Small tool dust collection

[pelligrini]

What are most of you guys doing for small tool collection, like sanders & such?

Lately I've been using a 10' small diameter Rigid hose (1 1/2 dia I think), very flexible though, on my ROS and hooking it up to my Jet 650 DC. It works ok, but with all the small hose volume isn't what it needs to be. I've tried some black 2 1/2 dia shop vac hose. It works better, but it makes sanding very cumbersome. With either scenario I will support the hose at bench height with some bungee cords hanging from above. Hanging the hose helps, but it still can be a pain with a lot of sanding.

I have a Rigid shop vac and it will do a lot better with the smaller diameter hoses, but it isn't exactly small or quiet. I don't set it up very often, mainly due to my limited space.

I picked up some 2" hose recently. It's clear with black banding. It seems fairly flexible. I plan to get the hose length as short as practical and see how things work then.

I've thought about one of the smaller dust extractors like the Fein turbo, but they're not exactly inexpensive.

[JR]

I have very good luck with my PC ROS hooked up to a HF DC, using the small diameter hose.

Are you careful to align the holes on the sandpaper with the holes in the base of the ROS? That's all I got...

JR

[LarryG]

In my current shop, I'm ... oh, wait, I don't have a shop right now. So at the moment, I don't really need any dust collection.

In my last shop, I either adapted a 2-1/2" hose to my DC's 4" duct system, or connected straight to my shop vac. The latter worked better apart from the noise and the hassle of rolling the vac around.

Two shops ago, the vac was connected to a 2" hard-plastic tubing network, one branch of which had a drop directly above the center of my assembly table. This setup worked really well. The vac itself was on the other side of a wall, in an adjoining shed; that really helped cut the racket, and having to deal only with a length of 2-1/2" hose was convenient. I'm thinking I'll emulate this system in my new shop, assuming I ever get the thing built.

[August86]

I've got a DeWalt Dw500 that I use in the field with small sanders and multitools. Otherwise the shopvac with a 1 1/4 inch hose.

Mike D.

What are most of you guys doing for small tool collection, like sanders & such?

Lately I've been using a 10' small diameter Rigid hose (1 1/2 dia I think), very flexible though, on my ROS and hooking it up to my Jet 650 DC. It works ok, but with all the small hose volume isn't what it needs to be. I've tried some black 2 1/2 dia shop vac hose. It works better, but it makes sanding very cumbersome. With either scenario I will support the hose at bench height with some bungee cords hanging from above. Hanging the hose helps, but it still can be a pain with a lot of sanding.

I have a Rigid shop vac and it will do a lot better with the smaller diameter hoses, but it isn't exactly small or quiet. I don't set it up very often, mainly due to my limited space.

I picked up some 2" hose recently. It's clear with black banding. It seems fairly flexible. I plan to get the hose length as short as practical and see how things work then.

I've thought about one of the smaller dust extractors like the Fein turbo, but they're not exactly inexpensive.

[Turaj]

Two shops ago, the vac was connected to a 2" hard-plastic tubing network, one branch of which had a drop directly above the center of my assembly table.

I have a similar setup. A Ridgid vac plus a Ridgid tubing network collects dust from 4 of my smaller tools (OSS, small Belt/Disk sander, Scroll Saw & DP). I have a 5th gate with length of flex hose to attach to either ROS or router (hand held). All the tools are on some kind of extension cord that plugs into a Sears switch to turn the vac automatically. So far the system seems to be working fine (4-5 months). I am working on a separate network (perhaps 6 inch) and a cyclone / DC for the bigger tools.

[vaking]

I think ROS is physically unable to make good use of real dust collector. ROS has several small holes for dust collection, very restrictive and cannot move large volume of air. Because of it I think shopvac with its high suction/pressure is a better partner for ROS than dust collector. I use Ridgid ROS with shopvac and 2-1/2" hose. Does a decent job in my opinion. A bit noisy but that is what hearing protection is for.

[dbhost]

Ridgid Vac / Thien Cyclone to 2.5" Peachtree hose, to a reducer. Do NOT like the results though. The reducer gets in the way...

Considering going with a 1.25" hose to the tool. All my fittings are 1.25" or smaller on my sanders...

[pelligrini]

My Rigid vac is a 16 gal model with the detachable blower. It can develop a lot of static pressure, which is good for small hoses, but cumbersome is the most apt description of it. It takes up a big chunk of available space if I put it in my 10x12 shop. I've got the fittings to put it outside or even in the attached storage and feed it through a blast gate in a wall. I'm probably going to do something like that.

I get the best collection results with the 2 1/2" hose and shop vac, but it also causes the most fatigue. When I hook the shop vac hose to my sander it almost feels like it has doubled in weight. Some is due to the suction, but most of it seems like it's from the weight and rigidity of the hose.

[LarryG]

When I hook the shop vac hose to my sander it almost feels like it has doubled in weight. Some is due to the suction, but most of it seems like it's from the weight and rigidity of the hose.

The overhead drop I used to have helped with that, some. With the hose going up to the ceiling, my muscles had less of the hose's length to support, and there was not as much of a tendency for it to drag itself down onto the floor under its own weight. Also, when I was working up high, I sometimes rigged a bungee to help support the hose, leaving just enough slack so I could maneuver the sander without having a lot of excess hose to deal with.

The setup still wasn't ideal, but it helped. Having different lengths of hose available, to suit the size of the project at hand, would have helped even more.

[Sawatzky]

Dust pan and broom! Only cost my a few bucks and is the quietest dust collection system I have ever used

[DrChas]

My 6in Porter Cable ROS came with dust collection tubing. Turns out it also works on my 5 in ROS and my detail sander. I happened to have a very small (small enough it has a handle instead of wheels) "shop vac" that has become my dedicated sander dust collector. It works well, I think in part because the small vac generates a lot of velocity, probably even more than a regular shop vac. Of course the volume of air it moves is small, but high velocity low volume seems to work well for collecting sanding dust.

By the way, I inadvertently tested it the other day when I sanded a small box made of padouk. After I was done I didn't see any red dust anywhere except on the sand paper, and the inside of the vac looked like it was bleeding. . .

[JimD]

I have used my whole house vacumn and it works well but I usually just use bags on the tools - they get a lot of the dust but probably near zero of the dangerous size.

Jim

[Rich P]

I fitted my PC 6" ROS with their hood and hooked it up to an old (good quality) household vacuum hose. Works okay. The PC does not have dust collection holes in the pad. The hood creates a fairly strong air flow but still not the best. I recently went for the Bosch 5" unit due to it's overall and DC performance ratings at FWW. It does a good job as long as the pad is in full contact with the surface, but it will throw dust if it is not. I've started just running my shop-built ambient air cleaner anytime I start sanding and that seems to pick up most of the stuff that escapes the unit.

[Papa]

Dust collection on small tools

Ya'll would probably laugh at my set-up for small tools. I use a 30-year-old Shopvac wet-dry vacuum with a 1-1/2" hose that I doubled in length by attaching another hose I got at a yard sale. I turned a custom mandrel on my lathe and used a heat gun to soften the pickup fittings on my small tools so that they all fit my hose. This rig gets almost all the dust from my ROS. I ses a small Grizzley router for hand-held work, and the DC gets all the shavings that the unit produces. I have a PC 690 in my router table mounted with the PC dust collection base. I seldom get anything neneath the router table at all. Same thing with my PC biscuit jointer.
Papa