The Devil Made Me Do It

Vaughn McMillan

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Actually, it was Rennie's fault. Here's my version of his Shop Vac / Dust Deputy cart...

Dust Devil and Cart - 01 800.jpg

The cart is just a piece of unfinished scrap T-111 siding, with scrap pine milled to 1 x 1 and glued around the edge for stiffness. In the true Norm spirit, I also shot 1" staples about every 3" or 4" around the perimeter into the stiffeners...until the glue dries, of course. :rofl:

I was previously using the blue and white steel 5 gallon bucket with a HF separator lid. This metal bucket was screwed to a piece of scrap plywood, and I had mounted wheels on it. (Pulling that bucket with the Shop Vac trailing behind it has always been a pain. The 5 gallon bucket was too easy to tip over with that arrangement.) Since that bucket already had screw holes in the bottom of it, I used in as the bottom bucket for the Dust Deputy. The plywood that was already mounted to the bucket is now attached to the cart with t-nuts.

I removed the wheels from my Shop Vac, and stole Rennie's bungee cord idea to hold it onto the cart. The wheels under the new cart were previously under the old 5-gallon separator bucket.

Enough talk about the fine craftsmanship and exacting standards of the cart. :D How well does it work? With my old separator lid, I'd say it caught 80% of the solids, but most of the 20% that did make it past the separator was filter-clogging dust.

I vacuumed a bunch of nooks and crannies around the shop tonight and got about a half bucket of lathe debris and dust. Here's the separator bucket...

Dust Devil and Cart - 02 800.jpg

And here's how much made it past the separator into the Shop Vac. I should note that I did not wipe the dust off the inside of the Shop Vac before running this test (and a couple prior to this one)...

Dust Devil and Cart - 04 800.jpg

There was a small amount of dust that did make it past the separator and onto the filter, but it's very minor compared to what I'd see if I didn't have at least some kind of separator on the Shop Vac. Plus, it's a CleanStream filter, so it's easy enough to clean.

Dust Devil and Cart - 03 800.jpg

I like what I'm seeing so far. I believe that in time, the Dust Deputy will pay for itself by greatly reducing the number of filters I'll need to buy in the future. Many thanks to Rennie for the inspiration. :thumb: His idea really sucks. :D
 
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Don't know what your filters cost but mine are $15 apiece. The best thing is it already paid for itself cause it didn't cost me a thing to make. The bad part about trying to test mine was I didn't have any dust in the shop since I built and installed my cyclone so I went out to the pile of mulch we just bought and tested it on that .
 
That is exactly what I need to do. Problem: no floor space for it. Maybe after buyer comes for the duplicator machine I can rearrange a bit. Right now, my DC system is a broom and dust pan.
 
Actually, it was Rennie's fault. Here's my version of his Shop Vac / Dust Devil cart...
I like what I'm seeing so far. I believe that in time, the Dust Devil will pay for itself by greatly reducing the number of filters I'll need to buy in the future. Many thanks to Rennie for the inspiration. :thumb: His idea really sucks. :D
You're welcome, but I stole it from Jim Delaney.:eek::rofl:

Where did you buy the dust devil part? I can't seem to find it on the net anywhere. I'd like to make one this week.
Look for Dust Deputy. They're available from a number of on line sources including woodcraft or directly from Oneida.
 
Don't know what your filters cost but mine are $15 apiece..

Alan, the stock paper filters for mine are about $12, the better (washable) ones are about $20, and the CleanStream Gore-tex filter I have now was $30.

...Look for Dust Deputy. They're available from a number of on line sources including woodcraft or directly from Oneida.

Sorry for the difficult search, Bob. I was calling it the Dust Devil instead of the Dust Deputy. Rockler is another source...that's where mine came from.
 
hmmmm...:huh: got me thinking that I can make a larger version to replace the bags on my Harbor Freight DC. When I do it I'll post the results.

Don, I don't think a cyclone will completely replace the bags on your DC. For one, it doesn't catch all the fines, so unless you're venting it outside, there will still be fine dust that makes it past the cyclone. Also, the 2 HP (yeah, right) motor isn't enough to make up for the losses a cyclone adds to the mix, so the airflow would likely be lower than what you have now.

If you want to soup up your Harbor Freight DC, you might consider adding a Wynn filter and a Thien baffle. I did that to mine, and I no longer have to deal with the mess of cloth filter bags. (Plus, I have 0.5 micron filtration and better airflow.)
 
Rennie, you asked about drywall dust. Well, I did some drywall sanding today with my 5" ROS, and I'm happy with the results. At the end of the day, I had about 3" of fine, fine dust in the bottom of the Dust Deputy bucket, and only a light coating of dust inside the Shop Vac barrel and on the filter. I'd say it worked as well as -- or better than -- expected. :thumb:
 
If you want to soup up your Harbor Freight DC, you might consider adding a Wynn filter and a Thien baffle. I did that to mine, and I no longer have to deal with the mess of cloth filter bags. (Plus, I have 0.5 micron filtration and better airflow.)

Vaughn, can you post a picture of your setup, and perhaps a link to these wynn filters of which you speak? I did the thien baffle the other day, and it seems to work, but I'm not quite getting the throughput I would like.

Maybe I just need to go and beat the heck out of my felt bags... :eek:
 
Brent, here's an old thread about adding the filters and a neutral vane:

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1628

I should mention that I later discovered the "collar" that I added made things worse, so I removed it long ago.

And here's a thread about adding the baffle:

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=13551

Since I added the baffle last March, I've only had to remove and clean the filter once, and that was due to my own mistake.* I had previously been doing that about every two months or so. The baffle has really reduced the amount of chips and stuff that get stuck to the filter.








* When I did clean the filter after adding the baffle, I discovered I had inadvertently sucked up one of the edge strips from the interlocking rubber mats I use in the shop. Apparently a 24" strip of closed-cell foam bouncing around on top of the baffle messes up the airflow and causes the filter to become clogged. :doh::p
 
Rennie, you asked about drywall dust. Well, I did some drywall sanding today with my 5" ROS, and I'm happy with the results. At the end of the day, I had about 3" of fine, fine dust in the bottom of the Dust Deputy bucket, and only a light coating of dust inside the Shop Vac barrel and on the filter. I'd say it worked as well as -- or better than -- expected. :thumb:
Thanks!:thumb:
 
Vaughn, I look at the HF DC as a glorified vacuum with very poor filtration. Of course I would filter the output of the DC to collect the fines.
sure it's not going th be a true DC but if it does a better job then what out there for the same price point it might be worth trying.
Any how ain't gonna happen soon since I already got a full plate.
 
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