Catch the Dust Before It Catches You With the Best Dust Hood
Chronic occupational exposure to dust particles can activate allergic reactions in your body, compromise lung capacity, or distort the natural defense mechanism of your respiratory system. If you are running a small-scale, financially constrained workshop that cannot sustain a properly installed dust-collection system, you must compensate by incorporating some reasonably practicable precautionary tools such as portable dust hoods into your work equipment. This will help alleviate possible health risks and produce a safer environment to work in when using table saws. Considering that dust collectors or hoods are one of the best investments you can make for the health and safety of your workers, we have shortlisted the best dust hoods in 2023 for you and all you need to know about them to choose the most suitable one for your needs.
Best Dust Hood Buying Guide
Looking into the domain of dust collection, you have multiple options with a variety of price points and specifications hence it can often be tricky to choose the right one. Our team has conducted an in-depth evaluation of available dust hoods to assist you in sifting through them and selecting the best dust hood well-suited to your requirements.
What Not To Miss While Buying a Dust Hood
You can only sustain a business if it is based on strategic decision-making and financial management. But will you make use of tools or accessories that do not correspond with your machines at work? Therefore, to avoid any such problems, you must first study the requirements of your current equipment and then look for the relevant material. This will save you from excessive expenditure or monetary losses.
Cost: Going Beyond ‘Good Enough’
How to decide which dust hood is worth an investment after all? Well, start by identifying what your finances allow before anything else. Even if you are running a small-scale workshop, you must undertake appropriate strategies to manage capital investments and optimize utilization and outcomes, while sticking to your budget. A general rule of thumb is to visualize a price range in your head for the dust collector before embarking on an exhaustive search of the products.
Versatility and Compatibility: Will the Partnership Survive?
This is the single most important characteristic that permits you to stay relevant with your work equipment and machinery. Thorough research will assist you in finding a mutual tool for multiple selections that could be interchangeably used between different machines thereby saving you some notable amount of money. Choose a dust hood that is functionally attuned to your set of machines and is compatible enough to last you a long time. In addition, easy installation to the workshop table is a feature that must never be overlooked in a dust collector. If you are choosing the fragment to be portable, it should offer easy attachment to the miter saws or drill press table instead of requiring additional material like screws to be clasped with.
Portability and Dimensions: Choosing the Right Size
Well, the size of the hood is a significant consideration. You must ensure that the collector is compatible with its counterparts in terms of its size and ideally match more than one machine or equipment, such as a miter saw and table saws, that are of various lengths and configurations. Know which mounting style of the dust hood falls under your domain and find something in line with your needs and workshop table.
DIY Dust Hood
If you have time to spare and want to build your own dust hood for your workshop table, check out this how-to video from DIY Montreal:
Best Dust Hoods Worth Considering for 2023
POWERTEC 70122 Big Gulp Dust Hood
– Best Dust Hood Overall
POWERTEC, being a technologically progressive company, has introduced many effective portable dust-collecting alternatives that include its gulp dust hood. It is a hand-powered dust-collecting tool, of Taiwanese origin, that weighs about 1.2 pounds and carries the dimensions of 16 x 13 x 10.5 inches. Do you know why is POWERTEC more of a necessity than just an accessory? From filtering and catching dust, debris, and chips, this component is attachable to chop saw, drill press, lathe, and table saw among many other equipment and machines. This accessory allows for the entrapment of dust as small as sawdust, a by-product of woodworking operations that can become airborne and pose serious health risks due to its irritant and carcinogenic properties.
- It is a simple sawdust collection method.
- Compatibility
- Build & Durability
- POWERTEC is relatively costly than its contemporaries.
Dewalt 5140006-97 Planer Dust Hood
– Runner Up
Is it enough to say that Dewalt planer dust hood has made it to the Amazon’s Choice list? After a keen evaluation of the product, backed by a thorough assessment of reviews by the consumers, here is a quick review of what this product has to offer you. This dust hood weighs 11.4 ounces and measures 16 x 6 x 4 inches. This replacement part is made specifically for the Dewalt planer. It is a genuine OEM part, not a knockoff. It helps to deflect dust away from the user, resulting in a cleaner and safer working environment. This accessory is composed of black plastic and is sold as a single unit.
- It has a 4-inch port for dust collection.
- DIMENSIONS: Overall length of the hood is 13-1/2 inches while the collector OD measures 3-7/8 inches and collector ID measures 3-3/4 inches.
- COMPATIBILITY: This dust hood is functionally attuned with specific machines including DeWALTDW734 type 1 12-1/2-inch planer and DW733. Its compatibility range encompasses wooden dust collectors too such as Bill Pentz/Clearvue style cyclone.
- The hood requires M4 screws to be mounted with which have to be separately purchased.
Big Horn 11401 Dust Hood
– Honorable Mention
Cleansing the air in the workshops could not have been easier. The Big Horn’s bestseller is a Chinese product that works well with machines that require a small, rectangular dust hood. It works independently of batteries. Weighing about 4.8 ounces, it measures 9.2 x 4.7 x 3.6 inches in dimension.
- It has a 4-inch attachment port for a hose for dust collection.
- DIMENSIONS: 9.2 x 4.7 x 3.6 inches.
- VERSATILITY: It makes an excellent choice for situations that require a small, portable, rectangular accessory to do the job. Combining it with a top filter bag, the suction capacity of the tool tends to make a marked increase. Use a hose clamp for optimal utilization.
- The dust hood can be incorporated with further replaceable fragments or accessories for optimal utilization, however, all of these will have to be separately bought.
BOSCH RA1172AT Router Dust Extraction Hood
– Contender
This American Dust Extraction Hood Kit provides everything you will need to use for your 1617 or 1618 fixed-base router. It weighs 8 ounces and functions independent of batteries.
- It comes with a dust extraction canopy for flat surfaces as well as an edge-forming hood.
- Hose port angles increase collection efficiency while also keeping the hose out of the way.
- A vacuum adapter for 1-1/4-inch, 1-1/2-inch, and 35mm hoses is also supplied.
- This dust hood carries limited specificity in terms of its compatibility with the power tools.
Makita 193036-7 Dust Collector Hood
– Also Consider
The Makita Dust Collector Hood, a 3.3-pounds product measuring 17 x 4 x 6 inches, can integrate the dust collector system to the Makita 2012NB planer.
- The hood is designed to attach to a portable vacuum system quickly and easily.
- DIMENSIONS: The dimensions for attaching to the hose are 2-7/8″ OD x 2-5/8″ ID.
- COMPATIBILITY: The product is ideal for use with the 2012NB Makita 12-inch portable planer.
- With non-standardized measurements, the Makita dust hood is specific for a few machines only.
PSI Woodworking DBGULP Big Gulp Dust Hood
– Also Consider
PSI Woodworking is a leading supplier of woodworking tools and dust collectors among many other products. The big gulp dust hood is a Chinese product, weighing about 2.2 pounds, and 13 x 16 x 10 inches in dimensions. This dust collector suitability corresponds with radial arm saws, carving, sanding, miter saws, lathes, and planers without hoods. The PSI big gulp is characteristically similar to the POWERTEC big gulp hence sharing the same set of pros being offered to the consumers.
- COMPATIBILITY: With a 4-inch OD, a big gulp dust hood is functionally attuned to various dust collection system pipes and hoses, owing to its standardized measurements.
- BUILD AND DURABILITY: The dust hood is manufactured from tough and resilient ABS plastic material and can be driven in multiple configurations.
- VERSATILITY: The convenience of mounting this tool anywhere along the dust-collection machinery is attributable to its lightweight manufacturing, functional integrity, and portability.
- PSI big gulp dust hood is comparatively an expensive option as opposed to various related products.
- Instead of simply one on the flat side, it would be a better and more versatile product if it had lips on all four sides thus not the best choice for lathe-based operations.
People Also Asked
A: The answer is to avert the risk to one's health. Inhaling fine wood dust might cause respiratory problems and aggravate existing ones. Various types of wood dust can irritate uncovered skin surfaces too.
A: You can refer to books and manuals like The Industrial Ventilation, etc to come up with a design that caters to your needs. Referring to an agency and their experts can check over your design and provide recommendations once you have finished it. A scaled plan of your shop, with machinery placements, outlet sizes, and dust hood variants applicable can be put together in a proposal and then approved by the experts involved.
A: Properly constructed hoods are essential for a good dust collection system as they are vital to keeping a capture velocity high enough to attract dust into the system. The hoods positioned closest to the dust source produce the best results. With many factors influencing the ideal size and form of a hood, the ones with a tapered or conical shape are best-suited for the dust collection process. The ACGIH Industrial Ventilation Handbook is an excellent resource to refer to for hood designs and their best-suited application.
