Official Luthiers Forum!

I have a shop vac that I trip over. Foot space in my shop is tight. The Drill press, 3 sanders, band saw and planer are all within 10 feet of each other. What central vac system should I get. Cheaper the better but I don't want to underbuy. BTW second build, the box is closed!

Well if you wanna go really cheap and really small, steel city has those little vacuums that clip on to the machine, though IDK how good they are.

Great question, and one that will definitely get plenty of answers. But search the archives and you'll find a wealth of information on this topic. I'd advise starting there first, then come back with more pointed questions:

Cyclones (sizes, materials, manufacturers), bucket style, internal vs. external venting, size of the pipe vs. drops, filtering methods, CFM requirements, assembly methods, which materials to make the pipes out of, grounding it vs. not grounding it, etc.

And, as always, search for "Bill Pentz" (which many consider to be the definitive source of information on the topic) and you'll have enough reading to stay busy for quite awhile.

Bill

_________________
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.

I use a portable dust collector from Harbor Freight. Seems to work ok. My shop vac was making more noise than the tools I was running and cleaning the filters was always a mess. Mine is a 13 gallon portable dust collector, not the big units. It sits on casters.

_________________
It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

If there is ONE tool I want to add to my shop then it would be a fully fitted Dust Collector or DC in woodworking parlance. Nobody calls them central vacs, not manly enough! I have one of those delta jobs with the top and bottom bags, I have to wheel it around to my various tools. Ugh! I want a more permanent soution, one with pipes to each tool and waste gates, and remote control on/off. Same for shop air (compressed).

I have a Delta 50-660 dust collector and it seems to do a great job. When I hook it to my thickness sander, it gets it ALL. Picked it up on craigslist for about $80.00 I think it was.

You kno,w I was doing some experimenting with black ADS drainage pipe like they sell at Lowes, 4". It is a loose fit but when you tighten down the clamps it is flexible enough that it tightens tight up with out crimping. Anyone see anything wrong with using this for dust collector hose. It's a lot cheaper than the "right stuff". It is ribbed so it might cause a problem with jamming if anything big is sucked in, but I was more worried about static electricity build up????

_________________
Tim

A few things you need to think about . 1 filtration , is this a bag or filter and what micron size ? Cu/Ft/Min how much volume can this pull , and what collection method ? Be sure to ground the piping. Sparks can ignite in a dust collector , not a good thing . I have a grizzly unit with a filter cartridge , I do not recommend that , it isn't very good. I am looking at the Phial , Industries unit. Bag systems are ok but may not filter down as far as you need.
DC is a very important tool , choose the best you can afford. Buying cheap often means buying again.

_________________
John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

This is probably no help to you but here's what I did. After agonizing over the cost for a while, I ended up buying an Oneida Grizzly cyclone unit. It was worth it although I used up 2 years of "big tool" money to do it.

_________________
Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

Thanks for the suggestions. I have a big triangular, filtered, hang from the ceiling Delta Dust sucker that I fire up in addition to the shop vac I am currently using. Did I glean that maybe the Delta could spark? Should I not use it for now?