This is an overview of the Harbor Freight Dust Collector – https://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html .
Upgrades I’ve added:
- Oneida 4″ Dust Cyclone
- HEPA Filter Retrofit Kit
- 55 Gallon Drum Pre-cut for the 4″ cyclone
- In hindsight I should’ve gotten a 35 gallon drum so it would be easier to lift
- 5″ Hose to go from the dust collector to the cyclone
- 5″ to 4″ reducer to get into the cyclone
- iVac Pro Remote Switch
Overall the unit works fantastic with all of my equipment. It successfully captures large and small chips and dust from:
- Sawstop PCS table saw
- Grizzly 8″ jointer
- Grizzly 15″ thicknesser/planer
I do have blast gates and only have one open per machine and it collects everything without any jams or issues. One thing I do recommend is getting some strong rare earth magnets to help putting the bag back on and hold it in place while you secure it (duct/painters tape also works).
I also got an anemometer to measure the CFM of the unit. While it works great for all of my machines, it definitely does not pull 1550 cfm like Harbor Freight advertises.
Here is a table of measurements with notes I took while testing various configurations out.
| Notes | CFM Reading | |
|---|---|---|
| Factory Y splitter TO Dust Deputy using 4″ hose | 548 cfm | |
| Y Splitter to 4″ reducer with 1 cap closed | 854 cfm | |
| Splitter removed, reading directly from 5″ to motor housing | 621 cfm | |
| Motor housing to 5″ 10ft flexible tubing | 721 cfm | |
| 5″ to 4″ reducer | 820 cfm | |
| New 5″ flex tube to 4″ reducer to dust deputy | 614 cfm |
Swapping out to the 5″ tubing going to the dust deputy added about 11% more cfm or 66 cfm.
The only other modification I might do is to try and move the motor up onto a more support platform so there are less drastic bends going from the motor/impeller to the dust deputy.