 6 gallon shop-vac and a 20 gallon heavy duty plastic trash can. I don't really want to spend a lot of money on a whole dust collection system. So how effective would the dust deputy be on the 20 gallon trash can with my 6 gallon shop vac being the suction? My shop is a 2 car garage and I have all the standard power tools, table saw, band saw, planner, jointer, router table, and drill press are my main dust concerns. I realize this is not the optimal setup for DC, but I really don't feel like putting several hundred dollars into a whole system if I can do well with this setup and a dust mask.
> 
> Fire away!


I purchased the small Dust Deputy and placed it on a 30-35 gallon (can't remember exact size) plastic drum and then I hooked my new Rigid 6.5 HP shop vac up to it. When the shop vac is on and its sucking material, I can see the material swirling around the cyclone alot. The problem I have noticed is about 1\2 of the material sucked up makes it to the shop vac. I feel this is WAY too much. I don't know if its because my shop vac is a very good and strong one, but it;s going to fill my bag pretty quick. I would also like to add that I have about 1-2 hours of use so far so this is by no means a scientific study. 

I actually bought this size unit to try first with the thought that I would buy the new Plastic DD to use for my table saw, planer, and jointer. After this weekend, I will be much freer to do projects as I will be "kicking" my wife's car out of the garage for the summer. I intend on giving the setup much more testing in the next several months.

Mark


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## against_the_grain (Aug 15, 2010)

Burb, A review was done on another site and the guy had great results. The biggest difference I see in his setup and yours is he uses a 5 gallon bucket. Not sure what size his vacuum is . Maybe the 30-35 gallon drum you are using creates too much air space for a good vacuum to form in that large of a volume.

Barring any leakage, I would say your drum may be too large.

Dust Deputy


Edited to add. Just noticed the other review I referred to , the guy said he only uses it with his hand sanders and biscuit joiners.


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## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

I have the original "Dust deputy" picture below. It is actually a clearvue cyclone made for the DC according to bill pentz's specifications. It worked pretty good for most things in my shop (TS, BS, some router stuff), and I still use it quite often when I need some fast moving suction. When it comes to the items that really kick out some volume, namely the planer and jointer, It really couldn't handle it. That is when a DC really comes in handy. Don't get me wrong, if you are edge jointing, or planing some narrow boards, the shopvac will work ok for you. When you joint or plane wide boards, the shopvac and dust deputy just won't be able to handle the volume. 

At least that has been my experience.......









FYI... Clearvue had to stop making these when dust deputy first came out due to "copyright infringements" even though they had been making them for the previous 7 years.


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## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

against_the_grain said:


> Burb, A reveiw was done on another site and the guy had great results. The biggest difference I see in his setup and yours is he uses a 5 gallon bucket. Not sure what size his vacuum is . Maybe the 30-35 gallon drum you are using creates too much air space for a good vacuum to form in that large of a volume.
> 
> Barring any leakage, I would say your drum may be too large.
> 
> Dust Deputy


 
If the drum is sealed up, the size of the drum should not affect the dust deputy's performance. The cyclonic action is all in the dust deputy... the barrel is simply a catch basin. I had my clearvue cyclone mounted on a 20 gal trash can, and it worked just fine.


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

thegrgyle said:


> If the drum is sealed up, the size of the drum should not affect the dust deputy's performance. The cyclonic action is all in the dust deputy... the barrel is simply a catch basin. I had my clearvue cyclone mounted on a 20 gal trash can, and it worked just fine.


That was my thoughts, and when ordered it from Oneida I explained how I was going to use it and they had said it would work fine. My thought was that the shop vac was too strong and the dust and materials weren't able to drop out.

Mark


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## against_the_grain (Aug 15, 2010)

Burb said:


> That was my thoughts, and when ordered it from Oneida I explained how I was going to use it and they had said it would work fine. My thought was that the shop vac was too strong and the dust and materials weren't able to drop out.
> 
> Mark


So the question is,is there a good seal around where it connects to the lid of the drum ? One guy said the performance improved a lot when he cut out a wood spacer and used it between the lid and the DustDeputy. Is there a good seal around the lid of the drum ?

Suppose if your vacuum is too powerful then something larger than the DD is in order.


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

against_the_grain said:


> So the question is,is there a good seal around where it connects to the lid of the drum ? One guy said the performance improved a lot when he cut out a wood spacer and used it between the lid and the DustDeputy. Is there a good seal around the lid of the drum ?
> 
> Suppose if your vacuum is too powerful then something larger than the DD is in order.


I thought so but I may try to verify. I have smoke tubes used for ventilation air flow testing and respirator fit-testing so it shouldn't be to hard to tell. I'll check it out in the next few days to be sure.

Mark


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## Kenbo (Sep 16, 2008)

you might want to check out this thread.

I considered the dust deputy for a while and ended up making my own separator.


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## Burb (Nov 30, 2012)

Kenbo said:


> you might want to check out this thread.
> 
> I considered the dust deputy for a while and ended up making my own separator.


I seem to recall reading that thread a few months ago. I just don't think I;d be able to make that. I gots real limited skilz!!!!

Mark


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## thegrgyle (Jan 11, 2011)

Burb said:


> I seem to recall reading that thread a few months ago. I just don't think I;d be able to make that. I gots real limited skilz!!!!
> 
> Mark


 
The only way to get better skillz, is to challenge yourself with projects like this. If you get in a situation, whereas you need help, that is what we are here for.


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