Thread: Shop Vac + Cyclone - Does size of Shop Vac unit matter

Hi Seb,

The size of the collector on the vacuum will not make a lot of difference. The cyclone should capture the bulk of the material and very little should end up in the cannister on the vacuum itself. To maintain suction it is good practice to clean the filter on the vacuum every time you empty the cyclone's collector bin.

Having said that, you will be far better off if you get the 2hp H&F dusty you pictured and look for the thread by BobL on optimizing it. I have two of those units, one of which goes on top of a homemade cyclone made from 2 x 44 gallon drums.

THere are those who will tell you that this is inadequate and they are correct, but if it is all that you have th resources to obtain and run, its far better than nothing.

Cheers

Doug

Hi Sebastiaan76

A shop vac like a home vacuum cleaner produces high vacuum but relatively low air flow. In contrast a Dust collector such as the H&F moves much greater amounts of air at relatively low pressure.
For sawdust collection from Table Saws etc the higher flow of a Dust collector is required. The shop vac really suits portable tools like orbital sanders etc. With a DC the size of the filters is important. Small filters clog quickly and drastically reduce air flow. Even with a small cyclone significant dust will pass the cyclone and be caught by the filters
Cheers
Ron

As others have mentioned, shop vacs aren't suited to machinery (ideal for hand held power tools with some drop saws being an exception). Here's some pics of a separator I knocked up for my vac. Works a treat. I just need to get some more hose so it's all uniform and then should be even more efficient.

IMAG0092.jpg IMAG0094.jpg IMAG0095.jpg IMAG0096.jpg IMAG0097.jpg

We all start somewhere.

Used with care, a decent shop vac and a 2 HP dusty (preferable optimised as per BobL's post on The Generic 2 HP Dusty) will do a reasonable job.

Strongly recommend you read BobL's post on optimising a 2 HP Dusty. https://www.woodworkforums.com/f200/g...47/index5.html

As for the shop vac, these things tend to produce more fine dust than they remove, as they mince up the larger particles, and it is the fine dust that damages our health. There are several solutions. I parked mine outside under a hood and ran 50 mm PVC pipe into the shop. The filters were removed to improve suction, but be careful with that, some vacs can draw too many amps and overheat if the filters are removed. Tested my amps with the filters out, and it was fine. Also my unit has an overload/overheat cut-off switch.

Here is the vac under its hood.
IMAG0318[1].jpg