There's lots of little details and techniques that effect how this all works. You have the vacuum systems, your particular sanding equipment and then there's some nice modifications you can make as well.
I work with the Bona Atomic which is the same thing as the Gorilla vacuum as far as I know. From a suction point of view , it's probably the best. You put a regular garbage bag in it and go to town.It sucks (pun intended) 100% all the time as long as you don't over fill the garbage bag.
I also use the Bona PDC which is smaller and more user friendly (less aggrivating) . It works well but is a simpler system and you must back flush it regularly to knock the dust build up off of the paper cone filter.
I also have the Bona DCS canister vac which is usually sufficient for edgers and buffers.
As far as big machines, my hummel and Bona Belt machines collect nearly 100% of all the dust they generate so I rarely ever attach them to the vacuum system. As far as the vacuums go, the DCS canister vac does not have the capacity to keep up wit ha hummel for long.You'd have to replace bags constantly. The Bona PDC works well here because with the transparent canister and transparent bags, you can see when your bag is full. With the Atomic, you have to remove the top lid and check periodically.
As far as edgers go, the Clarke 7R throws much less dust than the Clarke B2 . I outfitted my 7R with felt strips to act as a dust skirt and it throws almost zero dust ,especially when connected to the more power full PDC or Atomic vacs.If I sand stair treads with the 7R connected to the PDC or atomic vacs, there's virtually no dust thrown except for a small amount that gets on the risers.
For buffing, I can use any of my vacs including my back pack vacuum and get all the dust. My buffer is a Bona DCS 16".
Here's a few pros and cons for each vac.
1.Atomic- Awesome power all the way until you fill or over fill your garbage bag. IF you over fill your bag, it makes a big mess and ends up in the exhaust bag. So don't over fill. If you split the hose to two machines, the lift is drastically reduced so don't do it.Also, the atomic is freakin huge and barely fits into a work van. Lastly, the atomic draws a ton of amperage ,especially on start up so you have to run it on a 20 amp breaker that has no other load on it.
2.PDC - Much easier to move around than the atomic and has very good lift but not as much as the atomic.It's easy to see how your bag is doing and the PDC uses a longo pack which is basically a continuous bag .You cut the bag, tie it and then pull down more plastic off the longo pack roll to make your next bag. Do not over fill this machine or you will risk burning out the motor. The only other minus is that you must back flush this vacuum often .I do it every 10 to 15 minutes or the lift gets drastically reduced.
3.DCS- A good all around canister vacuum.it usually handles my Clarke 7R and buffer no problem.The only minus is that you can only fill the bag about 50% and then you need to throw it away. So you have to expect to go through a lot of bags.
No matter what you do, there is always some dust somewhere and 100% dustless is not achievable. I explain to every customer that with my machines, dust system and last coat clean up, that I will leave their house as clean or cleaner than when I began. A contractor that I do work for runs off at the mouth all the time about how his sanding is dustless and he gets himself into trouble sometimes. He has had to hire cleaning companies on some jobs because he promised dustless and then the customer's went around looking for dust and found some.
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