Vaccum cleaner for the shop?

Winegrower said:
I have had good performance from Craftsman vacuums. Get a large diameter hose, say 2.5”. I keep it central between the mill, lathe, vertical bandsaw and horizontal bandsaw, and it’s easy to dump the bin when needed. The long chips eventually will jam the hose, so choose feeds and speeds to break them up. :)

Don’t ever think that the dust collector from your wood shop will work. It’s for dust!
Click to expand...
I use a similar style Dewalt wall mounted vacuum that's dedicated to the mill. However, the hose is only 1 7/8" diameter. Long stringy chips do occasionally plug up the hose. To clean out the hose I disconnect it from the vacuum. Drop the connector end into a 5-gallon bucket and drop about a foot long piece of 1" steel round stock down the other end. It takes a few minutes, but eventually all the swarf is cleaned out. It's a filter style only. No bag.

I have several other wet dry vacuums in the shop. All of these are roll around Shop Vac brand. All have the 2 1/2" hose and use filters without the bags. The hose on these machines have never plugged with swarf. To empty the contents, I just remove the top, slide a garbage bag over the top, then flip the canister upside down and empty the contents into the bag. Word of caution don't let the vacuum fill more than about 30%. Any more and it's hard to handle. Not only that the garbage bag won't be able to carry the weight.

I also have a dust collector for the wood working equipment. I wouldn't try it for metal swarf. The oily mess will coat the inside of the hose and the impeller in the blower. The oil will also ooze through the collection bags and make it harder or impossible for air to pass through. Saw dust will then coat the inside of everything.
 
matthewsx said:
I don't know whats available in Spain but I have one of these next to my mill.

www.homedepot.com

Bucket Head 5 Gallon 1.75 Peak HP Wet/Dry Shop Vacuum Powerhead with Filter Bag and Hose (compatible with 5 Gal. Homer Bucket) BH0100 - The Home Depot

The Bucket Head Wet/Dry Vac Powerhead can be used to turn a The Home Depot brand 5 gal. multi-use bucket (sold separately) into a powerful wet dry vacuum. The powerhead features a 1.75 peak horsepower
www.homedepot.com

Works for me and cheap.

John
Click to expand...

I have a small rigid in an overhead cabinet in the wood shop, connected to a dust deputy on a 5 gallon fiber barrel.

However, I second this solution for the metal shop because I hate oily swarf and it hates filters, but I recommend a two bucket solution to prolong the life of the vacuum significantly. The two bucket solution places a dustopper separator in series with and ahead of the bucket head. Most of the oil and chips will separate out prior to reaching the second bucket and the filter head of the vacuum.

BONUS noise abatement... you can place the second bucket in an insulated cabinet or cupboard with a remote switch and almost never need to access it. The first pail with the dust topper can be placed where you have easy access to drop the bucket for to empty it. This is how it is in my wood shop.

 
+1 on the ShopVac switches not being very good. I have the ShopVac pictured below, which works okay when it's running, but the ON switch is finicky. I attached a 5-gallon bucket with one of those vac-attach lids to my ShopVac. Cut the hose short from the shop vac to the bucket, then a long one from the bucket. The heavy stuff goes into the 5-gallon bucket for dumping.

I also have a 5-gallon bucket with the vac-attach at my sandblaster. Amazing how much easier it is to see in the cabinet with some vacuum on it.

I don't know the CFM on the 5-gallon pail all-in-ones, but at $30 it'd be worth a hard look.

Bruce


20221110_100116.jpg
1668093093688.png
 
Another user that experienced switch problems with a Shop-vac...

Replaced with a Rigid over 15-years ago with zero problems since. I do use bags, just for the convenience of emptying.
 
projectnut said:
I use a similar style Dewalt wall mounted vacuum that's dedicated to the mill. However, the hose is only 1 7/8" diameter. Long stringy chips do occasionally plug up the hose. To clean out the hose I disconnect it from the vacuum. Drop the connector end into a 5-gallon bucket and drop about a foot long piece of 1" steel round stock down the other end. It takes a few minutes, but eventually all the swarf is cleaned out. It's a filter style only. No bag.

I have several other wet dry vacuums in the shop. All of these are roll around Shop Vac brand. All have the 2 1/2" hose and use filters without the bags. The hose on these machines have never plugged with swarf. To empty the contents, I just remove the top, slide a garbage bag over the top, then flip the canister upside down and empty the contents into the bag. Word of caution don't let the vacuum fill more than about 30%. Any more and it's hard to handle. Not only that the garbage bag won't be able to carry the weight.

I also have a dust collector for the wood working equipment. I wouldn't try it for metal swarf. The oily mess will coat the inside of the hose and the impeller in the blower. The oil will also ooze through the collection bags and make it harder or impossible for air to pass through. Saw dust will then coat the inside of everything.
Click to expand...

Dust collection type systems can work very well with oily materials when you use a cyclonic stage to separate most of the oil and materials. Placing the vacuum just below ceiling level directly above the cyclone minimizes oil getting beyond the cyclone and what does drains straight back into the cyclonic unit. Silicone sealing the cyclone inlet and outlet to the vacuum line eliminates oil leaks.

Three views of how I designed my system where the the vacuum sits in the overhead box, and the inlet pipe to the vacuum comes in the bottom of the box goes up into reverse p-trap and then into the vacuum. I planned this to suit metal shop as well, but different dust collection pail.

Note while note shown the vaccum sits to the left of the pipe entry. The right side of the cabinet is for storing vac attachments

cyclone 1.PNG

cyclone 2.PNG

cyclone 3.PNG
 
BGHansen said:
+1 on the ShopVac switches not being very good. I have the ShopVac pictured below, which works okay when it's running, but the ON switch is finicky. I attached a 5-gallon bucket with one of those vac-attach lids to my ShopVac. Cut the hose short from the shop vac to the bucket, then a long one from the bucket. The heavy stuff goes into the 5-gallon bucket for dumping.

I also have a 5-gallon bucket with the vac-attach at my sandblaster. Amazing how much easier it is to see in the cabinet with some vacuum on it.

I don't know the CFM on the 5-gallon pail all-in-ones, but at $30 it'd be worth a hard look.

Bruce


View attachment 426200
View attachment 426203
Click to expand...

TorontoBuilder said:
I have a small rigid in an overhead cabinet in the wood shop, connected to a dust deputy on a 5 gallon fiber barrel.

However, I second this solution for the metal shop because I hate oily swarf and it hates filters, but I recommend a two bucket solution to prolong the life of the vacuum significantly. The two bucket solution places a dustopper separator in series with and ahead of the bucket head. Most of the oil and chips will separate out prior to reaching the second bucket and the filter head of the vacuum.

BONUS noise abatement... you can place the second bucket in an insulated cabinet or cupboard with a remote switch and almost never need to access it. The first pail with the dust topper can be placed where you have easy access to drop the bucket for to empty it. This is how it is in my wood shop.

Click to expand...


That is pretty cool... another gadget I did not know about...

Dust Separator at Home Depot - 50.00 at the local HD

The one from Amazon does not include the additional hose that would be needed to connect it inline..

Dust Separator at Amazon

 
wachuko said:
That is pretty cool... another gadget I did not know about...

Dust Separator at Home Depot - 50.00 at the local HD

The one from Amazon does not include the additional hose that would be needed to connect it inline..

Dust Separator at Amazon

Click to expand...
The dust topper is great in height constrained systems... but is not as effective as the dust deputy...

There are similar style toppers that go onto 50 gallon steel drums. That's what I eventually plan on using, an elevated barrel with a bulkhead fitting in the bottom with a screen filter to drain waste oil, so i can empty chips just once or twice a year
 
Alberto-sp said:
Hello.

My shop is a mess. Always a lot of chips of metal everywhere, and I don´t mean the floor, that is easy to sweep. I mean the lathe, the mill, etc... (they are mini)

So I looking for a vaccum cleaner, but there is to types: With disposable bag or with a filter that you clean. What typer is better for metal chops and that kind of things?

Off course course I won´t use it for long chips, these are easy to remove by hand

Thank you

Best regards
Click to expand...
About a year ago I posted what I use in another thread, but can't find any of my posts that are that old. However, this is my current setup:

HD DustStopper.jpeg
  • The Red, 12' long x 1-7/8"Project Source Hose sucks the chips up; the hose hangs in two loops from a spring to keep it out of the way – just unhook enough to reach what you're working on:
Shop Vac Hose.jpg​
Various nozzles are kept on the top tray of the cart, and a floor nozzle on extension tubes is close by.​
  • The Orange "Dome" is a Home Depot Dustopper, mounted on a metal 5 gallon bucket (the cheap plastic orange Homer Bucket eventually started collapsing and breaking the seal between the Dustopper & the bucket):
DustStopper Kit.png​

  • The Black, 2-1/4" Hose connects the Dustopper to an 8 Gallon/4.5 Hp Shop Vac (SS14-550A), with the base removed so it fits in the cart
  • The Black Dingus on the outlet of the Shop Vac is a muffler that also keeps the exhaust air from blowing all over the place

Originally, I had both a cartridge filter and bag installed in the Shop Vac; this is recommended by Shop Vac to keep dust from clogging the filter (and sell bags?). However, the filter added pressure drop and it's a pain to get the Shop Vac out of the cart to change the bag or filter; also, the Dustopper does a good job keeping 95% of the dust (and virtually all of the chips) from getting into the Vac itself so I just use the filter. It's reasonably easy to disconnect the hoses to take out the bucket for emptying.

I have a long plastic tweezer that I use to collect long, curly chips as I got tired of cleaning out the hose:

Chip Tweezers.jpg
 
Thanks a lot, @wachuko. Now I have TWO dustoppers coming my way.

Crazy good deal:
www.dustopper.com

Two Dustoppers, One Good Cause *These Are Slightly Used Dustoppers

The Dustopper by Faster Better Easier LLC is not only committed to helping you keep a clean shop but is here to give back and help impact the community. With your purchase of our “Two Dustoppers, One Good Cause” package, 100% of the proceeds will be given to Shiloh Detroit. LIMITED TIME OFFER -...
www.dustopper.com
 
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