As you look at the advertising, Oneida seems to make a pretty outrageous claim concerning the efficiency of it's Dust Deputy, they claim it captures 99% of the dust. In case you don't know, the Dust Deputy is a mini cyclone that fits on a 5 gallon bucket lid which acts as a particle separator for your shopvac.
I have been interested in this claim, and cautious, because I am interested in good dust collection for my shop. I collect as much dust at the source as possible, this is one of the secrets to my shop being so clean even though it gets daily use.
What this leads to, is constantly emptying out the shopvac and cleaning the filter to maintain a high suction level. If I have to listen to the noise of the shopvac, it better be pulling the dust off of my sanders because I do a LOT of sanding.
I have long known about the Dust Deputy and had read good reviews about it from other woodworkers so I decided to buy one. I received it a week ago and have been using it with amazing results ever since.
Sanding cabinet panels.
The day I got it, I put it into service. I made sure to clean out the shopvac tub and filter as good as possible. Last night I took a look at the filter and was once again amazed. The shopvac only has a light coat of dust inside and on the filter after a solid week of use. Compare this to the four times that I have emptied the 5 gallon bucket which was half full each time.
Shopvac empty after using it for a week with the Dust Deputy.
Filter is clean after using with the Dust Deputy for a week.
I purchased the cyclone by itself for $60 plus shipping from Rockler. I have extra hoses and shopvac attachments in the shop so I did not need the full kit. If you do not have extra hoses and connections laying around I would recommend the full kit at $100. You will end up spending close to that buying all of the parts separate anyway plus add your time and gas running around.
Dust Deputy in it's current setup.
I attached the cyclone to the bucket lid and cut a piece of 1/2" plywood as a backer to the inside of the lid as reinforcement. The bucket wants to fall over easily but I had a quick solution already sitting under the table next to the shopvac. I had a 5 gallon bucket about 1/3 full of 16 penny framing nails. I simply dropped the Dust Deputy bucket inside the bucket of nails for a solid anchor. This works quite well for now because I do not move this shopvac around, but I am sure that I will be building a cart to contain the two in the future.
Anti-tipping solution, a partial bucket of framing nails.
I highly recommend the Dust Deputy. The price is a bit on the high side and I have no doubt that they are selling it for what the market will bear because of what it does. But as a business I am already spending less time cleaning out my shopvac filter and that saves me money. It literally will pay for itself in my shop.
The Dust Deputy lives up to it's advertised claims and there is barely a drop in suction power with the extra length of hose. When I build a permanent home for the Dust Deputy and shopvac, I will most likely cut the hose between the two as short as possible to maintain maximum suction.
The Dust Deputy falls into my category of "things that really work" and I highly recommend it for any shop.
Your friend in the shop - Todd A. Clippinger
Share the Love~Share the Knowledge
