Dust Collection Bags

[AdrianUK]

I’ve a Trend T32, which I find perfect for my needs when hooked up to small hand tools.
It uses micro filter bags, not expensive, around £20.00 for 5, however, I remember long ago I had a Vac that had a bag which a plastic strip that was shaped with a fold along its length and was slid over the folded end of the open dust collection bag. It was slid off to allow the bag to be emptied, then put back on again, thus allowing the bag to be used over.
Now, I understand Trend would really appreciate me spending my money on new bags, however being frugal & also concerned of wasteful practice, I d like to replicate this ‘slide-y’ piece of plastic.
Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

 

[Sandyn]

I have a Nilfisk which uses filter bags. I cut the bag along theseal at the bottom of the bag. I then fold the end over and clamp it between two pieces of wood and secure with screws. I reuse the bags dozens of times. To clean, I just remove the wood strips, empty the bag, then blast out with high pressure air until clean. For a clip, something like this might work

 

[AdrianUK]

I have a Nilfisk which uses filter bags. I cut the bag along theseal at the bottom of the bag. I then fold the end over and clamp it between two pieces of wood and secure with screws. I reuse the bags dozens of times. To clean, I just remove the wood strips, empty the bag, then blast out with high pressure air until clean. For a clip, something like this might work

Thx Sandyn, that’s exactly the sort of thing I remember, just couldn’t get a google hit without the right phrase.
Am going to replicate your solution for now tho until I can order the plastic strip.
Thx again

 

[Ollie78]

Sew a zip into it, in fact you can probably find some on ebay already with a zip in. They do festool and Henry ones at least.
I thought about getting some but then I thought about it a bit more and didn`t, because every time you put a new bag on you are effectively getting a new filter. I think they would likely become clogged after a couple of empties. Also I am too lazy to be bothered faffing about.

You could also try a plastic binder clip, which I have seen people do before. Or a big one of those kitchen clips for bags of rice and cereal etc.

Ollie

 

[monster]

In the past I've used a piece of square profile electricians trunking, discard the top section, cut to the length of the cut made in the bag and lay the cut bag section into the profile and secure it in place by snapping in a length of suitably sized dowel.

This sort of trunking:

 

[Janek]

I’ve a Trend T32, which I find perfect for my needs when hooked up to small hand tools.
It uses micro filter bags, not expensive, around £20.00 for 5, however, I remember long ago I had a Vac that had a bag which a plastic strip that was shaped with a fold along its length and was slid over the folded end of the open dust collection bag. It was slid off to allow the bag to be emptied, then put back on again, thus allowing the bag to be used over.
Now, I understand Trend would really appreciate me spending my money on new bags, however being frugal & also concerned of wasteful practice, I d like to replicate this ‘slide-y’ piece of plastic.
Does anyone know if such a thing exists?

B

 

[Janek]

Use a short length of 20mm PVC conduit

 

[Eshmiel]

I thought about getting some but then I thought about it a bit more and didn`t, because every time you put a new bag on you are effectively getting a new filter. I think they would likely become clogged after a couple of empties. Also I am too lazy to be bothered faffing about.

Ollie

Laziness is one of my few (ha ha) vices. However, another is a certain meanness with the wallet, although I have devolved the function to my wife, who doesn't let me near my wallet unless I make a long and water tight case for opening it.

But I digress.

I too have a small Trend vac used for portable tools (it has the auto stop/start device in it) but mostly to hoover up workshop detritus, which is voluminous from making carved green wood things, despite most being collected with a pan & brush into a big bag. I'm still using bags from a pack of 12 Trend filter bags got when I bought the vac - more than 20 years ago.

Each bag is allowed to get 80% full then I take it to the compost heap and pant its contents out of the round hole into the compost. This takes up to ten minutes and one must be careful not to snag the bag, whilst panting it, on a nearby bramble or rose thorn. I manage to do this around 3 - 5 times per bag, depending on how well I avoid over-distressing its paper fabric, especially around the input hole.

The Trend vac has 3 filters: the bag, a mesh basket that goes around the bag and a concertina micro-filter drum that the bag wraps around inside the vac. It does work well to get even the very fine dust.

Re-use of paper bags does see the vac having to work a bit harder after each empty&reuse. However, it still sucks well and hasn't died of hot motor despite doing an immense amount of worktime. I read here and there that a paper filter containing remnants of fine dust in its fabric actually improves the filtration albeit at the cost of the vac having to work harder to get the air through that dusty bag fabric. Effectively, the trapped fine dust makes the bag fabric into a finer mesh. Or so goes the theory.

Is this a real effect? Some scientific investigation would be of interest.

*****************
Would a cut-off bag-end with a clip-thing on it be faster to empty? Perhaps - but I have known such arrangement come adrift unseen in the vac, which can make a reet mess. It doesn't take long to pant the contents out of the round hole they went in through, even though it does take some care and a bit of finger poke&tug.

 

[Croolis]

I've bought a vortex cone thing and have a metal can (like a big tall paint pot, though it didn't have paint in it) that I have to sort out fitting the vortex to. I also have to get some reducer adapter things 3D printed to get my shop vac (Parkside) to connect to it.

I want to use my shop vac alone for dust collection in the meantime before I get the above bits sorted out. My question is - if I just use it a bit, for a while, will just giving the filter a good bang at the end of a session be adequate for the short term? I'm not planning on using it a lot without the vortex bin. I'm just not sure how long before it starts getting ruined using it like that. Cheers for help.

 

[Katomi woodsmith]

Numatic used to do such a bag, but I have been out of touch for 20 plus years. May be worth giving them a call