dust collector vs. wet vacuum cleaner

Hello again, one more question about new toys to buy.

My workshop is in the garage and so far i was dealing with saw dust by opening the door and using the leaf blower on everything that does not fly on its own. Yet i do notice some level of dust in the home and some level of marital stress correlated with it so i have an excuse to start shoping again.

I was thinking of buying standard 5/6 hp wet vacuum and hoping i can connect it to my router and have a hose handy to vacuum all over constatly. Is dust collector something much better? thanks

pawel

Reply to
Pawel
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I hope so. Less NOISE and greater capacity. I don't want dust collection that needs to be emptied daily.

Reply to
Leon

A dust collector is made to collect dust, shavings, and debree from wood working tools. A shop vac is a vacuum cleaner. They are 2 different tools, and should not be confused. robo hippy

Reply to
robo hippy

wood working tools. A shop vac is a vacuum cleaner. They are 2 different tools, and should not be confused.

I agree completely. However, if you can't afford the space or $ for a real dust collector, a decent-sized shop vac will suffice until you can. I have a 9-gallon Ridgid shopvac with HEPA filter that I attach to my router table and bandsaw and use for general cleanup, and it works well. I only have to empty it every month or so, but I only do woodworking on weekends and some evenings. It is very noisy, and messy to clean. If I were buying again, I'd look for one that's quieter and that can take a bag as well as a HEPA filter, as throwing away a bag would be much easier than trying to transfer a month's worth of dust and shavings into a garbage bag. I also have an ambient air cleaner for airborne dust. Once I get a shop with more space, I'll be looking into real dust collectors. Andy

Reply to
Andy

And yet the dust port in my router table fence is a perfect fit for my shop vac, and works well with my plate joiner, seems to work well with ROS sanders, and gosh, many Festool tools. I have not seen a dust collector that hooks up to all of those tools. Maybe I am wrong.

Reply to
Leon

Yes, that would work. Even better would be to make yourself a simple cyclone.

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the small effort involved, it's well worth making a dust-catcher cyclone.

A "dust collector" is really a chip collector for use with a thickness planer. Unless you can afford the big multi-hp machines, these just don't have the flowrate you need for some tasks. A shop vac is small, but has good flow velocity and works better with cyclones or routers. It's noisy as anything, but then if you're routing you will hardly notice this.

"Drop box" lids for dustbins don't work for fine dust.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Well, you can use an adapter, but using the shop vac is just so simple in many cases. I use both, but for different applications. DC for the tablesaw, planer and eventually the base of my router table. Shop vac work just fine on the fence of my router table.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I'm also using a Ridgid wet/dry vac in this method. It's does the a decent job, but, it is NOISY. Actually makes more noise that the

13" planer it's attached too.

One suggestion though, which has helped me a great deal, is to get a 'dust collection separator' . I bought this one

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and attached it to a 30 gal metal garbage can. Works great. Before getting this I could fill up my 12 gal vac in a couple of days, plus the filter would begin to clog and performance would drop. Now the garbage can is over half full and the shop vac is still nearly empty...

That said, I'm planning on making a real dust collector my next tool purchase. BTW, I bought the 4" dust separator lid so I can use it with a regular DC unit later.

HTH,

Ron

Reply to
Ron

Don't agree. The DC can be adapted to 1 1/4 size for use with small tailed tools and does a credible job. Get one with adjustable vents to keep up the airflow, like the one Bosch sells. Some of my tools have the 2 1/2, and they work fine with the collector, too.

A shop-vac cannot keep up with a planer.

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For a one-man shop, tough to beat. It'll also vacuum the car.

Reply to
George

One with the larger sized hose can.

Not my experience. A DC is the right tool for the job for a planer but until I got my Oneida installed, the 17 year old 5hp ;-) Craftsman shop vac kep up with my dewalt 733. I had to empty it often.

Not ideal, but it really cam be done.

Reply to
C&S

As others have stated, they are different beasts. IMO, a shop vac will do a pretty good job on a router table. Since I can't imagine being a homeowner without a shop vac, and for the 10 billion other applications for which a shop vac is the right tool for the job, I would get a shop vac.

If you decide to later invest in a true DC, the shop vac will still be an good purchase (like when you hater heater bursts and causes a flood)

A word on hoses:

I have a long (15') aftermarket narrow hose for general cleanup in the shop. I think it's great. For chip collection, however (yes, dust collection is a misnomer), you will want one of the shorter larger diameter hoses.

-Steve

Reply to
C&S

A DC is much better because it move a lot more air. For just one machine you can get a smaller 1-HP version that is portable.

Reply to
Phisherman

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