Great vacuum and super quiet. Only real problem with it is it honestly has too much suction for the Sweepy Pro. It was actually making the plastic piece that goes around the router / spindle vibrate from pulling air in through the small gap. This made me think I had horrible chatter at times. It was also collapsing the vacuum hose.
which is an AC voltage adjustment speed controller for universal motors. I am pleased to report that it is working great even after 2 hour long cuts. I am able to run the Stealthsonic at only 60V and not only is it even quieter than its already quiet nature it has considerably less suction which is actually good in this case
One concern with this was that the shopvac might overhead due to the reduction in airflow through it. Shopvac motors are cooled by the air moving through them. That is definitely not happening here. The Shopvac is actually much cooler than it was before.
Another concern was that the voltage regulation device would overheat. People who have done this previously have reported issues with this. That is why I went with the one rated for 10000W. This one specifically says not to use it with inductive loads (motors) over 3800W. The US version of the Stealthsonic 12 gallon draws 9amp at 120V so 1080W which is well under this ones recommendation. I have a feeling previous attempts at this used one that was under rated for an inductive load. On a two hour CNC session it did heat up a bit, but was not hot by any means.
About the only thing that is a bit concerning is that the voltage adjuster has one of those universal outlets on it for plugging other countries devices into it. Depending on the plug on your shopvac it is actually possible to put the plug in upside down with this type of outlet. Make certain you are plugging in with the proper polarity or you could have problems, cause a fire, or even get shocked.
Lastly if you choose to do this and have issues, do not blame me. I am a sample size of one. Do your research, read all warnings, check things out for yourself, monitor temperatures, and in general be careful. You are running a device at a lower voltage than it is designed for using a device that does not have any kind of UL listing.
Isn’t cooling a concern with this sort of speed reduction?
Often motors are set up to run at certain speeds with the assumption that air movement will keep things cool — that was a problem when folks used similar devices on single speed trim routers back in the early days.
Interesting approach. That may also solve the incredible noise I get when using that vac with the regular sweepy. The sharp angle on the normal sweepy creates a lot of noise whereas the gradual curve on the deep sweepy does not.
I have pretty much abandoned using the regular one as a result. Dialing back on the voltage may reduce the airflow to a point that it still works and isn’t ear piercing. It’s pointless to have a quiet shop vac when another part of your system is generating the noise.
I wonder if this would be a good replacement for the potentiometer for my Performax 16/32 deum sander. The assembly with the potentiometer online is almost $400 which is just nuts.
Yes that was one of the concerns. I am not having problems with that and the Stealthsonic. It could be an issue for others though which is why I advised monitoring temperatures.
Honestly I think the vacuum was overheating without this device due to the excessive amount of suction it was generating. It got quite hot and was blowing very warm exhaust. Like it was pulling really hard but not enough air was moving (thus the collapsing vacuum line). This was causing the motor to heat up. Now that the suction has been reduced the right amount of air is flowing for the speed the motor is spinning at.
Again this is a be careful and monitor things if you go this route. Different setups could have very different results.
From what I was reading on other wood working forums is you never want to use one of these voltage regulators on a device that already has a speed controller built in. It can cause them to compete with each other and cause huge problems.
Yeah, I was thinking to bypass the one on the sander. It is flaky. I bought this sander used 20+ years ago and the helpful UPS driver tossed it over the gate at the place I lived back then. It sustained some damage. That speed control has never really worked right, only a few places did it engage.
I took it apart last weekend and don’t really understand what is supposed to be supporting the thing inside. It wiggles up and down and when down it doesn’t work properly. I don’t see any supports or snap rings or anything that would keep it in the right place. Surely something is broken. Anyway Input it back together and it was good for a week and now it won’t click in the off position so I have to unplug it to turn the motor off. This is for the small mother that drives the feed belt not the big motor for the drum.
Didn’t mean hijack this thread.
It’s probably hard to bypass given all the connections on this thing. The price of a replacement just seems crazy.
I may be wrong but I think you need to incorporate a variable gate or bypass into your hose or hose ends. This would allow the Vac motor run at its designed speed and pull the required CFM to keep it cool, while at the same time allowing you to adjust the suction at the Sweepy.
I just got a new antistatic vac hose yesterday. Was pleased to see that the hose ends have 1/4" holes and sleeve that rotates over them to open or close as needed. My point here is that the solution doesnt need to be fancy. Maybe just drill a hole or two in your connectors and cover with tape when not needed.
Nope. It does not. But for $35 dollars I did not need to drill holes or change the plumbing. Plus the vacuum is even quieter. If it hadn’t worked I was just going to return the voltage adjuster.
See if there is anyone around you who does electronics repair. Hard to find in our throw away society these days but that is like a 3 dollar part and a few minutes with a soldering iron to fix. That is assuming that is the only thing wrong with it.
Yeah, I will take it apart again and check it out more closely. I did try to crimp down on the piece by that brown board but I guess not enough. That bracket on the right side going to the aluminum disc was riveted if I recall. It doesn’t appear to have an electrical function.
I doubt crimping the potentiometer back together would fix it. Most likely the little arm inside that moves around is not going to be lined up with the resistive trace.
That part from Ebay though looks correct. Definitely double check the part number from your existing one.
Thanks for this! I love the steal sonic. Fanatic upgrade, quiet, suction and so very affordable. I have a manifold system I use with it and on some of my more flimsy ducts they accordion like crazy hehe! With the anti-static ducting and the deep sweep I haven’t noticed any problems but I might pick this up for running my sanding and other legs that aren’t as strong.
I used to have a Porter Cable 690 router that was a fixed speed. I added a variable speed control and it eventually burned up the windings. Not sure if it was the speed control or just a failure. You had pointed out that the shop vac is cooled by the motor itself similar to a TEFC motor that is cooled by the external fan running on the motor shaft. So I would be wary of burning up your vac motor running too slow for extended periods. Short runs likely would not hut but long runs will likely overheat the motor and shorten its life on long runs.
I think the suggestion of throttling the port might be a better option. Just closing down the port will restrict the air flow so the throttling should be an open to the air to keep the airflow through the vac at maximum for cooling the vac motor. If you decide to throttle the air flow to the sweepy just have an opening to suck up air to not starve the air flow and put a strain on the motor.
I also tried the variable router speed controller, It work great and is far less noisy. However after more reading I was not comfortable that it would not hurt my vacuum motor. IMHO
Reduces airflow to cool the motor
It is no longer a sin wave which by what I read, these devices can be hard on the motor.
Some of these device can create EMI. Like the old light dimmers
Many house vacuums have a slide on the handle that opens a vent to reduce suction. In addition I have seen people crack open a waste gate in larger built in dust collection systems.
So a simple hose coupler with a couple holes drilled around it and a sleeve that slides over them will work.
There are many ways you can do this.
To me why reinvent the wheel. This seems to be the way industry does it.
It does not reduce the noise but at least I know this will not burn out my motor
I’ve run several shop vacs with a router speed control many hours at a time, never had a problem with a vac over heating. Just my personal observation.
My main reason for installing a motor speed control module into my ShopVac was to reduce power consumption - on long 3D carving programs, the 1.3KW used by the vac running full out dwarfs the power consumption of the spindle & CNC by 4 or 5:1. Adds up to a lot of wasted power per job & heat generated.
Universal motors can run on DC and AC. They don’t care about the wave form. Cooling is a different matter. Like I said though there is very little heat coming out the exhaust. I will measure the temperature right on the motor however just in case.
Didn’t mean to start a debate on it
Just added my experience and a possible option.
For me the exhaust was hot, and the controller also got hot. there are several different controllers out there some may work good some may not.
I am not saying they don’t work, just another option. People can choose what works for them.
Sorry if my response came across as combative. Not my intent.
That honestly sounds like your vacuum has a different type of motor or the speed controller was under powered. Most of those controllers rate their power output for resistive loads where the voltage and current is in sync. Inductive loads like motors knock the current and voltage out of sync which makes the controller much less efficient. The one I got is rated for 10000W resistive, but only 3800W inductive which is less than half. There were some models available that were 2000W resistive and didn’t list their inductive. My guess is those can’t handle more than 800W inductive and most shopvacs are like 1000W+. If the controller couldn’t keep up it would definitely over heat and cause improper behavior in the motor which could also overheat.
