What is a good smaller size vacuum to have enough suction power. I am using a Ridgid 5hp peak power vacuum with a cyclone separator. It works great until when I cut something at a higher feed rate that generates a lot of chips and then the hose gets clogged and there’s mess everywhere on the table. Recently I was machining teak and the vacuum just couldn’t handle extraction and kept getting clogged.
Your problem is not t he dust collector but your hose. Maybe replace it with an anti-static hose. When possible use straight walled pipe for dust collection. Corrugated dust collection hoses cause a lot of turbulence and gives you places to get a clog. Many people use the stock shop dust collector with the stock hose and do not get clogs but seems like your configuration is causing clogs so rather than replace the vacuum replace the hose first.
Here on the forum several have reported the Dewalt Stelthsonic is quiter than others. If you have the money the Festool ones with HEPA filters seem to work well but are fantastically priced.
KISS Keep it simple stupid. So start with the hose to see if that works better before throwing the baby out with the bath water. Also try 45 degree bends and not 90 degree ones. If the chips slow down that is how you get a clog. However some things like oak are long stringy fibers and they tend to get clogged in the best designed systems out there.
1 Like
I just bought a stealthsonic and it measured a 10 db drop over the Harbor Freight one I had been using.
I can now hear the bit cutting.
No problems with chip collection
1 Like
Hose diameter can be very important. When I exchanged the 1.75" hose for the 2.5" hose, dust and chip collection improved 200%. The Rigid 6.5 hp dust vac is working well for me. I still want something bigger and better, but that is always the case.
My setup includes a bucket style Duststopper separator. I replaced the standard filter in the shopvac with the filter that was designed for vacuuming up water for better air flow. Lastly, I piped the exhaust from the shopvac out through the wall.
1 Like