Shop Fox W1685-1-1/2 HP Dust Collector,White

I got my Shop Fox today. I started assembly. THe first thing I noticed was I was short on bolts per the manual. The manual called for 14 M8 bolts and it only came with 6. These are for bolting down the motor mount and impeller housing. Don't panic, the base plate has threaded holes in it so they must have changed the design but not updated the manual yet. The motor mount holes in the base plate lined up nicely by the impeller housing holes were 1 3/8" too close to the motor mount holes. One othe impeller mounts lined up with a caster bolt so I replaced that with a 1/4" x 1" bolt, 2 flat washers, a lock washer and nut. I had to drill a hole for the other impleller housing foot. I used another 1/4 x 1" bolt and washers to secure it. There are zero lock washers with this unti, just flat washers. Check the unit perodically to ensure all bolts are tight. If they tend to come lose add a lock washer. A hex wrench and 2 cast open ended wrenches (8 & 10MM and 111 & 13MM) came with the unit. A nice touch but you don't use the hex wrench and at some point you will need a second 10 and 13MM wrench to tighten the bolts. ou will also need a phillips screwdriver. Assembly was a breeze once I got past the missing impeller housing holes. The unit runs fairly quiet and it's certainly easier on the erars than my shop vac. Suction is good. The colloector was able to pull planer shavings from my open hand at 4" from the duct. I will rate the collection performance after I've had a bit more time to use the machine with all my tools. Based on advice from reviews on the Woodstock W1049 large dust collector seperator I will install one as a precollector to the Shop Fox. As one reviewer mentioned it reduces the pucker factor should a large chunk of wood get sucked into the dust collection. I have no desire to be replacing my impeller or housing any time soon. :) Reviewers note that the precollector catches most of the shavings and reduces the frequency of emptying the Shop Fox bag. The unit is on casters for ease of movement but be wary of where you grab the unit to move it. I pulled on the bag support arm and it began to bend. It seems like the seperator unit is the best place to push or maybe push the base with your foot. It would be nice to have a definate solid handle to grab for mobility. Overall I rate this a 5 star fine machine.

Shop Fox model W1685 arrived yesterday and I immediately opened box to be a bit worried, the Styrofoam packing materials had been broken by the weight of the motor. Upon inspection the only thing I could find is one of the motor mounts was slightly bent. I began assembly and felt the instructions were very clearly written and easy to follow. The biggest thing I was impressed with during assembly was the quality of the nuts and bolts supplied, everything went together flawlessly without having to fight threads and alignment, by far the easiest assembly process I have experienced in a long time. Assembly by yourself is easy if you think things through and the trick to installing the plastic collection bag is to use painters tape to hold in place while you put the bag clamp on. This beast does draw a good amount of power at startup, I was using a 12 gauge ceiling mounted cord to test it and it 'popped' the cords integrated 15amp breaker consistently at startup. Once connected to a dedicated circuit it worked flawlessly. I hooked it up to my miter saw and cut some wood and was amazed at the power and suction. I will be testing my surface planer and table saw in the next few days but have no worries that this will handle anything I have in my shop! Very happy with my purchase so far!!!

I purchased this recently for my home shop. At the moment, I have it setup with a single 4 inch hose run up from the unit and across the ceiling, splitting off to a 4" jointer hose, a 2 1/2" planer hose, and another 2 1/2" hose that I use like a shop-vac. It works really well, for the most part. Some of the larger chips tend to get stuck in the 2 1/2" hoses, but I think that's more to do with my hose configuration, since the chips have to be sucked up 10 ft. to the ceiling. It's a bit of a pain to replace the dust collection bag without a second set of hands, but some tape could probably resolve that. When emptying, definitely make sure to knock the dust out of the filter bag, otherwise the suction will be greatly reduced. Large debris and trash can block off the impeller, so try not to let the kids suck up bubble wrap and dust masks, like mine did...easy to clear out, though. Overall, it's a great dust collector for the price. It has very good suction, especially with 4" hoses, and it's quieter than a shop-vac.

As I am writing this, I have had the Shop Fox in use for 8 months. I have my woodshop in my garage. During cold or hot times the garage door is closed. I had used a small shop vac whenever I could, but realistically I didn't use it enough for the "quick jobs" that are more often the case than not. I bit the bullet and researched the various shop vac's available. The critical features needed 110v electrical, sound, and suction. The Shop Fox was the best option for the price so I made the investment. That investment included the necessary 4" PVC pipe, fittings, slide gates, hoses, attachments, etc. to make the system worth it. The final piece of the puzzle was the PSI Woodworking LR110-3 Long Ranger III 110V Remote Dust Collector Starter Switch. With remote in hand, necessary slide gate open I am a happy camper. The first time I used the planer which is my number 1 chip/dust maker with the vacuum system in place it sucked up everything on the exit side. I have yet to put anything on the entry side because very little comes out that way. Buy extra bags right away. It only comes with one. Others have written about the perils of putting the unit together so I had no surprises or issues when I assembled and installed it. The only problem I had after about 3 months of operation is it started making rattling noises which I found was the impeller had loosened on the shaft. The suggestion not seen in other reviews is to tighten the impeller when you are assembling the unit just to do it. Since I tightened it there have been no problems. Make sure you have a separate minimum of 15 amp / 110v dedicated outlet.

1 Year (almost) Update: Still running strong!!!!! I use it with a table saw, band saw, drill press and I setup a camera tripod to hold the end of the hose next to any other thing I'm running like a sanding wheel/grinder, etc. Great deal, just make sure you have a larger than 15amp circuit to plug it into like an outlet for your laundry machines...then just get the THICK extension cord (yellow ones, not the skinny orange ones) like this ConnTek heavy duty one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EVQL896/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1. Day 1 things I noticed: -Outside of delivery box had a sticker that said "Now with a 2.5 micron bag". Good -The lower bag is plastic, the top is cloth. -The hardest part of assembly was putting the bottom bag on: I finally just put magnets on the bag to keep it up while i put the strap around it. -The top bag had a slot in it where you feed the belt inside of the bag. -The Philips screws are for the wheels; count all the bolts of each size and match to the number needed in the manual. All the bolts in the instructions look identical but in real life they're different sizes. The manual required certain amounts of each size and you're given that exact amount. Also the x25 bolts are longer than the x16 so that helps too. -This is a 16 amp device. My basement has 20 amp, 30 amp and 40 amp breakers but of course the outlet I plugged it into was a measly 15 breaker: lights out! -This is 16 amps by itself but you should also remember the amps of your table saw or whatever (if they'll be plugged into the same circuit). -I have an inconvenient outlet that is on a 20 amp breaker. I ran this with a regular orange extension cord and it didn't heat up HOWEVER I ordered a thick 10 awg (10 gauge wire) extension cord for a better safety margin. The extension cord is thicker than the cord on the machine. -Everything on this unit seems to be heavy steel except the aluminum poles that hold the bag. Very little plastic: just the power switch! I just have to decide whether to install a higher circuit breaker or just leave it in my laundry room: it's huge and about 75" tall so it might be too big to have in my little shop. It's got more than enough power for my 20' hose. DO NOT PUT YOUR HANDS NEAR THE INTAKE! THIS UNIT IS SO STRONG IT'LL TRULY GRAB AND PULL. THE IMPELLER IS STEEL! Yep, of course I had to test it. Almost lost a hand, lol. I was shocked at how strong this unit is. 1200+ cfm is massively stronger than the 500 cfm units I grew up around. Seriously, do NOT put your hands or feet near the intake! Don't let the quiet sound fool you. It has a safety key to keep kids and cats safe. The power switch is the kind that you tap to shut off, pull up to start. It's super strong. It's quiet. It's pretty wide and really tall. Steel, steel and more steel. Fedex delivered it a day early. Two people can pick up the single box it comes in. Fedex guy got it off the truck alone. After researching for 2 years I can say: this is the one to get. No more dust!

I'd like to say that overall I really like this product and it works great. The reason I am giving it 3 stars is due to the inaccuracies of the description and the state that I received the product in: 1. This is definitely NOT pulling 16 amps. I have it plugged into a remote switch that is only rated at 13 amps and the whole unit is on a 15 amp circuit breaker with other tools (such as my Bosch miter saw) plugged in and running without a problem. 2. The inlet of the dust collector fan is indeed 6" but the outlet is only 5". Typically on equipment like this the outlet is always larger than the inlet which explains why they branch the inlet down to 4" (so you only connect with 4" hose). 3. I posted some pictures for how it looked when it arrived. The box was so banged up that most of the Styrofoam packaging was broken into pieces and many of the parts such as the motor mount were incredibly bent. It took some serious work to straighten them out so I could mount them to the base. 4. Both the filter bag and collector bag were in good shape and are both heavy enough for heavy use. 5. I have the unit pulling through 4" ABS piping and has more than enough suction when running one tool at a time, even at the end of a 30ft. run of overhead pipe. Luckily for me I purchased this for use with a Dust Deputy XL and am venting the fan outlet to the outside via a roof vent so I am not using the stand or the bags and the fact that most of the product was damaged didn't matter that much to me but it was frustrating all the same. And while I'm sure the shipper caused most of the damage and the late delivery, they should improve the packaging to provide more protection.

Shop Fox W1685 is excellent dust collector for my 3 hp 8" jointer, 2hp table saw, and 13" planer. I hooked up a Woodstock W1049 Large Dust Collection Separator and trash can between the dust collector and my machines to drastically reduce the cycles of emptying out the clear bottom bag. I used all 4" clear flexible hoses to one machine at a time and switch hookups between machines. The bottom bag was quite the challenge to re-install - you need to hold the bag on the outside lip while also holding the banding clamp. At first I thought I needed six hands, but found that masking tape to hold bag in place helps a lot then tape band in a few locations before snapping closed. There are better designs (Jet, much more expensive) in the bottom bag re-installing dept., but the price difference made me choose the Shop Fox and I can live with the lower bag assembly process with tape. Also, the bracket holding the upper bag is flimsy, but functional and emptying the upper bag is easy. The extra fine filtration of upper bag is a plus. A handle on the mid-assembly to push/pull around the shop will need to be installed. wheeled cart is adequate. Power is excellent when heavy planning and joining. Overall, highly recommended for home wood shop

A dust collector was something I always knew I would need once I started woodworking, but it was one of the later purchases I made. I'm happy I ended up with this one. I originally was shopping around for the Grizzly 1.5HP that would work with 110/220V. When I ordered it, it was out of stock for a couple months. It was at that point that I remembered the "Shop Fox" name, as Grizzly sells some of their equipment as well. I ordered one first for my neighbor who was in the market for a collector, and when I saw how nice his was, I ordered the same unit. The best part is, I found this unit on Amazon for the same price as the grizzly shipped to my door overnight. The setup of the unit took 20-30 minutes. It was fairly straightforward, although moving the motor around was interesting because of it's weight. It might have been helpful to have someone hold it while I was putting in the nuts/bolts. The instructions were basically a list of parts, and pictures of what to do. I was able to figure it out without much trouble. The reason I was originally staying away from the 115v units was because of the power draw. This machine powers up with roughly a 16 amp draw, so it really needs it's own circuit, although once it's running, you can run smaller tools on the same circuit. I like the flexibility of moving the machine around the shop without worrying about having a 220v outlet everywhere for it. As for the construction of the machine, it's definitely solid. The pipe that holds up the bags is solid enough that I don't worry about it folding. When moving it around, I like to make sure I push directly on the base, because I don't want any more strain on the bags than needed. The air movement is also very good. I use both 4" inlets with one going to my Grizzly 1023SLW table saw, and the other as kind of a "floater" to handle other tools such as my Planer, router tables, and miter saw. I use the shop fox blast gates to shut off one or the other, but the flow is enough that I rarely have to. The airflow is strong enough that if I put the 4" hose behind my Bosch Mitersaw, it will suck small pieces of wood right off the table if you're not careful. This machine gives a great bang for the buck, and is recommended for any small time woodworker like myself.

Easy to assemble, all parts were well protected in the packaging, and plenty of power for my drum sander dust collection.