Hello everyone,
Has anyone ever tried to use their central vacuum system for dust collection? The unit seems to be roughly the same size as the home shop dust collectors I've seen. The thing has good sucking power, but the concern I have is the intake port. It's only 1.5 inches in diameter. Is this enough to handle the job, or should I spend the cash on a real DC? I intend to check with the vacuum manufacturer (Cyclone), to see what they say. TIA.
Curt Blood Amateur Furniture Builder
Think you'd cause yourself some major problems tyring to use a central vac. Main issue in my mind is the size of the port and lines and the debris you pick up with a good DC system. It's not JUST dust - it's wood chunks, chips, debris, etc. I've seen this stuff clog a good 4 inch line before (coming out of a thickness planer). You'd probably quickly clog your central vac and probably overwhelm both it's filtering capabilities and it's motor. I think the money I've spent on a good DC system is one of my best shop investments. Built my own collector, added a good penn state motor to it, and have it plumbed to every stationary tool in my shop. It's amazing how much it picks up and helps keep the shop clean. My 2 cents worth.
Gary in KC
The amount of air moved decreases as the intake (and transport) diameter decreases, and sawdust generation for tools like a planer or jointer are much greater than the pickup by a vacuum wand. So, I think you should get a real DC. The central vac system would probably clog frequently.
Steve
A central vac is incapable of the flow volume needed for a good dust collector. While it will probably work well with tools having small dust ports, things with large ones like a planer, jointer, wide belt sander, table saw and such will just not get enough flow to work properly. And even with sanding, I would bet that the filter would plug up in very short order as they were never intended to deal with that volume of dust.
Yes. Won't work. CV is high vacuum, low flow. DC is high flow, low vacuum. Didn't we _just_ do this thread?
No. We just did one on why you can't use a DC as a CV. This is different. You gotta keep up a little better, Dave.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
Get a copy of my NEW AND IMPROVED TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter by sending email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com You must use your REAL email address to get a response.
On the order of seconds, I should think.
Yea, but the other way.
My apologies. I should have checked. Can I be forgiven?
Always teh optimist. Or is that optometrist.
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