To start off I'm a woodworker with a full line of machines. A dust collector is really overkill for building planes IMO but... One of the best deals in a small dust collector is from Harbor freight. Their 2HP dust collector can be had on sale and with a coupon for as low as $120.

Now the bags it comes with are junk. They are just canvas. You can get very low micron bags from many suppliers as long as you get one for a 20" rim. I have a set of bags from a company that makes them for the industry. Very nice bags and they will improve the amout of air the unit sucks too. When I got them they were $70 shipped for the pair. The lower is stock size with a window in it. The upper is 4" larger in diameter (more would be nice but the cost goes up because the material is only so big) and it is taller and just barely touches the ceiling.

Now another route to go is with a canister filter. Wynn is the most popular one. They have two different quality ones both work well one is washable if ever needed. To clean it you just whack it a few times and blow it out with an air hose. The big benefit is the lower bag can be a plastic bag and just taken off and thrown away. Yes a couple delta versions do this with a regular bag on top and I can do the same with mine with the large bag but... Once you use them for a while you will realize you are loosing allot of CFM.


Like I said IMO a DC is overkill. Also the bags I have and the wynn filter will filter out all the dangerous size dust that is created. Also balsa dust tends to be very fine and will plug a bag or filter up quicker. Just keep that in mind.

Pumping all that air outside is doable but can get very costly. If you are sucking 650CFM out of the house that's allot of air you have to bring in from ouside to heat or cool. This is why home woodworkers run these high effeciency filters on their DC.


Personally I'd use a downdraft table with it's own fan and filter. If you need a large area you can use a HVAC blower motor mounted in a box under the table with good filters (white ones).
If you need a smaller version you can get a long squirrelcage fan from a surplus supplier and use it as your fan.

Go with the first option if in a shop or garage and option 2 if you need for indoors.