Shop Vac Upgrade

[jeepman71]

Good Morning All,

I have had a Shop Vac brand 6 gal vacuum for about 8 years. This was my dust collector for several years as well as anything else vacuum. I sucked up way too much sheetrock dust and probably used 50 bags in this thing.

I am doing a remodel in our family room and was doing some clean up when the vacuum refused to start. When it did it was none too happy. I told my wife I needed a new one and she consoles me with the "It's been a good vacuum and you got your money's worth". Low and behold it started working, don't need a new one after all.

Last night I decided to go ahead and grab my HF coupon and go get a new vac. I chose the WD1270 12 gallon Rigid. Wow what a difference new verses 8 years of abuse makes. If I can get 8 years out of this one I will be thrilled. Today I will say goodbye to the old vacuum and move forward.

Jim

[cabinetman]

Good Morning All,

I have had a Shop Vac brand 6 gal vacuum for about 8 years. This was my dust collector for several years as well as anything else vacuum. I sucked up way too much sheetrock dust and probably used 50 bags in this thing.

I am doing a remodel in our family room and was doing some clean up when the vacuum refused to start. When it did it was none too happy. I told my wife I needed a new one and she consoles me with the "It's been a good vacuum and you got your money's worth". Low and behold it started working, don't need a new one after all.

Last night I decided to go ahead and grab my HF coupon and go get a new vac. I chose the WD1270 12 gallon Rigid. Wow what a difference new verses 8 years of abuse makes. If I can get 8 years out of this one I will be thrilled. Today I will say goodbye to the old vacuum and move forward.

Jim

I hate to throw anything away. If it still works maybe you could make it a DC for a specific station...like the DP, if it isn't hooked to a DC.

.

[jeepman71]

That's a good thought. I can always leave one in the house and one in the garage.

Jim

[JimD]

My upgrade path was a bit different than yours. First I put a HEPA filter on my old Rigid 6 gallon shop vac. That helped a lot with it not spitting dust back into the air but the filter clogged real fast too. So later I added a dust deputy cyclone to it. I mounted it above the vacumn to avoid giving up floor space but the hoses are still in the way a bit. But functionally this combination is great. Almost all the debris goes into a 5 gallon bucket under the cyclone where it is easily dumped out. The filter does not clog so it keeps running with full suction.

Regardless of the age of your shop vacumn, i think a Hepa filter and a pre-spearator of some sort (FWW tested the trash can lids and said they were pretty effective, for instance) is a great upgrade.

Jim

[LCHIEN]

i have an old shop vac - it says Montgomery wards on it and has a metal canister - that's how old it is... its doing duty on the bandsaw and the drill press over on one side of the garage, and the newer Ridgid is next to the jointer and the tablesaw... for cleanup of the escapees, and for the router table. I have a third one still in a box, that really needs to be set up for the sanding machines.