File this one under "never again"

[Lane Hardy]

I think you need the correct filter media to use water. I have a "spun bond" filter from Wynn which can be washed out and it works well. It does take a while to dry though - at least a full day of warm & breezy and longer probably wouldn't hurt.

What Wynn filter do you have? Mine is the Wynn 35A I have washed shop vac filters with mixed results even high dollar filters that stated they were washable.

[Jay Larson]

I don't think I would say Never Again, but I will try to remember this in a year or so.

I had been wondering why my dust collector wasn't sucking up the chips from my jointer. I had just converted the table saw trunk to a hard duct instead of the flex tubing. So I thought it might have been leaking. So I took a look at that. Nope nothing loose, all working. Maybe something in the impeller, so I took the connector off an looked there. Looks fine. The bag was full, so I emptied that, and during that time I bumped the filter bag at the top... Yeah, it was caked with fine dust. I emptied what I could into the bag and took it outside. It was a nice windy night, so I turned it inside out and beat it up pretty good.

Turned it right side out and put it back on. Amazingly, it even sounded better. And yeah, no more chips in the jointer chute.

[Julie Moriarty]

My cyclone ejects the fine dust outside. A few weeks ago I was doing a lot of planing and neglected to check the drum. When I finally did I saw it was topped off. Then I took a look outside and saw sawdust everywhere! Seems I've got an overflow preventer.