HUB 03
Dust collectors, shop vacs, separators and air filtration — ranked for a home shop, priced live, and backed by the CFM arithmetic most sites skip.
Dust collection is the part of a shop that is easy to under-buy and hard to fix later, and it is also the category where the marketing and the physics disagree most. A machine advertised as a "1,200 CFM" collector is quoting its free-air rating — the flow with nothing attached. Add a length of flex hose, a few fittings and a filter, and the real flow at the tool can be less than half of that. This hub is built to close that gap between the box and the bench.
The honest version of this category is a decision tree, not a single "best" product. A shop vac plus a cyclone separator is the right first move for a shop running handheld sanders, a track saw and a small router. A dedicated dust collector is what you step up to when a planer, jointer or table saw starts producing chips faster than a vac can move them. Air filtration is the third leg — it catches the fine, lung-reaching dust that settles for hours after the machines stop, and it does nothing to collect at the tool, so it is an addition, never a replacement.
Our flagship here is the CFM guide, because it is the piece of arithmetic that decides everything else and the one no ranking competitor publishes. Every tool has a port size and a rough airflow it needs to actually clear chips; every foot of hose and every fitting subtracts from what your collector delivers. We show the inputs and the calculation so you can size a collector to your shop instead of guessing from a headline number.
Start with the small-shop collector roundup if you already know you need a dedicated machine, and read the CFM reasoning inside it before you spend. If you are earlier than that, a separator on a good shop vac is the cheapest real improvement you can make to shop air.
All three legs of the decision tree now have their own ranking: shop vacs and dust extractors, air filtration systems (with the air-change arithmetic to size one for your shop), and the cheapest layer of all — dust masks and respirators.
Just added, and the page we would most like you to bookmark: the dust collector CFM chart — published airflow figures machine by machine, what a 2-1/2, 4, 5 or 6-inch duct can physically carry at the velocity chips need, and the formula behind every row. Alongside it, dust collection on a budget sets out the cheapest-first buying order, and two new per-machine guides cover the awkward cases: router tables, which need collecting in two places at once, and lathes, where the honest advice is to stop chasing the shavings entirely.
Before those: the best cyclone separators— the cheapest upgrade in the whole category, because a clean filter is what keeps your suction — plus the hose, blast gates and fittings that decide how much of that airflow reaches the tool, and a plain guide to laying out the ducting without throwing airflow away.
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Start here
A collector's advertised CFM is a free-air rating; real flow at the tool can be less than half. We rank five small-shop units and show the math.
Everything in this hub
Roundup
A collector's advertised CFM is a free-air rating; real flow at the tool can be less than half. We rank five small-shop units and show the math.
Roundup
Six shop vacs and dust extractors ranked on filtration, suction and noise — with the honest explanation of what separates a vac from an extractor.
Roundup
An ambient air filter clears the fine dust that stays airborne after collection. Three units ranked, with the shop-size arithmetic to size one properly.
Roundup
Five respirators ranked on seal, comfort and filter range — plus the plain explanation of N95 versus P100 and why fit beats rating every time.
Roundup
A cyclone keeps chips out of your filter, and a clean filter is what keeps your suction. Five separators ranked, from a budget lid to a collector-scale cyclone.
Roundup
Diameter, length and every fitting subtract from your airflow. The hoses, blast gates and adapters worth buying, ranked by what they cost you in flow.
Roundup
Four stages, cheapest first: a separator on the vac you already own, then a starter collector, then gates, then air filtration. Buy in this order and nothing gets replaced.
Buyer's guide
Free-air CFM overstates what reaches the tool. Here's the math on hose, fittings and port size, and the real 350–700 CFM target for a single small-shop machine.
Buyer's guide
A shop vac gives high static pressure through a small port (sanders, track saw, router); a collector gives high CFM through a big port (planer, table saw). Most shops end up owning both.
Buyer's guide
Diameter, length and every elbow subtract from the airflow at your tool. A plain guide to hose vs rigid pipe, blast gates, grounding and a layout that keeps the CFM.
Buyer's guide
A table saw throws dust in two directions at once. Below-blade extraction, over-arm guards, and the honest options for an open-frame jobsite saw.
Buyer's guide
Why a miter saw throws dust everywhere, what the port can and cannot catch, and the hood-plus-vac-plus-air-filter combination that actually works.
Buyer's guide
What IARC and OSHA say about wood dust, which species sensitize, and the three-layer defense — capture at the machine, filter the room, protect the face.
Buyer's guide
Published CFM figures by machine, plus what a 2-1/2, 4, 5 or 6-inch duct can actually carry at the industry transport velocities. Every number sourced or shown as arithmetic.
Buyer's guide
Two collection points, two different airflow problems. Which one to connect to a vac, which to a collector, and the honest options when the bit is buried in the fence.
Buyer's guide
Turning throws shavings in an arc no fixed port can cover. The honest strategy: sweep the shavings, collect hard at the sanding stage, and filter the room.