I took my bucket and cut a slot on one side. Covered it with Lexan and caulk the edges. I can now see how full it is.
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Nice. I have been wanting to try that but figured it would impact the already dicey integrity of the bucket.
What thickness of lexan did you use? I assume you did it from the inside?
Something else the DeWalt StealthSonic has going for it is the hose is 2.5" so it can connect directly to a Dust Deputy and the accessories fit into standard dust collection hose.
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I will note that using a straight 2.5" hose is a marked improvement in noise (as compared to a tapered hose which IME whistles badly).
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I am just really happy that I do not have another pile of useless vacuum accessories lying around and can directly connect them to my machine. Only complaint is that the adapter for the SweepyPro is the same diameter as the tool so I have to do this:
but that is a total first world problem. LoL
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Just make sure you get the larger mode Stealthsonic. The smaller one uses a smaller hose.
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I’ll add my .02 to the mix as i’ve gone through a few systems. I run my CNC alot, it’s on nearly every day, but in general it’s on cutting many many hours a week.
I started using my Festool CT vac with the sweepy, that worked pretty well, other than the filter bags filled up quickly. No loss of suction with the Festool design, they do make a “cyclone” separator as well.
I had a single stage 2hp DC, mine was a Shop Fox W1666, had bags on it, then i added a canister filter. The problem was the canister filter clogged and i would lose suction, even when not clogged the actual CFM at the CNC wasn’t great, like 130 using a 4 inch hose. I use the PWN CNC 4" dust boot/connection system. I spent a lot of time cleaning up after cuts with the Rigid shop vac.
Now I run a Laguna Pflux 3 system, it’s very powerful. I pull about 360 cfm through a 4" hose at the CNC, and that’s through 20ft of flex hose that is not routed well at all. I plan to do some rigid piping to the CNC so i can get close to the 400-450 max CFM a 4" hose can run. I may duct 6 or 8" to the CNC as close as possible, haven’t decided.
Based on all my experience, i’d recommend a dust seperator unit with a shop vac style at the machine dedicated if you are a tight budget. That’s going to give you the best performance, albeit you may have to make sure to clean it out on a regular basis, any of the typical shop DC’s that are under $1000 aren’t going to give you great CFM at the CNC most likely.
You don’t want to be using a 4" hose unless you have a powerful enough machine to get decent CFM, otherwise the 2.5" with a shop vac dedicated will give you better performance.
Hope that helps.
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I took a slightly different approach, cutting up and combining a bunch of parts to arrive at:
I think it has more to do with static pressure than CFM. My Miele vacuum has a 1" hose on it. It also has 6 speeds. I ran that on my Shapeoko 3 with a sweepy for years on its second slowest speed without issues.
This DeWalt honestly has too much suction. It’s collapsing the dust hose:
That normally sits on the floor. Admittedly I need to shorten it, but still. I might get one of those shop vac speed controls to see if I can reduce the suction some.
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I have found through monitoring the power pulled by my ‘speed controlled’ ShopVac & SPROXXL that the majority of my power usage is for the ShopVac. This has caused me to try to find ways of reducing that power expenditure as it does add up to a lot of power on long 3D-carve operations.
By removing the cartridge filter(still a bag in the vac), venting the ShopVac exhaust outside & reducing hose runs, I am able to reduce the ShopVac speed to only using 450W(from the original always max ‘on’ power of 1200-1300W). With the dust boot on the spindle, this still provides enough air flow speed for most small chips & all the fine dust.
I recently tried to use a 6" inline greenhouse fan atop my dust bin collector as it can move a lot of CFM at less than 100W. The air stream at the dust boot was pretty lackluster coming through about 7’ of 2-1/2" flex hose. Enough to draw in & carry very fine particles when doing 3D carving maybe, but not nearly enough for actual chips. Essentially the greenhouse fan just cannot produce enough static air pressure differential to create a fast enough air stream at the dust boot through the hose.
I’ve taken apart a few of my ShopVacs over the years - they create high static air pressure differential via centrifugal impellers run at high RPM but limited CFM.
For any specified diameter hose, it becomes a tradeoff of how much static pressure differential needed to get adaquate air stream speed at the dust boot while using the least amount of power.
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I had some 1/8" lexan. Actuallu I did it from the outside, the vacuum will suck it tighter. I also siliconed all the way around
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That is a good point!
Anyone know of a “bolt on” alternative to the sweepy that will allow me to hook 4” dust hose directly to the spindle on a Pro5? lose so much flow by reducing to 2.5”. I would really like to connect the 4” hose directly to the machine with no step down.
I use PWNCnc 4" dust boot.
Thank you. I will look into that one.
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It’s not perfect, but i didn’t see much else out there for 4".
I posted in one of the threads about my overhead gantry to support the 4" hose, i had some issues with the hose binding or coming off until i did that. I ultimately ditched the magnetic attachment and glued it to the spinde mount.
Edit: linked here: Table design for Shapeoko 5 pro 4x4 - #30 by cnackers
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Is it similar to this one? I think I might try it .
No it’s a better design than that, that is pretty restricted, I wouldn’t use that one, that’s a narrow and sharp bend right below the 4”
This is what it looks like it. The 4” hose is open to the whole underside.
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Folks, I’m a new owner of a shapeoko 5 pro. I’ve spent a lot of time researching this topic. I found that using shop vacs did do a decent job, but noticed the fine dust in the shop lights. Did some more research and found that 5 micron and smaller dust particles can do major lung damage over time. This info drove me to spend more for better health. I’m expecting shipment on an Oneida Supercell Hi Pressure Hepa system. It rated to remove less than a .5 micron dust particle. A different viewpoint to a common issue.
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Even a shop vac should have a HEPA filter added if need be.