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Can a household vacuum double as a dust collector? Question
When I work with wood in my garage, it quickly fills with sawdust. Everything in the garage gets covered with a film of dust.
Many of my tools have dust extraction ports. I know some people get specialized dust collectors or shop vacs to attach to these. But instead of buying one, could I just use my regular household vacuum?
2 answers
I've tried this out with some equipment I have on hand. Generally, yes, a household vacuum will work as a dust collector, but it's not as effective or convenient. For occasional use, it might be better to use the vacuum to avoid acquiring yet another piece(s) of bulky and expensive machinery. If you will be doing work often, it's probably better to buy the real thing.
I tried a Kenmore 22614 vacuum. This vacuum is a bit expensive mainly due to build quality and features relevant for cleaning a home but not sawdust collection. They've also hiked the price a lot since word got out that it's good value at its (former) price. It's rated at 60 CFM.
The Ryobi RTS12 15A portable table saw had a 2.5" dust port, so the vacuums metal handle didn't fit. I stuffed a paper towel around it to solve this issue. With a free port, the saw spits out a lot of sawdust, but with the vacuum running most of it was collected. Notable exceptions were on top of the workpiece (which is shadowed from the suction) and floor directly underneath the saw (I think the saw housing has some gaps on the underside). However, most of the dust that was not captured was low velocity and did not get thrown into the air. Overall, some cleanup was necessary but definitely better than nothing.
The Chicago Electric 67119 10A router came with a plastic dust adapter. This happened to fit the handle of the vacuum exactly. It did a good job of catching sawdust (max router RPM) if I didn't go too fast with the router. Very little dust escaped.
So as far as collecting dust, it did a good job. Here's some reasons why I wouldn't do this:
- The canister fills up quickly, so I had to empty several times.
- There was an odor of burnt sawdust. Not sure if this came from the router or the vacuum. But I would be worried about damaging the expensive vacuum with extended use. Although then again, it would give me an excuse to get a shop vac and use it for the house, since I've now come to realize that they're cheaper, more practical and have more power than similarly priced "household" vacuums.
- The handle is large and bulky when attached to small tools like routers. You could solve this (and the next) problem by simply getting an extra flexible hose to go from the handle to the dust port.
- The handle itself got pretty dusty with the dust that escaped. I had to clean it afterwards. Since this has a powered handle, the electrodes also got clogged with sawdust, which I was able to (mostly) clean with a brush. It still worked normally after.
But as I said, in a pinch it really does work well enough.
Yes - and it can be a cheap way to get something that works.
I started with the household vaccuum that was being replaced (we needed one that was better at catching dog hairs) and it had broken wheels.
Using that attached to a power tool worked and definitely made a difference, but the bag filled up quickly. To extend that, I got a cheap plastic dust cyclone from one of the usual suppliers, and mounted that on top of a wooden box.
For hoses I raided the local ecostore who sold vaccuum hoses for $4 each, and made sure to get a bunch of the same diameter. Some 3D printing of couplers and adapter funnels later, I had a long hose that can be wedged into my tablesaw, and short hoses to the belt grinder and the small bandsaw.
I even printed a three way manifold with blast gates to pick which tool got the suction.
The downside - a domestic vacuum cleaner has lower air volume and higher speed than a workshop dust extractor.
This means, with no nozzle or shaping, a domestic vaccuum cleaner clears a smaller "blob" of airspace. By comparison, a shop vac sucks a higher volume of air at a slower speed, so its physically cleaning more air.
A dedicated shop dust extractor would move 10x as much volume of air therefore cleaning more particles before they drift away.
Additionally, a domestic vacuum likely has a hose under 2 inches/50mm, and you cannot connect one to a 100mm hose and get the same function.
Don't let Perfection get in your way. A cheap garage sale vacuum and some duct tape and cardboard may be enough to get you going.
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