Thread: Random Orbital Sander: Ducted Dust Collection or Shop Vac

Hi Phil,

I'm no expert but my advice would be that you want high velocity extraction from a shop vac, rather than low velocity from your dusty. I have my GEX 125 hooked up to a Fein Dustex wet/dry shop vac, and am very happy with the performance of this combo. A Festool vac would have been nice but I couldn't justify the extra dollars.

I run the GEX off the tool power port on the Dustex, so the vac starts when the sander does and then runs on for about 5 seconds after I stop the sander. No noticeable dust is left behind, and the sanding pads last way longer when they're kept clean by the extraction process. Win-Win!

Cheers,

Justin.

FWIW, I have the same sander. You can buy an adaptor from Bosch (might have to order it from your local tool shop).

I notice bosch have a vacuum now too. I wonder if its any good? I have a few bosch tools and they are all pretty decent. I cant kill them and thats saying something.

I've done some testing of the amount of air flow that is extracted through power tools that have an inbuilt fan that greatly assists the extraction of dust/air (e.g. makita belt sander) and have always obtained higher flow rates using a DC and 50 mm flexy, than using a vacuum cleaner. It's like the vacuum cleaner cannot keep up with what the power tool fan is capable of generating. For tools that don't have a built in fan the VC does better.

None of the tests were done with matched tools and VCs which is when I would expect these to be better matched

In practice you probably need both.

The ability to capture the dust by a VC or DC is moot if either are located inside the shed as the fine dust will generally go straight through filters or leaks and contaminate the shed. The critical thing here is getting booth the VC and DC outside the shed.

Originally Posted by BobL

I've done some testing of the amount of air flow that is extracted through power tools that have an inbuilt fan that greatly assists the extraction of dust/air (e.g. makita belt sander) and have always obtained higher flow rates using a DC and 50 mm flexy, than using a vacuum cleaner. It's like the vacuum cleaner cannot keep up with what the power tool fan is capable of generating. For tools that don't have a built in fan the VC does better.

None of the tests were done with matched tools and VCs which is when I would expect these to be better matched

In practice you probably need both.

The ability to capture the dust by a VC or DC is moot if either are located inside the shed as the fine dust will generally go straight through filters or leaks and contaminate the shed. The critical thing here is getting booth the VC and DC outside the shed.

Right, so in summary, if the tool has a built in fan use the dusty, otherwise use the vac? Does it matter how much 50mm ID flex you can use (in relation to sanding)?

Thanks Bob. Ur a wealth of knowledge.

Originally Posted by johnredl

Right, so in summary, if the tool has a built in fan use the dusty, otherwise use the vac? Does it matter how much 50mm ID flex you can use (in relation to sanding)?

Thanks Bob. Ur a wealth of knowledge.

Correct but bear in mind I only tested a Festool and Ozito ROS, and a Makita belt sander on a Ryobi and Nilfisk VCs.


If the power tool and VC are the same brand and designed to go together they are likely to work as well or better than if a DC is used.

[QUOTE]Does it matter how much 50mm ID flex you can use (in relation to sanding)?
I used 3 m of 50 mm flex before transiting to 150 mm ducting.

Hi All

I appreciate all the responses so far. Justin I like your response of using a Dustex, and the fact it starts when you use the random orbital sander is really good. My only concern it's a little bit more money than I wanted to spend. Has anyone any suggestion for a cheaper version of the Festool vac of Fein Dustex??

Pearo suggested I use the Bosch attachment. That is exactly what I am using. My only concern is that the flow rate is quite small when using this attachment and DC. But I think it would work effectively with a shop vacuum. I was leaning towards using my dust collection system but I appreciate your comments.

BobL suggested using a DC with 50 mm flexy. After little bit of scouting around on the Google universe I did notice that someone had used a heat gun on a piece of PVC to match the oval dust port of the Bosch ROS ( Random Orbital Sander). I did some calculations and realised that a 40 mm diameter pipe squashed covers the outside diameter of the oval dust port. I did see on another posting that I could have used a rubber cover from 40 mm to 50 mm ( 40 mm end on the oval port of the ROS) going to 50 mm flexy, seven dollars from Bunnings. On this posting they suggested that the airflow was too great and the ROS did get stuck to the work using the 40 mm to 50 mm rubber cover. They suggest putting a number of holes in the rubber cover??

I decided to use a 40 mm flexible hose directly on the end of the ROS oval port, with the help of the heat gun. This worked really well. The internal fan within the ROS was able to do really well. The flow rate through the ROS was quite good with minimal to know dust. As BobL suggested that this collection unit is outside the workshop.

johnredl, I would suggest that if the port is smaller than 40 mm or you don't have good airflow using a DC, then I would suggest a workshop vac is your problem and solution.

In summary, using a 40 mm flexy hose on my Bosch ROS with a oval port seems to work really well. I will keep you posted and see how it performs the next couple of weeks.

- Phil