Advice on small shop vac please ?

[skronk]

Hi all,

My garage is 7m x 5m with double up and over door. Most times I wheel my machines outside when cutting etc, so have no real need of a vac. Presently using an old upright hoover, which constantly tips over !

I have decided to by small roll along canister type vac akin to Henry to cater for the very rare times I work indoors.

Should I go bagless ?
Any benefit to wet and dry ?
If I go bagged do the bags need replaced at every empty or are they re-usable a few times ?
Any benefit to power take off ?

Have looked at Draper, Sealey, Karcher, Einhell, Titan etc. Any recommendations appreciated.



Prob spend £80 ish,

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The Lidl ones have a good write up and are cheap when on offer.

 

[wcndave]

I am not sure about not needing dust extraction outside, it tends to hang around in the air a lot, and you are breathing it in at source.

You have two types other than chip collectors.

Vacuums

http://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-ho ... -extractor

These connect to larger tools, usually have a 1 micron cartridge and can be used for hand held power tools too.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/numatic-xp-2 ... ckage-deal

Power tool vacuums which are small and best for hand held stuff like sanders and routers.

You have different sizes of dust and debris, and the smaller the more dangerous.

Typically the vacuums with bags (depending on bag filtration size) are not really reusable as they get clogged with the fine material. Thats better than it entering the motor housing.

I have a vacuum with the cartridge and a fine filter double layer bag. The cartridge needs occasional clean, bag last quite long with sanding, but fills in minutes with planing.

Thats because chips are big, so I put a drop box between vac and larger machines so the big pieces are in a binless bag, and only fine dust in vac.

If you want to save on bags, and collect fine dust, i can only think that something like e cleavue cyclone vac attachment would work. Designed for shop vac the majority of larger dust is collected in bagless cyclone.

I have seen small ones that dont take much space.

Power take off is great, as you just don't have to worry about being too lazy to switch the vac on.

 

[wcndave]

http://lumberjocks.com/thewoodwhisperer/blog/29836

Cheap cyclone overview and review.

Btw i think you need to increase your budget a bit.

 

[WillRiseley]

I'm currently using a cheap wickes sucker after my festool got stolen, no bag in it and it gets rid of the dust fine just leaving me with chips.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

I've got 2 types: Barrel type (RP RSDE1 or something cant remember exactly and also DX1000 for the lathe) for planning, table saw and bandsaw ie lots of chips and big dust. Then I managed to score a Karcher bagless with PTO from Tesco on offer for hand held power tools, sanders, domino etc. That has a car style filter and is absolutely brilliant because all you do to empty it is tip it upside down, the filter comes off easily and I air blow that clean with compressed air and its like new again. Even the hose snaps in and out with a natty clip and I couldn't live without the convenience of PRO now, it is incredibly useful for faff avoidance.

 

[skronk]

I've got 2 types: Barrel type (RP RSDE1 or something cant remember exactly and also DX1000 for the lathe) for planning, table saw and bandsaw ie lots of chips and big dust. Then I managed to score a Karcher bagless with PTO from Tesco on offer for hand held power tools, sanders, domino etc. That has a car style filter and is absolutely brilliant because all you do to empty it is tip it upside down, the filter comes off easily and I air blow that clean with compressed air and its like new again. Even the hose snaps in and out with a natty clip and I couldn't live without the convenience of PRO now, it is incredibly useful for faff avoidance.

Right I admit my dumbness here !!!!
I know what PTO is.....but
What is PRO ?

Wife fancies this..."It looks really nice"
Plus, bearing in mind my location....they will deliver no problems.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb431v ... _container

 

[wcndave]

I think PRO was a typo

 

[wcndave]

That link requires me to sign in, and when I search from homepage i don't see a model 431...

Those I can see look cheap and cheerful, so if they fall over after a short while you won't have lost much.

 

[shed9]

Surely this depends on the machines in use. If you are wheeling these machines about, I'm not sure you are in small vacs on castor territory.

Also, what is your objective? Air quality or physical mess? If its air quality you need to seriously widen the scope of the machines you are looking at.

As others have pointed out, you need to consider dust extraction inside and out. There is a reason that woodworking is high on the HSE's hazard list.

 

[skronk]

Surely this depends on the machines in use. If you are wheeling these machines about, I'm not sure you are in small vacs on castor territory.

Also, what is your objective? Air quality or physical mess? If its air quality you need to seriously widen the scope of the machines you are looking at.

As others have pointed out, you need to consider dust extraction inside and out. There is a reason that woodworking is high on the HSE's hazard list.

Prob physical mess TBH. I have 7 acres on my croft so outside mess is no prob. The wind here more than takes care of that !!

 

[wcndave]

If you rarely work indoors (you said "very rare"), and you want to dust manage wheeled machines when you do, then you have a conflict between what you are willing to spend and what you are trying to do. effective bandsaw / tablesaw / planer extraction will be £300 and up IMHO.

If you want something for hand held sanders and the like then a cheap vac may do.

 

[shed9]

Surely this depends on the machines in use. If you are wheeling these machines about, I'm not sure you are in small vacs on castor territory.

Also, what is your objective? Air quality or physical mess? If its air quality you need to seriously widen the scope of the machines you are looking at.

As others have pointed out, you need to consider dust extraction inside and out. There is a reason that woodworking is high on the HSE's hazard list.

Prob physical mess TBH. I have 7 acres on my croft so outside mess is no prob. The wind here more than takes care of that !!

Same applies though in regards to machinery in use. Small vacs will deal with hand held power tools (mostly) whereas you will need proper extraction units (60-100mm) to deal with the waste produced by a larger device.

Also, based on your original comment on bag emptying, do a Google search on Thien separators - ridiculously easy and cheap to build and reduces bag replacement if that's the route you go. This will deal with mess more effectively and spare your filter and / or bags.

 

[Random Orbital Bob]

PRO = PTO...sorry for typo

 

[Mark A]

I have the cheap Lidl vac with PTO for my handheld power tools and think it's fantastic for the price. For my larger tools I use a vacuum extractor similar to this but re- branded 'Woodstar'. Despite its small size and low power it's surprisingly good at extracting the waste from my thicknesser.

 

[skronk]

Surely this depends on the machines in use. If you are wheeling these machines about, I'm not sure you are in small vacs on castor territory.

Also, what is your objective? Air quality or physical mess? If its air quality you need to seriously widen the scope of the machines you are looking at.

As others have pointed out, you need to consider dust extraction inside and out. There is a reason that woodworking is high on the HSE's hazard list.

Prob physical mess TBH. I have 7 acres on my croft so outside mess is no prob. The wind here more than takes care of that !!

Same applies though in regards to machinery in use. Small vacs will deal with hand held power tools (mostly) whereas you will need proper extraction units (60-100mm) to deal with the waste produced by a larger device.

Also, based on your original comment on bag emptying, do a Google search on Thien separators - ridiculously easy and cheap to build and reduces bag replacement if that's the route you go. This will deal with mess more effectively and spare your filter and / or bags.

Have already built one of these. Very effective with my old vacuum cleaner (when the vacuum stays upright !)

 

[Otto]

Features I would look for are low noise, take off socket and at least 10' of hose. My own experience has been cheaper canister vacs with just a pleated filter will clog up quickly and lose suction, whereas a paper bag will give better suction for much longer.
But of course be prepared to empty the paper bag when it's full (you might get three or five uses out of one) which can be messy, or keep a supply of new ones at hand which can be expensive.

I bought reusable cloth bags off ebay for my Bosch Gas 25 shop vac which last forever, though still a pain to empty them. They are are available now with a zip to make emptying much less of a chore.

 

[John15]

Hi Stronk

For my dust producing machines I use a Numatic NV750 with no collection bag. It's very efficient and easy to empty and fairly quiet with it's induction motor. The dust goes straight into the bin and you just empty the bin every so often - mine goes on the compost heap. There is a primary filter which is the bottom half of a bag tucked over the top of the bin plus there is a secondary filter which seems to have no work to do. Cleaning the half bag filter is a dusty job and you need plenty of room outside to do it.
For my planer/thicknesser I use one of the cheap chip collectors from Axminster.

Cheers,
John