The Ridgid shop-vac I have screams like an F18 in full afterburner mode.
It gets used when it is the only available option, and then only with
hearing protection.

I'd rather use a broom.

Patriarch
==================
Have to agree with the noise....But that can be fixed....!

My simply enclosing the shop vac in a box ...leaving a vent around the
bottom for air flow... and cutting a hole in the top or side for the
hose to enter... and adding a remote control X-10 device to turn it on
and off...

Been using that method for years and never had any problems at
all..noise reduction is very low...

I use the small 2 inch or so cheap clear plastic tubes and orange
little blast gates sold as a Shop Vac system by The borg...

I HOWEVER DO NOT use it as a DC system....more of a central
vaccum system for my shop... (have a dozen or so blast gates that I
can plug into around the shop so that 100 percent of my shop can be
reached by a single 8 foot shop vac hose ...

THAT SAID:

I have 2 DC's in my shop ... a 2 Hp Griz which handles all my machines
(1 at a time via Blast gates) and a 1 Hp little Penn State unit that
handles both my Horizontal & regular Router tables, my spindle sander
and my planner....also via regular 4 " PVC and blastgates...
In addition I have a Delta air filter mounted up high on one end of
the shop and a home made air filter sitting under my workbench on the
other side of the shop....

By just using the shop vac as a DC ..without the 2 in pipe
etc..hooking it up to each machine it honestly will pick up most of
the chips...but hardly any of the small airborn dust .... Lets say it
is a good CHIP VACCUM but a Pi$$ poor dust collector...

The real dust collectors on the oher hand will remove almost all the
air born small dust particles but have a hell of a time picking up the
larger chips... gets most of them but by no means all...

From My observations and simple tests...Dust Collectrors do a great
job collecting dust but make darn poor vaccums...Shop Vac on the other
had are extremely poor Dust collectors but suck up the larger chips
better... Nothing new in this observation since DC move a heck of a
lot of air with low velocity wheras a Shop vac moves much less air but
moves it at a higher velocity...

With all these (2 air filters, 2 Dust Collectors and a central vacc
system) in my shop you may think I really am a health nut ...but in
truth I installed them ONLY to have a cleaner shop in which to
relax...I honestly (at 61 years old & a smoker) was not in any way
trying to protect my lungs etc...I just like my shop to be clean ...

Bob Griffiths