ShopVac Hose Lenght

[axio]

I currently use a shopvac as my only source of dust collection. The HF version of a 5 gallon bucket lid came in the mail today. I was wondering how much of a difference does the lenght of the hose matter in terms of the suction power?

[BobSch]

quote:Originally posted by axio

I currently use a shopvac as my only source of dust collection. The HF version of a 5 gallon bucket lid came in the mail today. I was wondering how much of a difference does the lenght of the hose matter in terms of the suction power?

Regular vacuum hose has a fair amount of resistance to air movement due to the internal corrugations, so I'd try to keep the runs as short as practical. That being said, a lot depends on the hose diameter. I've used a five-gallon separator with five feet of 2 1/4 inch hose to the sep and 15 feet to the vacuum.

YMMV, void where prohibited, professional driver on a closed course.

[mschrank]

Bob,

Others here have commented that they didn't have much luck with the small (5-gallon bucket) separator. I think the problem was that once it caught the first bit of chips & dust, the rest went right on through to the vac.

Have you had better luck?

[vaking]

Axio,
Any air pump is characterized by two numbers: amount of airflow and suction or static pressure. A good dust collector needs a lot of airflow and just enough suction, this is what it takes to collect dust well. To collect larger chips you need the opposite, plenty of suction and just enough airflow. Real dust collectors have at least 600cfm of airflow but more is better. Shopvac is a type of pump that is always short on airflow (the biggest shopvac has 400cfm) but has more static pressure than any dust collector needs. That is why shopvac and dust collector are poor substituts for each other and workshop usually have both. The length of a hose is critical when you run low on static pressure, for a shopvac this should not be an issue. The amount of airflow is important for cyclone type dust separator like you just bought. Too much airflow will suck all the dust right through the separator into the DC(shopvac) making separator useless. The more airflow requires bigger diameter cyclone. The lid you bought is definitely too small for any real dust collector, it may or may not be too small even for shopvac - that is what Mschrank commented on. In your case - the concern is not how long hoses are - I am sure you have enough pressure; but whether your shopvac is small enough for this lid. If you ever upgrade your shopvac to an impeller type collector - this lid will go into garbage.

[BobSch]

quote:Originally posted by mschrank

Bob,

Others here have commented that they didn't have much luck with the small (5-gallon bucket) separator. I think the problem was that once it caught the first bit of chips & dust, the rest went right on through to the vac.

Have you had better luck?

Wellll... I cheated. I cut the bottom out of two five gallon buckets and glued them together Oh, and glue the bottom bucket's cover on. The slight hourglass taper seems to act almost like a cheezy cyclone. Can get the bottom bucket almost full before everything start to transfer to the vac.

[axio]

Alex, I have two shopvacs actually. A really small Ridgid one, and a slightly bigger one. I think they're the 6 gallon and the 12 gallon? 3hp and 5 hp? I can't quite check it right now as I'm at work. Would these be fine with a small 5 gallon bucket?

Bob, when you cut out the bottom of the buckets, how flush did you make it? Did you cut out the entire bottom, or was there essentially a lip around the sides as well? What kind of glue did you use?

[BobSch]

quote:Originally posted by axio

Alex, I have two shopvacs actually. A really small Ridgid one, and a slightly bigger one. I think they're the 6 gallon and the 12 gallon? 3hp and 5 hp? I can't quite check it right now as I'm at work. Would these be fine with a small 5 gallon bucket?

Bob, when you cut out the bottom of the buckets, how flush did you make it? Did you cut out the entire bottom, or was there essentially a lip around the sides as well? What kind of glue did you use?

I cut off the entire bottom of both buckets and used some construction adhesive I had lying around. The whole job was a quickie, just used it until I got my HF DC.

[axio]

Thanks Bob. Did you try the unit with just 1 bucket? Did that work ok? I'm assuming the 3 hp vacuum will be weak enough to not suck everything out of the 5 gallon bucket, right?

[BobSch]

quote:Originally posted by axio

Thanks Bob. Did you try the unit with just 1 bucket? Did that work ok? I'm assuming the 3 hp vacuum will be weak enough to not suck everything out of the 5 gallon bucket, right?

I used it with an OLD Sears shopvac (not sure how big) and just one bucket for a short time. But I emptied the bucket every night, so it never really got a chance to fill up.

[vaking]

Only test will tell. Should be easy to test though.