Hobbyist's questions

[glenn bradley]

I've had one of the bigger Ridgid shop vacs with the detachable blower for over 15 years.

I also have one of these and picked up another during a black Friday deal for a great price. The removable blower means that IF you ever did want better separation and wanted to reduce the footprint you could do this with a weekend project.

Dust-Deputy-003.JPGRidgid Vac Mad v1 (12).jpg

[Art Mann]

It seems to me that you are the one who failed to understand the original poster's question. Just to clear things up, he was asking for advice on shop vacuums. He was not asking which brand of electric hand tool has the best dust collection. You may think that Festool is the only brand that provides good dust collection. My personal experience is that your assertion is not correct. May I ask how you have so much knowledge of all the other brands? Have you tested all the tools the OP now owns?.

Seriously? did anyone actually read the OP's question? All this talk about dust collectors, cyclones etc is ridiculous.

Ivan, with the tools you have, router, circular saw and sander, all have poor at best dust collection. The Festool stuff has much better dust collection but are expensive. If you're just starting out and don't know if you're going to stick with WW then you'll have to decide if that's the right path for you. If the shopvac you have now works then a new one isn't really going to improve your current situation as the tools aren't designed for good dust collection.

So unless you're ready to upgrade all your tools you'd be better off buying a good quality respirator.

Mike

[Harlan Barnhart]

To the opening post, I have a fein turbo ii and find it indispensable. For me it's worth the cost just for the noise reduction, automatic start/stop is a great feature as well and I've never had a problem overloading a 20 amp circuit, or any circuit for that matter. I bought mine for $299 but they've gone up since then.

[Jim Dwight]

The reason the filter is so important is that if you use a vacuum with a poor filter, it will blow the fine dust you are worried about up in the air and all over your workspace. It will get the big stuff off the floor but will not help you be healthier at all.

I agree with your statement that tools with good dust collection capability are more important than better vacuums. Good vaccums tend to have better filters and auto on but these features can be added to less expensive vacuums while still saving money.

This is the auto on switch I use. Works well but I had to put a wire across it to keep it in the outlet:

http://www.amazon.com/DGC-PRODUCTS-I...+vacuum+switch

[Gerry Grzadzinski]

My old Craftsman shop vac is still going strong after almost 20 years of use.
You say your sander is the biggest dust maker. Does it have a port that will accept a hose? If so, get a hose that fits it, and buy or make an adapter to connect the sander hose to your shop vac hose. I do that with an old Porter Cable sander, and I can sand about 95% dust free.

If your sander doesn't have a dust port, then you need to get one that does.

The main thing you gain from a high end vacuum is noise reduction.

[Charles Lent]

Use whatever vacuum you have now, household vacuum, shop vacuum, or whatever, and add a Dust Deputy ahead of it. Then add a hose from the exhaust port of the vacuum and run it through a window or port to the outdoors. The Dust Deputy will keep the filter in the vacuum clean, and venting the vacuum to the outdoors will prevent even the micro fine dust from getting back into your shop.

I'm using a re-purposed whole house central vacuum unit that I got free when they rebuilt the house next door, but any vacuum will do for sanding, if it has good suction. Don't buy a new vacuum, spend your money on a Dust Deputy. You will be amazed how well it works.

To keep the filter in the vacuum from clogging, I use a Dust Deputy to separate all of the sawdust before it gets to my vacuum unit. The filter in the vacuum never sees any visible sawdust. Any invisible sawdust that isn't separated out by the Dust Deputy or caught by the vacuum filter goes out through a pipe to the out doors. For me, the 5 gallon bucket under my Dust Deputy needs to be dumped about every 3 months. I always check the vacuum canister and filter when dumping the 5 gallon bucket, but have never found anything in the vacuum or it's filter. The bucket usually has 3-4 gallons of sawdust in it from my sanding, drilling, scroll sawing, and vacuuming the floor and I work in my shop about 3 full days per week. My planers and table saw make big wood chips, so I don't worry too much about keeping sawdust from them from getting into my shop air.

Charley

[Bill Sutherland]

+ 1 for the Dust Deputy. I have two, one hooked to my Festool Vacuum and the other to my Rigid shop vac. Between these two and my Shopsmith 330 dust collector I'm able to keep things fairly dust free. Panty hose on the Rigid has also worked well.

[Robert Engel]

For those basic tools, a Ridgid is a fine shopvac. You should research "Dust Deputy" because adding that preseparator can keep your filter from clogging prematurely.

Once you get into bigger stationary tools like a bandsaw, tablesaw, jointer, planer, you can think about a 4" dust collector.

Also, get yourself a good respirator. I am partial to the 3m half mask: it's inexpensive, fits well, and has replaceable, available filters.

Last,
WELCOME TO THE CREEK!!! Roll up your cuffs and wade in. The water's nice.

Yes yes yes.

You can add a HEPA filter, too.

[M Toupin]

It seems to me that you are the one who failed to understand the original poster's question. Just to clear things up, he was asking for advice on shop vacuums. He was not asking which brand of electric hand tool has the best dust collection. You may think that Festool is the only brand that provides good dust collection. My personal experience is that your assertion is not correct. May I ask how you have so much knowledge of all the other brands? Have you tested all the tools the OP now owns?.

Apparently the burr under your saddle has affected your reading comprehension Art. I didn't miss-understand the OPs question, I think it was clear. He listed the tools he has and asked if a new shop vac (he already owns one if you missed that too) would improve his dust collection with the tools he presently owns.

Nowhere did I recommend he buy Festool or any other brand. If you re-read my post you'll see I merely pointed out that the tools he has NOW all have fairly poor dust collection and that a NEW shop vac would do little to improve that situation. If you re-read the OP's original post he is the one who mentioned Festool. I merely commented on his question if other brands such as Festool would be worth while. In fact, I didn't recommend buying any new tools, I recommended a good respirator which I still think is appropriate for his current situation.

I am a bit baffled on the "assertion" comment though. So what is the "assertion" that you apparently believe I made? Is it that high end tools such as Festool, Fein et al have better dust collection? Surely you don't wish to debate if tools designed with little or no thought to dust collection perform on the same level as those that where designed with dust collection in mind?

Mike

Who owns nothing green but has a a whole stable full of yellow, gray and orange dust spewing powered hand tools...