What Vacuum?

[JudeB]

Hi there peeps

As a complete newbie to woodworking I want to set up some sort of workshop and wonder if anyone can give me any tips on what type of vacuum I need to attach to my tools, is an ordinary old household vac suitable or do I need something else?

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Selwyn]

Wickes vac - I see no need to look any further.

Cheap. Powerful. Well reviewed.

You could put a little cyclone or dust bucket between as well but no real need as 20l isn't bad capacity.

 

[memzey]

I've heard good things about the Wickes shop vac but if you want something with a bit more about it I went for one of these and found it to be excellent:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb430v ... 240v/70472

Comes with on board tool storage, gives 90ltrs of suck per second and best of all has power tool take off. I am chuffed with mine.

 

[Roughcut]

Nilfisk 30 T
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/produ ... um-cleaner

 

[fluffflinger]

+1 for Wickes shop vac. I have mine hooked up to a Dust Deputy cyclone and have changed the outlet to 2 1/2 inch or 63mm that is between the vac and the cyclone it will cope with all my hand tools, bandsaw if I want to it will deal OK with planer thicknesser. I did this whilst I was sorting my main extraction.

If you want to extend the life of the filter and massively improve your air quality (by about 100 times) take a Henry Hepa Filter bag rip of the plastic fitting and attach using a cable tie and you will have virtually zero nasties escaping. This can be done with or without a cyclone although if you create alot of shaving dust etc you will have to keep changing the bag. I actually have a brand new one in the loft as a spare I was so impressed. The original is in it's forth year of service now.

Having said that the other vac's mentioned are also well reviewed but at the time I only paid £25 each for mine.

 

[Boatfixer]

My shop vac is one of the lidl Parkside ones bought 3 or 4 years ago and still performing brilliantly used daily in a commercial workshop. My first question though is what sort of tools are you going to be extracting from? A table saw or planer will have different needs to a sander....