I have my table and miter saw plumbed so that I just move my shop vac hose to either one. Is there a good shop vac recommended for this sort of dual use as dust extraction and shop vac?
.- posted
17 years ago
I have my table and miter saw plumbed so that I just move my shop vac hose to either one. Is there a good shop vac recommended for this sort of dual use as dust extraction and shop vac?
.
While it's better than nothing, a shop vac really doesn't move enough air to be effective at dust extraction.
Look for something with a 2" hose or bigger. If you can get a HEPA filter for it, so much the better.
Chris
Actually, I've used a couple for a few years now, with 2+" hose coupled to Hitachi tablesaw or smaller hose to router-table. Sometimes two connected to router-table. Works great. On occasion with router-table, I've managed to fill nominal 12-gal bucket on ShopVac in an hour and change, besides.
Not much dust escapes, and extreme little gets throuth Gore-Tex filter. Never seen a HEPA filter for one. Note that most "dust collectors" don't do well with multi-micron-size dust particles, much worse than Gore-Tex.
J
extraction and shop vac?
I don't know if there's one that would be any better than others in the "homeowner class" shopvacs (If you can afford to pay $$$ for a Fein or Festool, do it - quiet and great quality from what I've heard). I currently use a Ridgid 9gal shopvac with HEPA filter for dust collection, and it's pretty good - not as good as a dedicated dust collector, but a heckuva lot better than nothing. I use it for my plunge router, router table, 10" bandsaw, ROS, and general cleanup. The HEPA filter makes a big difference - definitely look for that. If I were buying it again, I'd probably get the 12 gallon one - it's supposed to be quieter (the 9gal has quite a whine, even with the "muffler"). Capacity isn't a problem with the 9 gal - the filter usually gets caked with dust before the tank fills up with chips/shavings. I might also look for one that can take bags - emptying an extremely dusty tank can be very messy, and it seems like a bag would extend filter life also. I don't think any of the Ridgids take bags. Hope this helps, Andy
When I had my old Ryobi BT-3000 (the saw everybody loves to hate), I just plugged my shop vac into it and it collected 99% of the dust. The secret is that the blade was closely shrouded underneath the table.
Now I've got a Unisaw and a "real" dust collector, and I have dust all over the place. What a mess. I did 100 times better with the old setup.
At least some of the GoreTex filters are HEPA filters.
A Shop-vac is fine for a router or a saw, so long as your shrouding is efficient enough that you're not wasting airflow. It's only the thicknesser that really needs those 4" hoses.
A Shop-vac also has higher air velocity than a 4" chip collector, unless you have multi-hp power behind it, so it's better for working a simple small-scale dust cyclone.
I've got a shopvac, and while it does pretty well at the router table, I won't say that it gets absolutely everything.
On the saw it gets most of the stuff under the table, but there's still a lot of stuff coming off the top of the blade, even with a guard on it.
A really good dust collection system will collect all the fine dust as well as the chips, so that your lungs are protected and you don't need to wear a respirator. This level of airflow is almost impossible with
4" ducts on a standard dust collector--they just don't have the velocity when using such narrow ducts. On a table saw you really want upper and lower dust collection, so a 4" hose for each is about right.Someday I'll get a proper cyclone. Until then I wear a respirator.
Chris
Wear that respirator then, too. No dust collection system is absolutely perfect. You don't want your lungs to catch any of the leftovers.
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