"habbi" wrote in message
...
Anyone ever use a big shop vac as a central vac. How does the suction of a
shop vac compare to a central vac. I see some central vacs rated by water
suction height such as 130".


Yes.

Some may complain about the relative reliability of a shop vac vs. a
high-end central unit -- fooey! At $800+ for a good central, and less than
$99 on sale for a _good_ shop vac, you can wear out one every year and a
half, and still be ahead.

I built our system around a Sears $99 heavy-duty vac. The vacuum 'head'
lasted six years of thrice-daily in-house use, plus double-duty in my shop,
because I plumbed my workshop with overhead gates and floor scuppers.

The problem of standard PVC pipe not mating up to, say, ManorVac fittings is
trivial. Hey, guys... this is a metalworking forum. Just use one of your
eighteen lathes to bore standard PVC couplings out the few thou necessary to
match up with the commercial wall plates.

All this, I did. I built up a low-voltage relay system from an old filament
transformer and a 12vac relay.

The rest was six years of trouble-free, wonderful performance for a _total_
expense of about $300 for both the house and workshop.

(don't forget to use long sweeps for turns, rather than ells, or those socks
and cats WILL get caught at the corners G)

LLoyd