Central vacuum system?

[Tom.In.Maryland]

How do I learn about central vacuum systems. I am doing small projects and relatively light work I want a few hoses to some machines in my garage and a hose into my basement for evacuating solder fumes from an electronics bench.

Has anyone ever considered nutone central vacuum system hose.

Thanks,
Tom

[LCHIEN]

Personally I'd start with a google search, one for "wiki central vacuum" and another just for "central vacuum".

What kind of electronics are you into?
You might find something like this useful for soldering fumes:

http://www.apexhandtools.com/brands/CF_Files/model_detail.cfm?upc=037103210944

goto digikey for a large selection of these fume extractors. My tech at work uses the one I showed.

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en/soldering-desoldering-rework-products/fume-smoke-extraction/1311718?k=soldering

offhand I'd say for the length of hose and the usually limited diameter, it probably would not make good dust collection for a woodshop can't get a sufficiently high volume to pull in the small particles that should be the target of dust collection, nor the volume and velocity to carry larger shavings and cuttings that will otherwise clog your hoses. There would also be issues of collection volume - a normal house vac would have a relatively small bag while certain wood tools could produce a gallon or more of cuttings in short order.

[wardprobst]

I have and use the one LChien posted up. It's good for light duty work, if you are soldering all day on heavy stuff you may want something more substantial. It definitely does help.
DP

[rfisher7381]

I installed a central vacuum system (NuTone) about 8 years ago for my home. Has worked very well. I went with the bag less model with outdoor venting. Easy to install. You need to run control wire along with your collection piping to start and stop the vacuum.

If this is primarily intended for saw dust collection you may want to do some research. For the workshop you don't usually need high vacuum. You do want high airflow to move the saw dust.

For my general home vacuuming the NuTone has worked very well. I use a Grizzly cyclone for the workshop.

[d_meister]

I've worked on a few yachts that had central vacs, and I found that they out-sucked most regular vacs. Surprisingly, most of the yachts had standard vacs aboard as well. I guess some folks think it's easier to move a regular vac, plug it in, coil the cord and put it all away for a quick job than bring out the hose. I always thought it easier to get the hose and plug it in, as well as having a really good dust devil type hand held around. The features that I like about central vacs is that there's no motor noise, just a little air in-rush sound, so that would be perfect for solder fume collection. Not a good idea for flammable vapors, though. The hose is plenty long, usually; maybe 30'. The vac cannister doesn't suck through the bag, which is quite large, but blows through it like most dust collector systems. I usually changed bags just because I thought it MUST be full, although there wasn't a loss of performance.
Now then, that's all for standard Nutone / Broan systems, but one yacht I worked on had a Craftsman shop-vac for the central vacuum unit! I guess the original rusted out or died. It was located in the engine room. I would think that a big shop vac with a small cyclone would really do the job well.

[JimD]

I have a central vacumn, Beam, and a small 1hp DC. The suction of the central vacumn is far greater than the DC but it moves a lot less air through a small 2 inch pipe. For picking up dust from a sander, the only issue would be regulating the airflow so it wouldn't suck too hard. The filter isn't great on it but it discharges outside. I don't know what sawdust would do to the filter, I presume it would take it OK. The tub it dropes dust into is fairly large so for dust, it would probably be OK.

A tablessaw and certainly a planner puts off too much debris and the debris is too large for a central vacumn. It would not reliably go through the piping so it would clog. I like the DC but my wife uses a Dyson. The new house doesn't have a central vacumn and probably won't get one. They work well but hauling the hose around is in some ways worse than hauling the vacumn around. Installation is easy when the walls are open. For what you pay for a central vacumn, you could buy several nice regular vacumns.

Jim

[LCHIEN]

[QUOTE=JimD;524629... The suction of the central vacumn is far greater than the DC but it moves a lot less air through a small 2 inch pipe. ...

Jim[/QUOTE]

JIm's observation I presume by "suction" he means vacuum pressure.
Its true that the vac sill pull down greater inches of water on a manometer or pressure/vacuum gauge. However the air flow is much greater with a dust collector; it can move a greater valume of air but it can't stand the pressure drop of a long hose - that's why it wants a 4" hose or greater.

Air flow/Vacuum-pressure are like water flow and pressure. A high pressure hose isn't much use if it only puts out a small stream of water, but a large volume is what's needed for many things. another example is a fat straw vs. a skinny straw. Its hard (requires more pressure or suction)to suck up a drink fast with a skinny straw, its much easier to suck it up fast (high flow rate, lower flow resistance and pressure required) with a fat straw. For a given amount of power used, usually flow and pressure are trade-offs against each other. Vacs are optimized for pressure, dust collectors are optimized for flow.

[LCHIEN]

As for soldering fumes, it would be advisable to have a filter between the soldering location and the central vac so the fumes which carry sticky rosins don't gum up your in-house pipes and hoses and coat the insides of said pipe with dust covered gummy messes.

[JR]

As far as dust collection goes here is the site to start with. It'll scare the heck out of you, but has all the information necessary to understand how this stuff works.