2 stage dust collector

My $100 Harbor Freight dust collector is a wonderful little device. Since I have more of a work bench and not a work shop, space is a premium. This dust collector can hang on the wall, and it provides all the vacuuming I need. The only issue is with the dust collection system itself: As it fills with sawdust, it loses suction. This is common among all single-stage collectors. The easy fix is to empty it out more frequently, but unless it's one of those fancy dust bags with the zipper on the bottom, this usually makes a mess while you're trying to shake out all the dust. With this design, most of the shavings go into a cardboard tube that can be emptied much less frequently and much more easily. It keeps the surface area in your bag from filling up with big stuff so it can make room for fine particles.

There are other variants of the DIY dust collector, but this one works for me, and I did it for about $15 and a trip to a big box hardware store.