![\"Mini](\"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/IMG_3570_edited-2.jpg\")
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For many years, dust collection<\/strong> in my shop had been the basic bag-over-bag single-stage collector familiar to most of us small shop woodworkers. A few years ago I upgraded to the Oneida Mini Gorilla<\/a>, a cyclone collector, and it has been excellent.\u00a0I’ve received many inquiries about it from woodworkers considering upgrading their dust collection system, so I hope this report will be helpful.<\/p>\n A cyclone collector<\/strong> is more efficient that a single stage collector because it involves two stages of collection based on particle size. Here’s what happens.<\/strong> The impeller fan whips around the intake material in the big sheet metal cone that give these machines their characteristic appearance. The chips and larger dust particles that constitute almost the entire volume of the intake fall into the collection drum below the cone.<\/p>\n Thus, only the finest dust<\/strong> \u2013 the most unhealthful \u2013 gets passed on to the air filter,\u00a0the cage-like cylinder sticking out the side of the yellow cone in the photo above. This permits the use of an incredibly efficient sub-micron pleated\u00a0HEPA filter<\/strong> without it getting continually overburdened and clogged with debris.<\/p>\n What all this means is that my shop is cleaner<\/strong>, and more important, healthier.<\/strong><\/p>\n The Mini Gorilla easily handles the biggest producers<\/strong> of chips in my shop, the Hammer A3-31 12″ jointer-planer and the DeWalt DW735 planer. The only limitation is the dust gathering efficiency at the source.<\/strong> Fortunately, the A3-31 and DW735 are great in this regard. The Minimax bandsaw is good while the Saw Stop table saw (vintage 2005) is just fair.<\/p>\n Oneida rates the noise<\/strong> produced by this machine at 76dB(A) at 10 feet. As a practical matter, it seems noisier than what I remember of the old bag-on-bag collector but it’s not bad and certainly not a deal breaker.\u00a0The Mini Gorilla is very space-efficient<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 notice the motor on top of the cone \u2013 so its footprint is smaller than most small single-stage collectors.<\/p>\n It’s not cheap. The base price<\/strong> is now $780, according to Oneida’s website. A mobile stand or wall bracket, steel drum, and shipping push the total over $1 large.<\/p>\n Oneida’s website<\/a> has details about the Mini Gorilla and the rest of their large line of dust collectors. This review is unsolicited and uncompensated.<\/p>\n Grunt machines<\/strong> like a good dust collector are not glamorous and there is a natural reluctance to invest in them. However, I think they support a sense of freedom<\/a> in the shop because they take good care of the dirty work and produce a better working environment. That freedom<\/a>, in turn, produces more creativity<\/a>, which is what this is all about.<\/p>\n Next:<\/strong> How I set up the Mini Gorilla in my small shop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For many years, dust collection in my shop had been the basic bag-over-bag single-stage collector familiar to most of us small shop woodworkers. A few years ago I upgraded to the Oneida Mini Gorilla, a cyclone collector, and it has been excellent.\u00a0I’ve received many inquiries about it from woodworkers considering upgrading their dust collection system, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-product-reviews","category-tools-and-shop"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3408"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3415,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions\/3415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rpwoodwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}