LAGUNA TOOLS 1.5 HP C|Flux:1 Dust Collector

This dust collector has plenty of power to keep dust to a minimum in your shop. It is a great dust collector at a great price. It has a very small footprint compared to our previous dust collector and cyclone that were two separate pieces. We gained some valuable floor space in our small shop. Very happy with this purchase and would highly recommend.

This new design is way beyond my expectations. I can leave all 4 of my system blast gates open (which is suggested) and this thing performs better than I had hoped. I added a 6" manifold which improves suction for tools further away. Be careful about closing blast gates while the machine is running-it collapsed my first 4" aluminum dryer; you might want to consider using heavier material than the thin dryer duct material. Watch the Laguna set up videos...they are helpful.

As you can see, my shop is a cluttered up basement of an old house. Space is the most precious commodity here so I almost passed on this for a smaller unit. I deliberated for a very long time on which unit to buy, finally coming to the conclusion that I wanted more than 1HP, a pleated 1 micron filter (not a bag), and a cyclone separator. The more I thought about the separator, the more it seemed like buying it separately and making my own bin would be too much of a hassle for not enough savings. This unit hits all of my goals and looks great, very happy that I went with an integrated 2-stage unit. The chip bin with the foot pedal lock system is actually very nice and overall this thing is the real deal; a heavy industrial no-nonsense collector. If I had rolled my own it would have been resin/plastic and not look or be nearly as nice, plus there is an airflow efficiency advantage to it being integrated.I haven't tried it on all of my tools yet, but I did attack a large pile of very fine sawdust from sanding and trim work, the separator got ALL of it, not a spec in that bag under the filter. Larger chunks whirled around in there quite a while, I think there is actually too much airflow on just 1 hose until I get the suction system plumbed in.Tips: The instructions don't say to remove the motor assembly to move the top half around for unpacking and the first part of assembly, but do this. That is a good 40+lbs that you aren't wrestling with anymore.Also be prepared to run a single phase 30A 120v circuit. The specs list just under 19A but that is the average load, motors draw more than that upon startup and the instructions clearly state 30A is required. So I ran myself a 10awg line to a 30A breaker and it works great. Don't want any nuisance trips.To convert to 220v requires some different motor control parts from Laguna so not really an option out of the box.Cons: So far my only gripe is that the instructions can be confusing. They aren't worded well and instead of diagrams they used photos.. of black parts with black hardware. But the bags of hardware are labeled well so if you just follow your instinct and ignore the instructions like with everything else it goes more smoothly.Also I will note the delivery service was great and this showed up in good condition.