Which type of filter bag to use with Ship Vac

My shop vac came with a black foam sleeve and a blue paper that clipped around the motor. This did not do much to collect dust. I went over to the big box store (Lowes) and purchased a Hepa filter. I kept the black foam in place and through out the blue paper. Now I don’t get any dust coming out the exhaust port. Every time I empty the bin I take the filter out to the trash can and beat it against the inside of the trash can to knock off the accumulated dust.

Exact model numbers depend on what shop vac you have.

-- "I love it when a plan comes together" John "Hannibal" Smith

I suggest you go get a Gore Clean Stream filter to put on the vac, you may have to figure out which model fits, take one of yours with you (box store). If you do go with dust bags, I would still use the filter…the foam thing isn’t doing much anyway so you can choose what you want to do with it.

-- Our village hasn't lost it's idiot, he was elected to congress.

I would like to use a filter bag because the amount of fine dust accumulation will be slow as I only use the tools for model airplane building and a few small projects . My question is whether I should use the more expensive filter bag for drywall type dust or the ordinary household type filter bag which they claim is also suitable for sanding dust .

I will use the foam plus blue paper in case the dust bag breaks then I will blow dust all over the place:(

I think maybe the household type will leak very fine dust, but your filter would catch that. I do agree drywall bags may be overkill for what you’re doing but it seems like there should be something in between the 2 that would be more suitable. Try the less expensive and see if they meet your criteria.

-- Our village hasn't lost it's idiot, he was elected to congress.

The cost difference is not that much so I went for the Drywall bag. Installed easily but have not tried it out with serious sanding yet. I am sure with such a large bag , it will take me a long time to fill since the separator ahead already removes almost all but the finest dust and that i am not in the workshop everyday .

Did you leave the filter in place?

-- Our village hasn't lost it's idiot, he was elected to congress.

Did you leave the filter in place?

- Fred Hargis

I left the foam and disc filter in place to guard against possible but unlikely filter bag puncture for the type of fine dust I pick up. I dont know whether the added filters reduce suction power . I have no way to measure .

I dump the output of my shop vac into the trash can on my sealed dust collector.

Before that, I ran the exhaust outside with the same exhaust hose.

I really have not found a truly effective shop vac filter that goes down to 1 or 0.5 micron AND support the flows shop vacs are known for.

-- Brad, Texas, https://www.youtube.com/user/tonkatoytruck/feed

I always use the yellow drywall dust bags in my shop vac. The shopvac pleated filter plugs up way too quick if I don’t use a bag. I have a dust collector for my shop machines though. I think bags would get quite expensive if the vac is used for dust collection without a separator before the vac.

I agree. It will be too expensive to use the Yellow dust bag as the sole dust collector .

I my case I have a Thein Separator ahead of the yellow dust bag. The yellow dust bag is good enough to filter out the balance of the fine dust I make ( mostly balsa dust when sanding ). The additional std blue disc cloth reuseable filter remains clean and is there only as protection against accidental yellow filter bag puncture.

Use a Gore Clean Stream. It filters really well and doesn’t clog that easily. It’s easy to clean, a bit mess but really not that bad. You can use a bag filters before it, but it your seperator up steam is doing its job then a bag isn’t really needed.

If you are doing something that lets a lot of dust through, like sanding drywall or grinding concrete then put a bad in to make filter cleaning a little more pleasant. (don’t ask how i know this)

If you go with the Gore Clean Stream only clean it by knocking the filter (not on the pleats) and rinsing the outside with water. try not to touch the pleats, whatever is on them comes off easily if brushed. Compressed air at a distance also seem ok, but does make a cloud of dust.