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Wet/Dry Vac as a Dust Collector?
QUESTION: I would like to hear some opinions on using a wet/dry vacuum as a dust
collector. For many years now I have had no "system", just my kids following
behind me. With my newly purchased band saw, there's a lot of very fine saw
dust now and I think that a DC of some sort is in order ( especially because
I can see this crud floating in the air ). Sears has a 2 gal vac on sale
but I'm eyeballing the 20 gal mostly because I HATE to buy too small. This
is something that the "boss" and I have been thinking about off and on, so I
think a pass in her direction will be caught. Any opinions out there?
Thanks in advance
ANSWER: I use a large Rigid vac with a HEPA filter. Does a fine job, although w/o
dedicated blast gates swapping hose from machine to machine is a big
headache. But for now, does fine. Only complaint is that filter clogs
frequently. Suggest you rotate between two so that you always have a clean
filter ready to swap out. One day I will have a real DC system..
Note that most shop vac filters do not scrub to 1 micron, the really small
stuff that you breath in and gets trapped in your lungs. You will still need
to wear proper face mask..
You really need a 1 or 2 HP DC that moves a lot more air volume than a
shopvac. Look at PennState or Grizzly, one with a metal prop. I
recommend one that can be rewired for 220v. Looking back, I should
have got a remote switch for my DC a long time ago, they are great.
Bandsaws produce a lot of fine dust. Get a Dustfoe 88 mask for your
health. Forget the shopvac unless you want to clean out your car or
to clean up a carpet spill.
I started ww with nothing, moved up to a shop vac, then a low-end DC, and
hope to soon have a high CFM cyclone. Here's why:
http://cnets.net/~eclectic/woodworking/cyclone/
My mother developed lung problems after she got social-security age.
Keeping dust out of the lungs is probably a good idea in my case.
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