Price was what sold me on this setup. A cyclone and barrel for be cost slightly lower than just the cyclone from Onieda Dust Deputy.
Appearance and structure are nice, the cyclone and barrel seem to be well made and durable. The intake and exhaust ports for some reason were made in an odd size (metric possibly) so they supply an adapter which is appreciated, to fit 4” hose. I did have to get creative with fitting the top to a 5” intake on my dust collector motor housing.
With that said, function seems a bit mediocre. 1st, the bags can’t be used, they immediately sucked up into the cyclone and so all the chips/dust went straight through into collectors motor and out into the filter. Zero function. This is a no -care situation for me because I was unlikely to use the bags anyway, but gave it a try. My assumption is the limitation of what I assume must be the 3-D printer used to produce the cyclone itself. The center section doesn’t go down far enough, so though it does create a cyclonic effect, chips can easy be sucked into the motor housing. Removing the bag and using only barrel does allow it to work “mostly”, but unfortunately I’d say it is 80% at best as a lot of dust makes it through to the filter and some chips even end up in the secondary catch system.
In comparison, the Oneida Dust Deputy I have on another setup, it just doesn’t perform well. The Dust Deputy has 6” primary port on the exhaust side with well made adapter to 4” and 4” molded intake port, it also has a deep center section in the cyclone and it catches close to 95-100% of chips, which remain in the barrel. Nearly nothing besides the very finest dust seems to make through to the filter side and secondary catch system.
However, I can still say this is a significant improvement over a single stage system, and definitely a budget friendly approach to improving performance, efficiency in the home shop environment for most customers.
