I actually have that same helmet. I bought it 20+ years ago when I was doing more lathe work.
I have not used it in a while and I am sure it needs some TLC. Hopefully the battery is still chargeable.
For those that are not familiar with it, there is a fan in there which keeps a fresh flow of air across your face which keeps glasses and the shield from fogging up.
I should at least wear it while dumping the bucket in the trash. Even when transferring the contents to a bag its a mess. I have always thought about putting the bag in the bucket and using a mesh or some other mechanism to keep the vac from sucking it up. That always seemed like a challenge with my 30 gallon trash can on the main collector but should be trivial with the 5 gallon bucket. I will do it next time I dump it,
Maybe I will wear that helmet next time I cut the grass
It would require a different solution for my music though.
My Oneida Industrial vac has a liner for inside the pail. It’s just a thick (but bendable) plastic sheet that’s rolled just smaller than the diameter of the pail. You put the bag in the pail, followed by the liner. When it’s full, you pull the liner first and then remove the bag with everything in it. It works very well. The only thing to be careful of is taht you need to make sure there are no gaps in the seal on the drum, or the liner will collapse.
They come as a flat sheet and have a line of predrilled holes on the edges…you bolt them together to make the cylinder. Those finger holes on the top are godsends…they make it easy to pull out when the pail is filled with chips.
Unlike the way this person pulls the bag over the lip of the pail, I tuck the excess plastic bag in between the liner and the drum wall…so that it stays completely within the pail. That eliminates the chance that I create an air gap on the rim that will crush the insert (don’t ask me how I know that can happen…and how I know this tucking technique stops the problem).
I built this filter to get the floating dust in my workshop. I’ve used my meter to see that it will reduce it to better than outside; very low in 30 minutes. I’ve also added some cheap filters on top of the HEPA filters to use as a pre-filter. I added large casters to the bottom.
Thanks. One of the Onieda ones would work for my big collector but not the 5 gallon bucket. I will find some plastic sheeting that is pliable enough and make one though
it works pretty well, I can’t tell if the 2nd cyclone is an improvement over just one, since I don’t have another system to compare it to.
I can say I don’t need to change the filter on my shop vac, and I have a bucket of regular saw dust, with a 2nd, coffee can amount of super fine saw dust.
I’m not sure if there’s anything I want to use either batch of sawdust for anything, but if I wanted to make a spectacular dust explosion on purpose, I have the correct supplies.
Like many others that have posted, I also use the DeWalt Stealth with Dust Deputy Low-Pro & 5 gallon bucket setup. I would add that the Dust Right Flexiport hose from Rockler works great for CNC – it expands/contracts with pretty force and comes with attachments that fit sweepy. I put a small hole in the top of my CNC enclosure and drop the hose through.
I also just put together a pre-filter using this container from Zoro and cyclone kit from Amazon to put in front of a 1.5hp dust collector. Also a very easy build and stays tighter than the Dust Deputy topper.
I use an extractor with a dedicated Mullet cyclone with mine. I can switch to another nearby tool but it is mostly dedicated to by Shapeoko 5. My CNC is my largest dust producer based on usage.
Personally I use two systems in my shop, a big Clearview cyclone for the big tools like the planer, the jointer, the table saw, the band saw …, and a shop vac with a Oneida dust deputy for the CNC and smaller tools like the Mirka hand sander, press drill… I replaced my old very noisy Craftsman shop vac by the 12 gallons DeWalt stealthsonic the day it was available in Canada some years ago. I think I was one of the first recommending this shop vac in this forum.
The big cyclone use a 6" tubing network and and the shop vac is on a 2 1/2" tubing network.
The problem isn’t the dust collector, the issue is the 2.5" hose size. It absolutely kills the suction on a dust collector. I’m in the late stage of a prototype dust shoe that bolts into the holes that the smaller spindle and routers use. I upgraded to the 80mm spindle. I have a project that will turn into production, and I needed more suction for cutting foam. I will make it look better in the future, but it works. I have a few different spacer options. I don’t have time to do a full write up. If someone wants to do the leg work, I will provide them the STL files, BOM, and details.
I also made an reducer that went from a 4" hose to the sweepy, and it does make a huge difference.
The shop vac setups are not mean’t to be whole workshop systems. They’re for use on a single piece of equipment at a time.
For instance, I have a long hose on mine and switch it back and forth from my Shapeoko to my table saw to my sander to my floor sweep. Its a little trouble, but I’ve saved a ton of money.
I used to do the same thing but since buying the stealthsonic I use my original 30 year old shop vac for all my other tools and the stealthsonic exclusively on my SO4XL. The old one should be long gone but it has such good suction, albeit noisy as all get out, and I’ve used it for everything from sucking water out of fence post holes to dust collection on my CNC. I cant kill it
I get that. The vacuum doesn’t create enough airflow for my purpose. I also need to run it for hours a day, every day. Even though a vacuum, and a dust collector perform the same function, the systems need to be engineered differently. Vacuums tolerate smaller hoses well, dust collectors don’t. For those that have used both it is understood. I had never worked with a dust collector, but I know I needed a high volume flow.
I originally had a 4" to 2.5" reducer at the cyclone, with 20’ of 2.5" hose going into the Sweepy. I made a custom 4" to 2.5" reducer, and ran the 30’ of 4" hose to the sweepy and reduced it at the sweepy. I got a 30% increase in suction. With the 4" dust shoe I doubled the performance over the Sweepy. At some point, I will add a 5’ section of smooth pipe in the overhead swing arm I made, and that will get me some additional flow. With a vacuum, none of that seemed to matter.
For most folks it won’t matter. I am machining foam, and it makes a big difference for me.
The difference between a dust collector & shopvac is the CFM & static air pressure differential. Dust collectors have high CFM but fairly low static air pressure capability. Shopvacs have a much lower CFM & high static air pressure - plus they can usually suck up water too if you need a make-shift sump-pump.
So dust collector systems work best with large diameter pipe that allows high CFM at low air pressure differential. Shopvacs work with smaller diameter pipe/hose that is more restrictive but still provide a high airflow speed thru the pipe to carry debris because they develop a much higher air pressure differential. Due to the volume of air being significantly less, the suction end of the pipe needs to be as close to & focused(Sweepy) at the machining tool as possible to draw debris into the airstream. And using a too large diamater pipe with a shopvac results in an airstream within the pipe that is too low to carry heavier debris due to the CFM limit of the shopvac.
I took me a while to find and adapt the air pump for my goggles. Wish I would have seen your helmet earlier. I also use a saw stop table saw. Saved me already a finger. Even with the table saw the wood chips flying around get into eyes and nose. And: when one thinks being deaf does not need to use a noise protection: this is wrong. Unprotected noise still can damage the hearing cells even further.
And: wood dust is not “only” allergogenic, it is also carcinogenic:
National Toxicology Program. 15th Report on Carcinogens [Internet]. Research Triangle Park (NC): National Toxicology Program; 2021 Dec 21. Wood Dust: CAS No.: none assigned. Available from: Wood Dust - 15th Report on Carcinogens - NCBI Bookshelf
This protection does not look ridiculous, it looks like you love your family enough to leave them not too soon.
