Central Machinery 2hp Dust Collector

by Cian Perez


Up to this point, I've been using what was supposedly the most powerful shop-vac availaible at Home Depot for my dust collection duties: the Ridgid 6.5hp 16gallon leaf-blower combo unit. However, it wasn't really making all that much a difference when I attached this shop-vac to my Craftsman tablesaw. I had even outfitted my tablesaw with the accessory Craftsman tablesaw dust collector hook-up with a 2.5" port. This ridgid vac was truly powerful - it was just apparent that this wasn't its intended application.

Having a past stint as an air quality professional, I knew extended exposure to fine airborn dust was a silent killer, so I kept searching as I browsed around for other woodworking tips. I then caught word of this dust collector on the Woodnet forums. After reading about other users' experiences, I figured I needed to have one for my woodshop to reduce/eliminate the airborn dust generated by my woodworking tools.

I ordered my dust collector unit (Model no. 45378) from Harbor Freight's website on 1/3/03. I was able to view a status of "shipped" on Harbor Freight's order status webpage on 1/6/03. I received a postcard on 1/10/03 reaffirming that the dust collector was in fact shipped. The package appeared on my doorstep on 1/17/03. Fourteen days! Not too shabby.

 

ARRIVAL

The physical box arrived in near perfect form. This is very surprising since this baby is HEAVY (nearly 150 pounds). Most other owners have received a box that appears like it had gone through a civil war. Thank you UPS!

 

PACKAGING

Everything was intact. The styrofoam was slightly broken from the heavy motor moving around a bit, but nothing was damaged.

 

Here's all the components laid out on the shop floor. All the bolts and screws were in their respective packages.

 

ASSEMBLY

I had already mounted all the casters to the platform. Here is a pic of the motor mount being afixed to the base.

Assembly Tip: The brass colored bolts are for the casters.

Assembly Tip: The installation diagram depicts using washers and nuts for all the bolts supplied. However, you'll quickly notice as you go along that there are not enough washers and nuts to go around. This is because the platform base and bag-ring have threaded holes and do not require washers and nuts on the backside.

 

The bag ring upright supports being bolted to the base.

Assembly Tip: When screwing the bolts into the base, be careful to not overtighten the bolts and accidentally stripping the threaded holes. I overtightened one bolt while mounting an upright to the base, and I felt that screw hole just starting to give way.

 

The bag-ring being bolted to the supports.

The motor, fan housing, and exhaust tube installed. Note the power switch directly on the motor housing.

In these profile views, you can see the included inlet Y-adapter which converts two 4" ports into one 5" port.

I never bothered opening/installing the oem 30 micon bags. Instead, due to the warnings and recommendations of others, I ordered these...

 

PENN STATE 1 MICRON BAGS

Model No. BC2-1V

Purty, ain't she?

Assembly Tip: After threading the band clamp through the belt loops of the bottom filter bag, I used small spring clamps to hold it in place on the bag-ring while I positioned and secured the band clamp. I can't see doing this any other way if you have to install the bags alone by yourself.

Assembly Tip: The bottom bag of the Penn State BC2-1V set will sit above the platform by about two inches. You can make up for this space by cutting up some of the packing styrofoam that the DC came in to fit underneath the bag and affixing to the base with double-backed tape.

 

The HF DC Tally Board

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©2003 Cian Perez / www.CianPerez.com