Shop Vac Experiment
 

I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this. Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?
If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this. Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?
If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.


Shop Vac makes a model that fits on a 55 gallon drum. Works as well as any
other vac of the same size. Expensive, IIRC about $325 or so. McMaster has
them. We use on at work for sucking up water on the floor. It gets plenty
of use for that and has held up well.

OTOH, a Shop Vac is not a dust collector, IMO. Different uses. Your idea
should work, but keep in mind over the length of the hose there will be some
losses of suction.

wrote:
I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this.

I saw an forum message and a "movie" on a Ryobi Saw site. It looked like
it worked really well. The guy made a unit from a concrete form.

http://www.bt3central.com

We need to do this in our shop. We use bags, and a 1 micron filter on a
shop vac. It would be nice to even cut down on the bags.


Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?

Seems to work fine.

If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.



--
Will
Occasional Techno-geek

In article . com,
" wrote:

Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?

The problem isn't pressure (or "suction"). It's volume. Moving dust and
chips doesn't take a big static pressure so much as it requires a great
volume of airflow.

That's where shop vacs fall short as dust collection systems.

Kevin

2 suggestions.

1. Use one of those Cylone lids on a garbage can with your shop vac.
They work very well.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...,42401&p=30282

2. Lee Valley also sell excellent quality, long vacuum hoses. I have
the 24' one. It's in a different quality league than those that come
with shop vacs.

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...,40727&p=47161

Neil

Thanks for the reminder. I knew I had seen this stuff somewhere.


toolguy wrote:
2 suggestions.

1. Use one of those Cylone lids on a garbage can with your shop vac.
They work very well.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...,42401&p=30282

2. Lee Valley also sell excellent quality, long vacuum hoses. I have
the 24' one. It's in a different quality league than those that come
with shop vacs.

http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page...,40727&p=47161

Neil

If I buy this I can use the time to make a mess and furniture dust
instead of making shop stuff. :-)




--
Will
Occasional Techno-geek

On 13 Mar 2005 08:17:15 -0800, "
wrote:

I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this. Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?
If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.

There is a few things wrong here. First, a long hose, especially if
it is corrugated, will have a lot of turbulance and pressure (suction)
loss. Second, a shop vac does not move the volume of like
conventional dust collectors. However, your idea might work for some
tools. You need to think about purchasing a 2 or 3 HP DC, perhaps one
on wheels so you can hook it up to one machine at a time. A 5 HP DC
can service a good sized shop with piping & blast gates to several
machines.

In article . com,
wrote:
I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this. Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?
If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.


Size of the drum is *irrelevant* to the vacuum 'suckiness'.


The primary consideration is that the drum assy be air-tight.
Any leaks translate *directly* into a loss of suction.

Secondary consideration is the 'friction' losses in a long hose.
The size of the drum makes *no* difference to those losses.

I've got a Rigid "6.5HP" (*snicker*) with a 12 gal tank. With a
15' extension hose on the end of the stock 8' hose. _No_ noticeable
loss of suction power.


40 years ago, Sears sold a vac on a cardboard drum that was same diameter,
although less than half as tall as a standard 55gal barrel. *lots* of those
were trivially transplanted onto a full barrel. :)

On 13 Mar 2005 08:17:15 -0800, " wrote:

I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this. Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?
If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.

I've seen home made cyclone cans for shop vacs.. make one the size you want,
limit would be how good your vac sucks.. lol



mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 11:09:34 -0600, Kevin Craig
wrote:

In article . com,
" wrote:

Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?

The problem isn't pressure (or "suction"). It's volume. Moving dust and
chips doesn't take a big static pressure so much as it requires a great
volume of airflow.

That's where shop vacs fall short as dust collection systems.

Kevin
===============================
Very Very true.....
I run both a 1 Hp and 2 Hp Dust collectors in my shop...The smaller
one used only for my planer .

But I also use those clear ..almost. 1 1/2" tubes with Orange little
blast gates (sold by the borg as a DC system powered by a shop vac)...

My Shop Vac is enclosed in a box (much quieter) powered by a Radio
shack X10 device.. and connected thru about 100 feet of tubing
around my shop ... and I have about a dozen little blast gates where I
can "plug in" a single normal shop vac hose and reach almost any spot
in my shop...Just a lot easier then dragging the vac around...

I use it ONLY as a central vaccum system....not as a DC... Sure I
experimented with it...BUT as a dust collector it failed really big
time... when "vaccuming the shop floor however it "sucks" a lot better
then either of my DC can ...experimeted with them also...

Like Kevin said....air flow and suction are two completely different
things... for sweeping the floor suction rules...for removing dust
from the air ...air flow rules...

Bob Griffiths

On 13 Mar 2005 08:17:15 -0800, "
wrote:

I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this. Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?
If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.


I have seen it done successfully. I don't know if it will work in your
shop with your vac, but I'd guess the odds are good.

the length of hose will draw down the horsepower more than the
capacity of the can.

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 22:06:18 GMT, Phisherman wrote:

On 13 Mar 2005 08:17:15 -0800, "
wrote:

I'm going to try having a stationary vac in the shop with a long hose,
Craftsman makes a couple of models along those lines. The only ones
they make are 5-gallon models, which means they'd have to be emptied
pretty often. Before I go to the trouble of putting the vac head on
a piece of plywood over a 40-gallon garbage can, I'd like to know if
anybody has tried this. Probably wouldn't have enough pressure, right?
If all I can get out of the group is, "gee, it might work," I'll try
it. If someone tells me it won't work, I'll take their word for it.

There is a few things wrong here. First, a long hose, especially if
it is corrugated, will have a lot of turbulance and pressure (suction)
loss. Second, a shop vac does not move the volume of like
conventional dust collectors. However, your idea might work for some
tools. You need to think about purchasing a 2 or 3 HP DC, perhaps one
on wheels so you can hook it up to one machine at a time. A 5 HP DC
can service a good sized shop with piping & blast gates to several
machines.


he never said he was going to use it as a DC.