Well I smoked (literally) my little ShopVac yesterday. It had dually clouds of white smoke coming out of the motor. (timing maybe?) It was cool to watch. Stank like you know what though. Even the wife was laughing.

So... I need another one. We're moving and I'm building a new garage. I'm thinking of a dust collection system for it. What are you all using for vacs these days?

 

Yeah, sounds like the timing slipped BIG TIME.

I have the seccond biggest Ridgid one. It sucks. Hard. I love it. Picks up a lot of stuff, holds a lot of stuff.

 

I picked up one of these at my local Home Depot when the SIL toasted my 5 year old ShopVac.
Contractor Grade/Lifetime Warranty.

 

I do a lot of woodworking and use a Fein Turbo III. They are very quiet and anything but cheap! They will start up automatically when you start a tool (up 19 amps - far more than other autostarts). If you aren't doing something like woodworking though, they are far too expensive ... but since you mentioned a dust collection system maybe you play with wood also.

Also have a 3 HP Oneida cyclone dust collector piped to each large tool. Now that baby sucks! That's a 60 pound 220V 3HP continuous duty motor, not "peak" HP!

 

I also do a lot of woodworking, I agree the Fein is great, it is quiet, powerful, but expensive. You get what you pay for. Personaly, I hate the screech of the other shop vacs. For my stationary tools, I have a 1500 CFM system hooked up, individually gated to each tool. If you have such a shop set up, it is very worth it to get such a system.

 

I picked up one of the bigger rigid's too. Works great, and it gets abused.

 

The Rigid I just bought will pick up like small block Chevrolet engines and stuff like that. It is bad to the bone. Takes the Food Lion plastic bags right out from around the groceries with the groceries still in them. Had a blast showing the old lady that one day.

 

I bought one of these about a year ago and really like it, http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/produ...cegjdghldfom.0

Plus it doesn't take up any floor space. I works great for everything I've used it for around the house, vacuuming the cars, sawdust, sheetrock dust, etc.

 

Well I bought a 6HP Ridgid Pro Series. Tried it out last night. The thing could suck an orange thru a garden hose! Love the BHAF inside. Thanks for the recommendations.

 

Rigid here too. The filters are kind of expensive but that baby will suck up anything. Hmm I wonder if I can hook it up as a second turbo.

 

My dust/vacuum systems consists of

1. A Jet central dust collector with a header run past each tool that is valved to the tool (band saw, radial arm saw, planer, table saw, sander. jointer, etc). The header is 4" metal pipe with 4" flex hoses to each tool.

2. A window exhaust fan that exhausts air from the shop (when welding).

3. A Jet air filtration system that circulates the shop air every 30 - 40 seconds to filter out the microscopic airborne dust.

4. A Craftsman shop vac that pulls great but is a piece of junk.

I use my shop to do woodworking, welding, grinding, machining and anything else that may arise. It usually has the cleanest air anywhere in my house.

 

Told ya, that thing is bad to the bone.

 

you guys are pretty funny tonight lmao