"I went back and forth with Oneida for several weeks as we worked on the design, chatted about what kind and configuration to get. Some of this was intentional as I was doing a bit of stalling waiting for the money that I was going to use to make the purchase. My old dust collector in my old shop which was one bay of a garage was a Jet 1.5 HP collector, because of this it was a mess of wye fittings and flex hose. My new shop is a 20x32 standalone building that would allow me to put in a better system with fixed pipes.
While I would have loved something similar to the nordfab system, it just wasn't in the budget. In the end after some discussion I went with the [V-System 3000 HEPA Cyclone Dust Collector] and upgraded to the steel drum. I debated back and forth between the 35 and 55-gallon drum. But in the end, I decided I didn't want to have to handle that much and went with the 35-gallon drum.
Once the order was placed it took about a week before it arrived. It came in 11 boxes via UPS and honestly when it arrived I was a bit worried based on the condition of the boxes. However the excellent packaging by Oneida meant that only a bit of the tubing had some slight bends on the end that were easily fixed with a pair of pliers.
Installation of the dust collector went well, but this is the first of one of the few minor complaints I have. The manual is not well written. I opted for the wall bracket instead of the stand. The instructions on how to install the wall bracket are buried in the back of the manual and I didn't notice till my third run through the manual that it's after the troubleshooting section and no mention in the table of contents that it's back there.
[Editor's Note: In 2018, Oneida Air Systems completely redesigned all product manuals to address customer feedback and concerns.]
Once installed, it was on to the ductwork. The plans that I was given for the ductwork were really detailed. Here real life met plans and they didn't completely work. I had to make some modifications to the duct work to get it to fit right. Fortunately there was enough pipe to be true to the plan layout and get it up and setup.
Running electric was done about 1/2 way through the project. I had to run it through the crawl space and cut power to the panel box to run the new circuit. I know other electricians that do this without cutting power to the box. The dust collector is in a closet. The first time I powered it up, there were still 5 of the 6 drops not hooked up, but there was enough air coming through the system, that I couldn't shut the door to the closet.
3 days of work later the ductwork is up. There is still quite a bit of cleanup and the only tool that is currently hooked up is the table saw, but it moves some air and sucks up some dust now. The only 2 other complaints I have is that they didn't include enough of the foil tape, but that may have been because I went tape happy and taped up every joint and they were not enough sheet metal screws. The 6 inch and 7 inch pipes all got 4 screws at every joint and the 4 and 5 got 3.
Overall I'm very satisfied. Mark at Oneida was very responsive. All my many many phone calls and emails were answered within a few hours and I'm looking forward to not having to drag around my portable collector now."
- Allen Briant
