Help me out with shop vacuum thoughts

shop vacuum

Bill Houghton, retired fun in Sebastopol, CA

>I use about a decade-old Sears vac (maybe older - I've lost track of when I bought it). It's not great, but it does get the job done, and it's lasted pretty well. If/when I get rich, I'll be looking at the Feins or similar - but rich is a ways away.

One issue with brooms is that they stir up as much dust as they remove, and some of that dust will find its way to your innocent lungs. Back when I worked as a custodian, there were slightly oily compounds that were supposed to glom onto the dust and clump it large enough to gather effectively; if you decide on a broom, you might find out what's currently available in that line. There was also "mop oil," which went on the dust mops for the same purpose.

Someone, I believe it was Consumer Reports, did a test on shop vacs, and found that the Sears shop vacs passed enough 1-micron dust through the filter that they weren't much better for your respiratory health than a broom. I've been meaning to see if Home Despot still carries the "Clean Stream" HEPA filters that they had for a while that were guaranteed down to 1 micron, but have lacked round tuits. Maybe now that I'm retired and spending more time in the shop (I hope - today, I'm in the house because we caught some kind of bug eating out yesterday, and I'm feeling a little puny), I should get to it.

Cheesy . . .

SteveM

>Sounds cheesy but have to back-up Bill. Have my Craftsman 2.0 hooked up to a LOT of PVC pipe running to each station and the hand tool bench. 10 years and still going strong. AND you can pick up filters easy. Craftsman . . . the store ya' hate to love . . . or vice-versa !

I have sears and Fein

Jim in Burlington On

>I really like both. The Sears is a big one about 10 years old and I use for general shop cleaning and drywall dust. The good filters rival the price of the vacuum. The Fein get's a little workout for quiet jobs. It seems like alot of money till you turn it on. I bought the mini turbo a few years ago from Toolsteal.com

Re: Help me out with shop vacuum thoughts

Paul Kierstead

>I have a Ridgid and -- as shop vacs go -- I am extremely pleased. It's about 5 years old and used a fair bit. I replaced the stock filter with a better one from LV; the stock one is a bit course for something like plaster sanding dust.

Re: Help me out with shop vacuum thoughts

V Parisian

>I hate the noise of my Sears, though it has lasted me a good while now (10-12 years?) At work we own a Ronda vac that you could honestly hold a normal conversation next to when it is running. These at $982 in 1992 are about three times the price of a Fein machine but have no dust at all. The asbestos and hazardous waste remediators all use them.

I'm trying to justify one for the house. :-o

Victor

Re: Help me out with shop vacuum thoughts

Todd O. Cronkhite Maine Native, Presently Away

>Bob,

I have a small Rigid and really like it. I don't see a lot of blowby dust, and it's quiet! I had a Craftsman and threw the screaming devil away! I rarely use my vac anymore--only to clean out beneath the top of my contractors t@b!es@w occasionally.

As far the broom kicking up a hazardous dust cloud, I'm not concerned about it. #1 I smoke, soooooooooooo, and #2, if we could see the dust in our atmosphere that we are breathing at any given moment we'd be astounded.

I'd recommend a Rigid if one just had to have a shop vac at all.

go downto your Borg and have them plug one up for you so you can see how quiet it is. It's no Fein, but it's well tolerable. I got mine at the flea market for $10.

Todd O.

central system

bill tindall

>I have a few woodworking regrets that mainly involve wishing I had done something sooner in life. Not learning to use hand tools is one, and another is thinking a central dust collection system was an extravegance I could live without. To put it in context, I do a lot of woodworking and make a lot of shavings, chips & dust. After purchase of my Oneida system it now just all goes away, painlessly, and every few weeks I dump the compacted waste into the garden. I no longer wallow in shavings and chips and the air is clear. Even at that, I plane(power) outside and sand outside when weather permits.

Re: Help me out with shop vacuum thoughts

thomd

>I have a love hate relations with vacs. I don't really like my big Rigid. It makes a funny smell when it runs, is very noisy and takes up too much space. The brushes are pretty good but the hose cosntantly falls out. I bought it because I hoped it might not clog, awould be useful somewhere between my 4" dust extractor, and the QSP. I do like my shop vac QSP small hose. Its' great for direct extration and picking up fine dust. I use it with a gretex filter, and or a paper bag. I'm sad to hear that newer machines are not holding up the performance of the older ones. The small QSP really is quiet.

Re: Help me out with shop vacuum thoughts

Dave Thompson

>I have the biggest Sears that they sold ~8 years ago. I had no idea what an ear ache that would be. Supposedly, it doubles as a leaf blower, but I've never tried that. I think Ridgid sold the same model but in orange. Plenty of power though I no longer use it in the shop. Now it's just for the car. The noise is painful without hearing protection. I think dB rating would be the top feature if I ever had the gumption to replace it.

In the shop, I use a dust collector and broom. About twice a year I put a ~20 foot hose on the dust collector, and vacuum up all the piles of stray dust that built up in odd spots.

Re: shop vacuum

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>If you can arrange it so your roof leaks in strategic places and amounts, the water wets the dust to keep it down when sweeping. Alternatively, just dip the broom in the water stones ponds as needed.

I do have a cheap shop vac; but I seldom use it, and then mostly in the house when cleaning up after a project. It's lasted forever.

Pam

Re: Help me out with shop vacuum thoughts

Conger - The Irish diaspora in Munich

>WBB... the 'yur-peons' offer:

>>Ronda (Denmark) which is the Rolls-R. (specialist usage scenarios) and very $$$... and very quiet

>>FEIN and FESTOOL (also available for specialist environments)... both with similar performance

I myself have FESTOOL... expensive, but fuss-free. Then again, it does not get a lot of (ab)use.

-g-

Broom works

jim reed @ tallahassee

>I subscribe to the old theory that a woodshop needs sawdust and shavings to be authentic. I brush the bench frequently as I work. When it gets too hard to walk on the uneven floor, I brush the shavings into a pile. On clean up day, I put on my dust mask and sweep with a broom. It is pretty easy and not so noisy. I use one of the three shop vacs for cleaning up machinery. This is a pretty lo tech solution, but then so are most of my tools. As for dust, I get more dust from my shop vacs than I do from sweeping.

Thanks for the help

woodburnbob

>FWIW, you've saved me a lot of money.

When I wrote, I was on the verge of jumping in the car and impulsively buying a Fein at the local Woodcraft on the basis of justing getting it over with.

Seeing all the Rondas online and even the >$500 "industrials" at Sears, shows me the $350 Fein isn't as opulent and obscene as I'd first thought.

My thinking wasn't at all about health and lung issues. I see now my underlying motivation for a new vac was about unnecessary tiddiness. In the words of the man I'd like to become: Get a life! Who gives a ____.

I'll salvage the metal can and the copper wire from the motor, but otherwise the SHOP-VAC goes to the powertool cemetery. It's Mister Broom from here forward.

Besides my thoughts now are about how to best grind and hone a handful of incannel gouges I found in the basement.

You FOUND them in the basement?

Bill Houghton, retired fun in Sebastopol, CA

>Can I come visit your basement?

Re: You FOUND them in the basement?

Paul Kierstead

>Yeah, that was my thought. Most I ever "find" down there is some can of paint that barely has any paint left in it.

Re: You FOUND them in the basement?

Frank D. in Montreal

>If I told my wife a story like that (I found this little infill plane in the basement, dear) I'd probably lose a few teeth.

Re: You FOUND them in the basement?

Bill Houghton, retired fun in Sebastopol, CA

>If I tried that on LOML, she'd point out that we don't have a basement. Smuggling, so far, has been the best approach.

Smuggling

jim reed @ tallahassee

>The one day I tried to smuggle in a tool at lunchtime, SWMBO was there unexpectedly. They have some sort of radar.

Re: Smuggling

Frank D. in Montreal

>My wife has never caught me, but she knows I smuggle...I figure why stop now? I do it with wood too...my neighbors get a big laugh when they see bring those boards through 4 feet of snow and up my snowy back stairs into my shop.

Even worse....

Rob Brophy Niagara Falls

>...LOML is a power tool junkie.

She bought a Radial Arm Saw and made me put it in the shop. Oh the shame.

Is there a support group for this kind of trauma?

Rob

They all do, it's just how you do it...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond, CA

>Honey, I found (or I know) the perfect for you! A great excuse to get away with a lot!

Yea, you better make something nice to something for her or him depending how the fence swings.

Then use the mother (father) in law...

That's the way to score real points!

This also work with us that sitll have grandparents.

Milk it for all it's worth... So to speak.

Re: Even worse....

Norman (Ottawa, Ont.)

>My wife has given up on me.

I don't even bother smuggling anymore.

I usually get so excited about a new acquisition I end up showing her the new tool:)

The best tip I can give is to reach critical mass, which is the point where your wife doesn't remember how many of each tool you have, the memory buffers have been surpassed. Any new tool can be assumed to have always been there.

And pay cash as much as possible !

Norman

Buffer overflow

jim reed @ tallahassee

>That is a good point. Since all planes look alike to her, she can get numb looking at new acquisitions. After a dozen, they lose count. Another strategy I use is selling planes on Ebay. She thinks it is a business and has never counted to see that ten come in for every one that goes out.

Brilliant Strategy!!!

Wendell @ Murphy, TX

>Even if she figures out that 10 more are coming in for every one that is going out, you can always claim that the "business" is going so well that you needed more stock. Simply brilliant!

Wendell