Shop Vac Question

Charlie: The amount of vac might be deminished but it makes your labor easier. I hook up a couple of flex hoses from a couple of shop vacs and go around the shop. It’s easier than dragging the vac around after me and then moving it to get the dust under it.

-- What happens in the workshop stays in the workshop. No wait that doesn't sound right. Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com †

Thanks, Karson. Yeah…I’m tired of doing that dance. Plus, even though it is on wheels, it always gets hung up on something as I’m trying to drag it around.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

It will reduce suction, but it might not be that much that it’ll bother you (depending on length of hose, and your ShopVac’s HP), knowing the hose lengths that are available on the market – I assume it’ll be just fine for your needs. as long as you’re not trying to get a 50’hose that is ;)

-- When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Charlie:
If you can put in a length of 2” vac piping with a couple or three takoffs you should be golden for most of your needs.
I used a similar setup before I installed central vacuum.

Worked just fine considering the size of the system.

Bob

-- A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner

I often use an extra hose (or two) just so I don’t have to constantly untangle the vac. Any loss of suction isn’t noticeable with my vac, although there probably is some. My vac is a Ridgid WD1250, which is pretty powerful. I don’t think my old Craftsman vac would have done well with an extra length of hose.

-- John, co-owner Sawdust 'n Stitches

Thanks, guys.

For the record I have a 16 gal. Craftsman like this one.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

You should be OK, Charlie. My understanding is that the same company that makes Ridgid vacs also makes the newer Craftsman and that many parts are interchangeable, so you should have plenty of power.

-- John, co-owner Sawdust 'n Stitches

Charlie, we have the same vac and its a beast. The vac is cumbersome to say the least and it gets clogged up on each use BUT it does suck! An extra length of hose will work just fine. I will be replacing my STIFF hose with a much more flexable one and will be putting a prefilter on somehow. Woman’s nylon hose works well but that too gets clogged very easy. All this clogging does mean that the vac and the filters are working well. (Just a pain in the bottom.)

-- Never board, always knotty, lots of growth rings

That’s my shop vac. Hey, if you’re going to leave it in one place and want a long flexible pipe I have an fairly inexpensive solution that I use for short extensions to me stationary tools from my 4” dust collection system and on my shop vac.

Walmart sells RV sewer hose. It’s ribbed black stuff like our shop vac but much, much more flexible. It’s 3” so some reducing will be necessary. The best news is that it’s about $7 for 20 feet of it. And it is tough and won’t collapse. After all think about what it was ment to carry.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

Hmmm… thanks for the tip, Daniel.

Sounds like my idea will work out. I knew this was the place to ask!

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

I have a 5.0hp ShopVac that I use with 20’ of hose and one of Rockler’s Mini Dust Collection Separators (the one that fits a 5-gallon bucket).

I haven’t noticed any loss of suction, most everything winds up in the bucket, and the ShopVac’s filter doesn’t clog up. Makes life a lot simpler.

The Dust Deputy is probably an even better solution.

-- The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary. -- Vincent T. Lombardi

I was gong to suggest a pool vac hose, but Daniel’s idea sounds better (cheaper)

-- Watch live video from our shop. http://wwbeds.com/live.htm

Chris, thanks for the idea. I have a nice long lenth of pool hose coiled up next to the house. I rarely use it because I have a Polaris automatic pool cleaner. It never crossed my mind to try that.. It’s a little on the heavy side, but I might give it a try.

-- Charlie M. "Woodworking - patience = firewood"

Charlie, i have the 16 gal rigid and routinely use with 2 hoses. not really a problem. The only tool that it connects to is my ROS and if suction is reduced it would be hard to prove ( and rigid make its hoses extra long to start with)

-- RTB. "dumb animals are not stupid they simply can't talk "

I do it differently….. open up the doors and fire up the leaf blower! :-]>

-- hey honey! watch this!

Hey Charlie! Daniel is right about RV sewer hose. After buying your hose at WalMart, go to an RV dealer parts department and check out the cool collection of male/ female twist-lock connectors that you can use on your machines. There are flush-mount tank fittings(no pun intended) and other flanged fittings with which you can standardize your whole shop to a 3” RV system!!

-- If Stradivarius was alive today, he'd be using Gorilla Glue.

CharlieM1958,
I wanted to chirp in and help all I could! As long as hoses are still ‘Round’ and you haven’t tried to ‘Square’ them up by stepping on them like I have-adding another probably wont hurt! But know how you like to keep things ‘Square so I just don’t know!-LOL-Take care my friend.

Sincerely,
Ken McGinnis

-- woodbutcher north carolina

you guys clean your shops?

-- Smitty!!!

After a project I enjoy cleaning and believe me I don’t normally like doing that. I begin by running around and putting away all the stray tools then I use my compressor to blow dust off all the tools, walls, and such then sweep and then vacuum. See, even a slob has a system.

-- The smell of wood, coffee in the cup, the wife let's me do my thing, the lake is peaceful. http://web.me.com/deceiver6/Deceiver/Craftsman_on_the_lake/Craftsman_on_the_lake.html

Charlie,
Using a Shop-Vac to clean up the shop sucks… no pun intended. As you know the filter clogs up so fast and cleaning it all the time is no fun. Instead of going the way of the seperate dust collector, (knocking it over and dealing with vaccume leaks), I opted to try filter bags. They work very well. The bag keeps the filter from getting clogged.

Tom

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

We have a total of 4 shop vacs: One 4.5 hp, One 3.5 hp, one 2.5hp and one 1.5 hp. They are tucked under the workbenches and the large ones can be wheeled out to get to the areas that need cleaning. The longer the hose, the less suction, so the inconvenience of having multiple vacs has worked better than the longer hose. If you get a smaller diameter hose, the suction will be better, but then you may have clogging if the chips or shavings are too large. Cleaning them takes 5-10 minutes outside at the compost pile. I found a stiff bristle bottle type brush that bends that may have been designed to clean the paper filters at HF for $4. This seems to work fine as it doesn’t damage the paper pleats of the filter.

-- "They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." ~ Edgar Allan Poe