There was a thread about these things a while back that seems to have
scrolled--I'm starting a new one for that reason.

A question raised in that thread was the utility of the blower, with the
observation that it probably doesn't work very well as either a vac or
blower.

I have had one for several years--it's always worked well as a vacuum--I
don't know how much horsepower it is actually delivering (I'm sure it's not
the "6.5 peak") but I can say with considerable certainty that it *SUCKS*,
which in a vacuum is a good thing. I have a dewalt random orbit sander
that I had been using in conjunction with the little dewalt portable vac
(nice unit for what it is by the way) but the other day I hooked it to the
big Craftsman and I was surprised when there was _no_ dust in evidence
during sanding and the sander ran much much cooler than it ever had before.

It usually picks up whatever I point the hose at, including nails, lead
weights, and whatnot--the only time it has a problem is when something
manages to get crossways in the hose.

The blower, as a blower, I've never used so can't comment, but it has two
other uses. One is, hook the hose to the blower outlet and feed the other
end into the tank and fire it up and clogs usually clear--if you don't
point it into the tank then they may end up on the other side of the shop.
The other, I discovered by accident tonight--position the vac so that the
outlet is pointing in your general direction and it makes a very effective
cooling fan without seeming to blow stuff around.

I'm not sure how the motor is arranged but with the hose blocked there is
still airflow through the motor from somewhere so apparently there is a
separate cooling fan for the motor--this is different from most shop vacs
and I think it's a nice feature.

Now, it does have downsides. The big one is that the tank just plain isn't
very big. That mechanism on a 25 gallon tank would be very nice. The
other is that in common with most shop vacs it is noisy--hearing protection
may not be strictly necessary but it helps. It's also somewhat bulky--in a
16 gallon size a higher profile and smaller diameter would be more
convenient but if that compromised the performance then Sears or whoever
made the right decision.

All in all, I'd recommend it.

Note, I'm not recommending it as an alternative to a dust collector--I've
got a 5 horse cyclone for that, but as a vacuum it's a damned nice one.
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)