Shop vacuum

The 16 gal 6.5 hp Ridgid shop vac with a 2 1/2" hose works well for cleaning up my lathe and mill. I do use a bag. The bag greatly extends the life of the filter before it has to be removed and beaten against the floor to remove the clogged dust. I consider a 2 1/2" hose a must! The 1 1/4" hoses are really only good for attaching the vac to power tools like sanders IMHO.

I picked up a 7.5hp 3ph dust collector with a full size cyclone off craigslist for an incredible price to use on all my wood working tools. I have been wondering if I should run a drop over to the lathe and mill? I was thinking of 6" spiral wall metal dust collection pipe. I wonder if is would just fill with all the swarf? The inlet to the cyclone is 8". I wonder if I could crank the VFD to 120hz and suck the table off the knee?
 
The problem you will have mixing your wood working tools with your metal working tools for a dust collection system is the Oil that will get sucked in with the chips. It will over time coat the walls of your piping and collect dust from the wood working tools in layers.
I have a separate Cyclone Dust Collection System for my wood working tools and an older Sears 16 Gal Shop Vac with a smaller cyclone on castors I use for the metal working tools.
 
Nogoingback said:
I don't use compressed air to clean up my lathe
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Ever since I cleaned and inspected my old 13" South Bend apron, I too no longer use air to clean the mill or lathe.
Chips were in places they had no right to be.
I was watching a Suburban Tool video one time, Don Bailey said, air is not allowed in the shop by the machine tools.
 
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darkzero said:
I've got a 12 gal Craftsman XSP in the garage & it's main use is for vacuuming up chips. Stringers I pick up & dispose of by hand. From day one of getting this shop vac I used dust/drywall collection bags. Keeps the tank & filter clean. Been using this Craftsman for years now & the original filter still looks brand new. I have had no problems with the collection bags tearing from oil soaked chips. I do probably toss out the bags before they are completely full though because of the weight of the chips. Still the bags last me a while. I'm just a hobbyist though & don't make chips daily.

I just use the plain ol white dust collection bags, non-hepa/yellow. I used to use Shop Vac branded bags cause they were readily available & didn't cost much. But since the bags have gone up in price & Shop Vac has gone out of business, I just buy generic equivalents from Amazon. Even cheaper & I don't see any difference in quality, if anything they're better quality.

My current shop vac uses the standard 2-1/2" hose. I initially though about getting a smooth bore hose but have never had the hose clog. Once in a blue moon it'll clog at the 90° tank inlet at the bag if I don't expand the bag sufficiently. Easy to get going again though. My previous vacuum was one of those cheap Shop Vac brand black friday models. Was a 10 gal but came with a 1-1/4" hose. That hose would get clogged all the time & I'd have to poke it with a long rod to unclog it. I hated that Shop Vac all around, gave the thing away.
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This is my exact setup also. Very happy with my Craftsman XPS vac. 12 gallons. Buy bags from Amazon now for $2.80 a bag in packs of 15.

The key is to empty your vac before it becomes completely full.

For the OP, I would suggest a cyclone add-on to a vac with it possibly stacked above the shop vac. Saves space and you will most be emptying the container on the cyclone vs the vac itself.
 
Also, for anyone who does woodworking and uses a bag type dust collection system, I would urge you to switch to a sub 5 micron bag and/or convert to a canister filter. Most of the bags sold with cheaper dust collectors capture the big stuff, but the small particulate that escapes the bag is what will kill you eventually.
Fein and Festool also make very nice vacuums, but they are spendy and not sure if you can get generic bags for them.
 
For those doing both metalworking and woodworking, please keep the vacuuming of metal shavings and wood separate. Ferrous metals can spark when coming in contact with other similar metals and cause fire or explosion in an atmosphere of wood dust.
 
If any of you are interested in learning more about cyclone dust collectors and their design, ---> here is a web site from Bill Pentz<---.. He is fairly well respected regarding his knowledge of collector design and the dangers that go along with breathing sub 5 micron particulate matter. I was going to build his design but ended up buying a 3hp Grizzly system. It
 
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