Oneida Supercell

I’ve had the Oneida Supercell for coming on two years now. While I have to confess that I’ve never had another ‘bog boy’ dust collector, the Supercell is an amazing piece of kit that it’s absolutely the right system for my small shop.

It’s important to realize what the Supercell is, and what it isn’t. It’s designed around the concept of high pressure dust collection. This is a similar concept to how a shop vac works, in fact you can think of the supercell as being several shop vac motors working together at once,  since that’s basically what it is… The motors sit under the top, black housing. Inside the upper yellow drum is a pleated filter, below the filter is a conical deceleration chamber which leads to a holding drum below.

Being a high pressure dust collector usually means a dramatic decrease in the volume of air moved. That’s what happens with a shop vac. Good suction pressure right at the mouth of the hose, but a couple inches away it drops off dramatically. A high volume dust collector, which is what most wood workers are used to in a ‘big boy’ DC works under a different principle.

High volume means moving a large amount of air, and that’s important so that the draft area (area where you’ll feel the air movement off the end of the hose) is large enough to collect dust and chips from around the functional area of a tool. On something like a cabinet-style table saw, the cabinet forms a fixed volume that the chips fall into. A high volume DC is able to move most all of that air at once, which takes the chips and carries them away. The issue is that high volume requires big hoses. If you neck down the hoses (or dust ports) you dramatically reduce the overall capacity that the DC can move by choking it off. Large volume DCs work well in production shops, or shops with industrial machines, because those machines have larger dust ports (6-8”) that support that movement of larger amounts of air. But, in a small shop, or a shop using sub-industrial tools, the tools usually have dust ports in the 1”-4” range. These small dust ports are one of the major failings of using a high volume DC. The ports choke off the DC and collection is suboptimal.

The Supercell also has another trick up its sleeve. Most high velocity DCs (shop vacs) can only maintain their high pressure in a smaller diameter hose. That’s because the motors don’t have the power and blade size to move a large volume of air at high velocity. You kind of get one or the other…and while both have their place, both together would be much better. While not perfectly, that’s what the Supercell does pretty damn well. Its motors are able to produce high velocity at what’s considered medium-volume…but much higher than a shop vac. That high velocity means Supercell is perfect for dust ports 4” and below….which is what most non-industrial machines have. The medium volume means it has the ability to collect enough air to move chips, and especially dust, from a larger cabinet (or open area) near the working end of the tool.

I won’t post the specs here because you should look them up for yourself, but the Supercell boasts (and delivers!) enough volume to collect dust from sanders a loooong way from the DC and enough velocity to collect chips from a joiner or planer. You can watch videos of super long hose lays from the supercell, but one of the coolest things about the high velocity system is that you don’t need to be nearly so worried about hose/duct length and smoothness. In a low pressure, high volume (traditional) DC, it’s very important to have wide sweeping turns in the duct, and limit any sort of corrugation in the duct or hoses. That’s because any sudden changes of direction or obstructions cause turbulent airflow, and the DC doesn’t have the velocity to overcome that turbulence, so you lose volume quickly. The Supercell really isn’t bothered by changes in direction or corrugation. It works regardless, because of that high pressure it developers. Of course, best practice is always to make ducting as clean and tightly sealed as possible…but it doesn’t have to be perfect with the Supercell.

Since the Supercell is really designed for 4” duct, I used 4” Sewer and Drain pipe for my ducting. It’s easy to find, light, relatively cheap, and (very importantly) the adapters and angles are CHEAP compared to metal duct or long sweeps.

You can argue the use of insulator style duct and dust explosions on your own time. If you find a first hand account of a dust explosion or fire from a static charge in a dust collection duct system, let me know. You won’t be able to, but let me know anyway. Same with grounding wires for duct. Snake oil. You can’t ground an insulator. 

I’ve been over-the -moon with my Supercell. It keeps my shop cleaner than it’s ever been. The system has a reverse-pressure whammy bar to help clean the filter, and mine was easy enough to wire into my GRIT automation system to automate everything. I chose the smallest collection drum (14 gallons) because it was easy to move/use and most of what my DC is used for is collecting tool chips and sanding dust. If you’re doing a lot of planing with a thicknesser, you’ll fill that drum awful damn fast. There are two other, larger drum options for larger shops….a 35 gallon and a 55 gallon. It’s 240v and (I think) wants 20 amps, but it could be a 30 amp breaker called for. I have it on a 30. 

It does produce a little bit of heat, but I haven’t found it to be an issue even during the hot summer months. It’s a little noisy owing to the high pressure motors, but I wear hearing protection anyway, and it’s not really that bad if you’re a couple feet away from it. Dollar for dollar one of the best purchases I think you can make for your shop, assuming your tools have dust ports sized 4” and smaller. If you have larger dust ports, this probably isn’t the right machine for you. The Supercell isn’t cheap, but it does exactly what it says it’ll do. 

Regardless, call the folks and Oneida and just talk to them. Tell them what you do, and talk to them about your needs. They are completely no-pressure in their phone conversations. They’re more than happy to give you info to help you make your own decisions. Never once did I feel any inkling of pressure from them to buy anything, and I’ve heard this echoed from others as well. 👍🏼