Looking into Oneida Supercell

Absolutely love mine. Best purchase I’ve ever made for the shop. It’s maybe a little loud, but I wear ear protection all the time so I hardly even know it’s on over the noise of the other tools. I don’t know that it’s much louder than a conventional DC, but the pitch is a bit higher so maybe that’s more annoying? Again, doesn’t bother me even when I do a fast cut or something and don’t put in ear plugs, and don’t even notice it with ear plugs. 

It’s got enough suction that you can move it to a more remote portion of the shop if you’d like as well. Adding another 20 feet of ducting (if you’ve got the room) doesn’t effect its function at all. 

As for heat, maybe a little bit but I haven’t really noticed it. If it’s an issue, you could always build it into a closet and do some venting for it during the summer. My shop is 425 sqft, with an open rafter ceiling, so I suppose if there’s heat maybe I’m storing some of it up there. 

FWIW, I’d make the purchase again in a second…and I’d buy the turbo model because ‘buy once cry once’ is real!

John I too had been looking. In December I took a few classes at the local WoodCraft store. In their shop area, they have a used every day. almost all hours they are open, it's in use. All of the big tools, and duplicates of a few bandsaws, and a lot of routers. Their only dust collection is a 2 HP Jet unit with cyclone attached.

We ran a lot of machines, often many at once, and that thing never slowed down. I asked Tony about it, and he told me at the time he'd suggest a different one. So I ended up with 20% off (storewide Christmas discount on all Rikon tools) and I got this Rikon, more power, more CFM's and he has several customers using one, and all good reports coming back. I love mine so far, but to be fair it's new, so it should get a longer test, before a full scale review. My Rikon for $1599.00 A LOT sweeter price than the Oneida, so if it offers as good a run, I'm really happy. I just couldn't reconcile that price tag.

Thanks Ryan, it sure is a hard pill to swallow, but I need to do something.

Thank you George, I'll look into that one. BTW, how did the misses like the etched wine glass?

The issue you get into with the more traditional DCs is that they don’t usually work well with smaller tools because they can’t create enough pressure. Anything under about a 4” dust ports and traditional low pressure DCs start to suffer…and you’ve got to pay attention to your ducting too. So, if you’re using ROS, hand routers with dust ports, whatever, you’ll need a high pressure system as well (read: shop vac). That’s the biggest reason I went with the supercell: it works with everything from my planer and jointer and table saw, all the way down to my ROS and Shaper Origin, all in one unit. That, coupled with the GRIT blast gates, means the entire shop is tied together through one system…and you can use whatever you want for ducting. Cheap drain pipe works great!

Of course to each their own (and price is a REAL thing) but, with the high pressure system, I have no problem with chips and very limited ‘floaters’ for the air cleaners to clean up…no matter which tool I’m using. If the table saw is the heart of the shop, the DC is the lungs…plan accordingly for your shop needs in the long term no matter which way you go. 

Because of the cost, I waited several years before I finally pulled the trigger on the Supercell last year.  It is a loud mother and it does generate some heat. but the suction is incredible.  I generally wear hearing protection for most of the machines where I use the SC anyway so the noise is not that big deal for me.  This time of year the heat is not a problem but in the summer, it will definitely raise the shop temperature for long runs so I sometimes crank the AC down if I know I am going to be running it a lot.   Fortunately, my minisplit is usually able to keep up, even last summer when we had many days over 100°F.   If I had a way, I would definitely put it outside my shop to mitigate both the noise and the heat.     I was able to get rid of my shop vac/cyclone so it does not really take any more room in my shop than my old shop vac did.  It is pretty amazing how much suction it maintains with small hoses.  With most DCs you really sacrifice suction when you choke down the hose but if anything, you have to be careful that the suction while using a shop vac hose doesn't suck up nearby things you may not want drawn into the hose.    

Just be aware that in general, you have to use vacuum rated hoses because the high suction will collapse the standard flexible DC hose lengthwise and if on a mobile cart (I built my own), it can pull itself across the shop.  Standard shop vac hoses work fine and they include 20' of heavy duty 4" hose.  The included hose is probably more accurately called flexible duct.   It is pretty stiff so may not be the best for moving from machine to machine like you may do with normal 4" or 2" flexible DC hoses.   It does not compress in length at all and it requires significant space to store when not in use so the best use of it is probably  for static runs where it is not in the way or suspended from the ceiling as you would for standard ducts.   I still haven't made permanent runs across my ceiling because I will probably have to redo my shop lighting first -- analysis paralysis and procrastination. 

Even with the price tag, noise and heat I would buy it again.  I didn't have  good place to hang the cheapest unit on the wall and I didn't want to pay the premium one of the mobile versions so I built a cart and that works very well.  You can see it in my blog on the Supercell.