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The Shop Vac Sawdust Collection System Catalog #801-75-11, is a great dust collection alternative to those that lack the space, or funding for a dedicated comparable DC unit and plumbing.
The kit comes will all the bits and pieces needed to assemble a basic, straight forward dust collection plumbing system, 36" pipe segments, 90 and 45 degree elbows, pipe couplers, directional tee fittings, friction fit blast gates, pipe hangers and hardware kit. For all but the most basic setups this is adequate. However, if your shop setup is in a garage or a basement where you have to pipe around walls and corners, there are simply too few elbows to make the turns.
I dinged them on quality because I found that the clear PVC tubing is a very loose fit into the fittings making for a very leaky vacuum system. In order to correct this I had to end wrap each piece of tubing with 1 winding of black PVC Electrical tape. This gave a good snug fit.
The fittings, and blast gates have a good tight fit to one another, and to shop vac hose ends, creating no, or at least minimal opportunity for vacuum leak.
When setting up your system, it is important to note that you may not want to use the 90 degree elbows to go up a wall going to the vac as this can cause the debris to lose velocity and drop back into the elbow. Planning and use of the 45 degree elbows can accomodate those rises needed to clear door frames and the like...
Just like with any other DC system, the fewer 90 degree bends the better.
Considering that Shop Vac has had these things on sale now for a while at $39.99, when other online vendors are getting $90.00 or so for the kit, buying two to get all the pieces and parts you need is well worth it.
To summarize, overall this is a good kit, with a slightly off size main tube. The issues with the tube are easily remedied with electrical tape. Better design and quality control from Shop Vac would have made this unnecessary. Even with its weaknesses, this is a good kit that goes a long way to getting proper dust collection and control into the hands of those of us with restricted budgets.
The kit comes will all the bits and pieces needed to assemble a basic, straight forward dust collection plumbing system, 36" pipe segments, 90 and 45 degree elbows, pipe couplers, directional tee fittings, friction fit blast gates, pipe hangers and hardware kit. For all but the most basic setups this is adequate. However, if your shop setup is in a garage or a basement where you have to pipe around walls and corners, there are simply too few elbows to make the turns.
I dinged them on quality because I found that the clear PVC tubing is a very loose fit into the fittings making for a very leaky vacuum system. In order to correct this I had to end wrap each piece of tubing with 1 winding of black PVC Electrical tape. This gave a good snug fit.
The fittings, and blast gates have a good tight fit to one another, and to shop vac hose ends, creating no, or at least minimal opportunity for vacuum leak.
When setting up your system, it is important to note that you may not want to use the 90 degree elbows to go up a wall going to the vac as this can cause the debris to lose velocity and drop back into the elbow. Planning and use of the 45 degree elbows can accomodate those rises needed to clear door frames and the like...
Just like with any other DC system, the fewer 90 degree bends the better.
Considering that Shop Vac has had these things on sale now for a while at $39.99, when other online vendors are getting $90.00 or so for the kit, buying two to get all the pieces and parts you need is well worth it.
To summarize, overall this is a good kit, with a slightly off size main tube. The issues with the tube are easily remedied with electrical tape. Better design and quality control from Shop Vac would have made this unnecessary. Even with its weaknesses, this is a good kit that goes a long way to getting proper dust collection and control into the hands of those of us with restricted budgets.