General International’s New Dust Collector

If you have a shop, you need some type of vacuum or a dust collector. No, a dust collector is not simply attached to a table saw, band saw or router table. It is as perfect to clean up wood dust as it is for shavings from your plane. (If you’re working green wood as you build a joint stool from a tree, there are plenty of shavings to pitch.) While you may not wish to drag a 3-horsepower machine around your shop, it’s just as crappy to have to pull a 4″ hose from a small wall-mounted unit. General International has introduced the perfect machine, model #10-030CF.

Take a look at the left-hand photo. See the wheels on the bottom of the machine? Those wheels, along with the casters at the front, make rolling this unit around your shop too easy – and for tight-radius turns you can rear up this unit  onto the 7″ wheels (what we called a “wheelie” when I was a youngster riding bikes) and make a quick 90° turn. Surely you can navigate around your shop.

As I put this machine together, a couple of things I found as a challenge on older collectors were greatly improved in this machine. General International has made all the connections with screws into threaded plates welded in place. There’s no need to finger a nut on the underside of the machine, and there is no two-wrenching action required. Except, that is, on the rear wheels, which are attached with bolts, nuts and plastic spacers for a smoother glide.

The bigger convenience is that the impeller/separator assembly has small squared housings that slip over the ends of the support posts. Once in position, it’s hands-free and stays put as you run in the screws. Some of the older units I assembled for my shop had to be held and balanced as you fumbled with a connection of bolts and nuts – you needed three hands or a shop helper.

With the impeller/separator in place, you slip on the one-micron canister filter (a nice add-on for a small collector), position the lower plastic bag onto the small clips found on the unit’s side (another hands-free arrangement), slip on the quick-release metal strap bands and your off and running. Of course, you’ll need a length of 4″ hose and a clamp to attach to the unit.

And all the information listed above means nothing if the 10-030CF dust collector doesn’t collect dust. Well it does. This easily portable, turn-on-a-dime, easy-to-assemble dust collector sucks! (You had to see that coming from a mile away!) This machine can work effectively with your table saw, band saw or any other machine in your shop. It, too, can easily snake through the shop to make general clean-up a breeze.

General International has this collector on sale through August 31, 2013 for $400. The regular price is $575. Now for you machine aficionado-types, here is the technical data:

— Glen D. Huey

For more information on dust collection, purchase a copy of “Workshop Dust Control.”