Airflow and Blower Size
Airflow and Blower Size
I started from a similar thought: add a cyclone to a "chip collector" sort of machine. Mine happens to be an older, 1 HP Delta, the kind with motor and blower on top of a 55 gal. drum, plus large bag for final filtration. Specs on it were 700 CFM and it used 5" pipe. Bag was, is, awful, and even when new could only trap down to about 5 micron. And now with some holes, well, it is, as Pentz rightly observed, a dust pump.
Problem is, the Mini is sized for around 100 to 150 CFM. And the CV1400 and CV1800 for about 1500 CFM. The smaller Jet, like my Delta, won't provide the necessary airflow to properly keep the pipes clean plus swirl the cyclone. The smaller Mini will just choke, and rather than run it with the Jet, would be better to dedicate a shop vac.
I was, and am, less concerned with chips as they can be swept up than with the very fine dust that would clog my nose and after a few days coat everything in my shop. A few days spent reading Pentz' site (which you can access via the "Links" item under the "General Info" tab on Clearvue's home page) convinced me half measures weren't going to do the job and would be just a waste of money. So, as Matt said earlier, rather than waste bucks on ineffective half measures, I'd advise waiting 'til you can get the larger machine. Lord knows I learned that the hard way. Ah, well, at least the government won't get it now, its gone!
One final note: In addition to the CV1800 I'm still putting together, I also acquired a Mini. I use it on most of my Shopsmith stuff as their stuff is generally ported for 2.5". Works well on the planer, not so well on the strip sander or bandsaw. Which is more a criticism of Shopsmith's ports on those machines than on the Mini / vac combination, which works as designed and described.
Regards,
DWD