This thing sucks!

[ajf]

I picked up one the 13-gallon dust collectors from HF yesterday for $130.  Currently have it hooked up through the original fan, but I'll soon build an adaptor to fit it to the machine directly.  It's rated at 660CFM and is reasonably quiet.  So far, it's doing really well.  All the little polystyrene bits left over from the packing are getting sucked up against my bed.

[Jeremy G]

Mm, maybe you can make an adapter on the outlet that doubles as a air assist hose :) you know less equipment needed.

[ajf]

As much as I like minimizing components, I think having separate exhaust and air assist is the way to go, you really don't want to be pushing the exhaust gasses over the lens.

I do have to find a better air assist than my Hitachi twin stack compressor, not only is it loud, but as I was trying to cut a vent adaptor it tripped the breaker and shutdown the cutter and exhaust.  My own fault for plugging everything in to the same circuit knowing that damn thing draws a lot of amps when it kicks in...

[LJ]

I bought the same but from craigslist for $40.  should work well I think.  Haven't hooked it up yet.

[ajf]

$40!! Argh!

[LJ]

craigslist is a great resource I check first for things like this.  got lucky in spotting that listing posted a day before I started looking for a new vent solution.

[DogP]

I'm using the smaller one ( http://www.harborfreight.com/1-hp-mini-dust-collector-94029.html ), and I agree, it works really well.  It was marked $55, but rang up $45, and then I had a 20% off coupon. :-)  It's REALLY loud though, so I put in this variable speed control: http://www.ebay.com/itm/380971274844 .  For some things (like cutting PCB stencils), I don't need much ventilation... but cutting thick acrylic makes a lot of fumes, so I'll crank up the fan for that.

DogP