You need to get an air filter
for your shop. The best way to collect dust is at the
source. That's why I attach all my woodworking machines to my dust
collector and it's why I use my router
table instead of a hand held router whenever possible. If I'm
working on a small piece, I take it over to my downdraft
table.
However, some dust will escape and sometimes it's not possible to
collect the dust at the source. That's where the air filter comes
in. The JDS is more expensive than the Jet or the Delta but it's a
better filter.
I like it because it has a timer that you can either use or
avoid. Some of the other filters only run on a timer.
Because I put the electricity in my shop on a timer switch I prefer to
run the air filter for as long as I have power.
Also, the JDS has a washable electro-static filter. That filter
would be a $40 upgrade on the other air cleaners. A normal filter
relies on a tight grid to capture the dust as it passes through.
An electro-static filter uses a static electricity charge to capture
dust as it passes through the filter. Electro-static filters are
generally considered to be high end filters.
The filter has three speeds. I usually run it at the slowest
speed because I don't like the noise from the filter. It also has
timer options of 1, 2, 3, or 4 hours. As mentioned
previously, you can avoid the timer and run it continuously.
There are two things that I would improve about this unit. 1)
At the higher settings, it's louder than I would prefer. 2) It
sucks in one end and blows out the other.
Regarding the noise, I tried a few of them at woodcraft and they are
all about the same volume. Looking at the construction, it seems
that neither Delta, Jet, nor JDS has tried to dampen the noise with
foam.
Regarding the blower, all the air filters work the same way.
They suck dusty air in one side and blow clean air out the other.
The problem is that you're forced to either suck the dust from where
you're standing or blow clean air to where you're standing. The idea is
to get a the air going around your shop in a circle. However, that
doesn't work that well for me because I make most of my dust in the same
place. I think I'd rather have it suck the dust from the bottom
and blow it out the side. That way I could put it right
above the place where I normally use power hand tools and blow the air
around the shop. Again, all the air filters blow in that
configuration. Probably because they need the longer run to pass
the air through all the filters.
