A shop chore I hate

[Bob Noles]

Just finished doing some house cleaning out in the shop and lost suction in my little shop vac so I figured it was time to empty it......

YUCK!

Is there any easy way to complete this task? All that dust and gunk flying thru the air as you shake that filter and foam is appaling. And the stuff that comes out from the bucket from turning it upside down in the wife's flower bed certainly did not win me any points either. :eek:

Any of you experts have good advice to offer (or sell :cool: ) that would make this task less dis-tasteful? I just know there has to be a better way and someone has already figured it out, but they are keeping it a secret.

Help!!!!! :confused:

[Carole Valentine]

I use a bag. Yeah, they are expensive, but it's an expense I can deal with easier than dealing with dumping the darn thing and trying to clean the filter! Take out the full bag, throw it in the trash, pop in a new one and keep truckin'.

[Greg Mann]

I know the feeling. I have a Rigid shop vac, with no bag. Boy was I stupid when I bought that thing. The only way to empty it is to pour it out. Take a deep breath and hold it. Plus, with no bag, the filter is caked in no time at all. Very poor design.:o

But, I don't use it much at all anymore because I invested in the Festool C22. More money? Yes, but it is very clean when emptying. The bag comes with its own cap attached. Just slide it out of the mount and flip the cap over the hole. Done.:D

I know you are really looking for some clever technique to do the transfer with your present machine and I can't help you there. Sorry.:(

Greg

[Michael Gabbay]

Bob -

I know what you mean. I take my Rigid out side away from the house and take the lid off. I take a regular garbage bag and cover the top of the barrel and then dump it over and let it sit. Then is a second bag, I put the filter and close the top. I then tap/pound the end of he filter on the ground and try and rub the pleats through the outside of the bag.

I let all of this sit for a few minutes and then open each bag and reassemble the vacuum.

It's still messy but at least a lot of the dust is contained. Fortunately I don't use the shop vac all that much so that makes it easier.

Mike

[Alan Tolchinsky]

I would take some material and cover the pleated filter. It could be a porous type cloth or vacumn bag material. This should make it much easier to clean out.

[Doug Shepard]

I've got a large DeWalt shopvac that's almost impossible for one person to turn upside down into a trashbag and empty. After changing out cat litter boxes one day I had a flash. I took one of the empty plastic litter jugs and cut the top section off to turn it into a really big handled scoop that works pretty well for emptying out the vac. Since I'm not shaking the vac, I don't get all the dust floating around either. Slower, but it works. And easier on my back too.


Carole
Just curious. Are you just putting a regular trash bag inside? The expensive part makes me think no, but the throw-it-in-the-trash part makes me think yes. If a std trash bag works, I'll have to give that a try - and kick myself for not having thought of it.


I use a bag. Yeah, they are expensive, but it's an expense I can deal with easier than dealing with dumping the darn thing and trying to clean the filter! Take out the full bag, throw it in the trash, pop in a new one and keep truckin'.

[Joel Spencer]

Bob,


I can't offer any suggestion to make this task any more pleasant, but I have found a way to extend the time between cleaning the filter. All of my shop vacs have had clogged filters several times before they needed to be emptied. If you stretch a section of a leg from a pair of pantyhose over the filter, the filter becomes clogged less frequently. Also, if the surface of the panty hose pre filter becomes covered, a quick stretch and "snap" of the panty hose fagric makes much of the clogging material fall into the vac canister.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Joel



Just finished doing some house cleaning out in the shop and lost suction in my little shop vac so I figured it was time to empty it......

YUCK!

Is there any easy way to complete this task? All that dust and gunk flying thru the air as you shake that filter and foam is appaling. And the stuff that comes out from the bucket from turning it upside down in the wife's flower bed certainly did not win me any points either. :eek:

Any of you experts have good advice to offer (or sell :cool: ) that would make this task less dis-tasteful? I just know there has to be a better way and someone has already figured it out, but they are keeping it a secret.

Help!!!!! :confused:

[Carole Valentine]

Carole
Just curious. Are you just putting a regular trash bag inside? The expensive part makes me think no, but the throw-it-in-the-trash part makes me think yes. If a std trash bag works, I'll have to give that a try - and kick myself for not having thought of it. No, no! LOL I have a 10 gal ShopVac and I use the regular paper filter bags designed for it. They are around $3 a piece, so I don't use the ShopVac for heavy duty stuff like planer and lathe shavings. I usually just sweep them up and put them in a big 30 gal trash can. When that's full, I just drag it out an empty it in the woods. One of these days, I am going to be able to afford a DC!

[Doug Shepard]

No, no! LOL I have a 10 gal ShopVac and I use the regular paper filter bags designed for it. They are around $3 a piece, so I don't use the ShopVac for heavy duty stuff like planer and lathe shavings. I usually just sweep them up and put them in a big 30 gal trash can. When that's full, I just drag it out an empty it in the woods. One of these days, I am going to be able to afford a DC!
OK. But maybe you gave me an idea anyway. Does anyone know why I couldn't take a regular trash can liner and put it inside my vac? Lift the bag out and discard?

[Frankie Hunt]

You can't because the bag would be on the inlet side. It would be sucked up to the filter and give you no air flow.

Frankie

[Jim O'Dell]

You can't because the bag would be on the inlet side. It would be sucked up to the filter and give you no air flow.

Frankie
Anyone want to design a loose "spring" that would hold the plastic bag in place so it won't be sucked up to the filter? Seems like I saw something like this once that would hold a bag open for you while you filled it with leaves or what ever, then pull it out and close the bag. Anyone else see something like this? Jim.

[Doug Shepard]

You can't because the bag would be on the inlet side. It would be sucked up to the filter and give you no air flow.

Frankie
DOH! Knew there had to be an obvious reason why nobody does this. It's been a long day and my brain must have been in powersave mode.

[Bob Noles]

Wow....

I didn't really expect so many good replies as I was probably just venting more than anything, but y'all sure got my brain cells working. :rolleyes:

I like the idea on the pantyhose tip and it sounds very logical. I do have a DC for most of the major clean up, but I do like to keep my little one gallon shop vac handy for the corners and those hard to reach places. It does clog easily and I find it can be a real pain to clean the YUCK out. I think I will do a little research and see if they make a bag for it like carole uses on her larger one.

There has got to be an answer in this somewhere and we may collectively be on to something here :D

Thanks for being the great group you are.

Bob N

[Charlie Plesums]

The Ridgid shop vac is my third, and the first one that I like. The pleated filter gives a lot of surface area, which is good to keep the suction going when you start collecting a lot of fine stuff. So don't defeat the advantage of the large filter area by covering it with a small filter bag. The stocking idea sounds fine to keep the larger pieces out, but not change the filtering.

I use my dust collector with the giant bag to clean my shop vac. Dump the bulk stuff out, then put the dust collector hose into the shop vac to catch the fine stuff as you shake out the filter. Works like a charm.

If your only dust collector is what you pick up with the shop vac, consider that your lungs have a dust coating at least equal to your shop. The US government just discovered what most other countries have known for years... wood dust causes lung cancer. Since I started thinking about this, my shop stays a lot cleaner - dust collected at the source.

[Steve Clardy]

Well I guess I do my shop vac cleaning the easy way.:rolleyes:
All my dust collector runs are under the floor. So when I remove the top of my shop vac, I just dump the contents onto an open hole in the floor and the collector sucks it into the piping and blows it outside into my chip trailer.
Then I remove the filter and hold it over the hole, turning it over and gently tapping it on the concrete floor. Removes all dust and goodies.:D

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I also have a DC, so when it comes time to empty the Shop Vac, I just use the hose from the DC to suck it all out. No dust! :) Now emptying the DC is another story :)

[markus shaffer]

I put a 55 gallon drum liner in the barrel for my cyclone. I cut a piece of formica to fit inside of the drum after I put the bag in. Roll it up so that it's smaller than the opening of the barrel and once inside, let it go. Beacuse it wants to straighten out, it holds the bag against the outside of the barrel. I rounded the corners so there are no sharp edges to tear the bag. When it's time to empty the barrel, a little bit of jiggling and the formica slips right out. Then just pull the bag out and tie it up. I don't see why this wouldn't work with a regular shop vac. I just might have to cut a piece for my shop vac today. As for the filter,I take the dirty one outside in a bag and beat most of the dust out of it. Then use a hose from the cyclone to suck the rest of the dust out.

-Markus

[Bart Leetch]

I can't use my DC to suck up stuff from the shop vac because of all the little crap that the shop vac sucks as I use it to clean my shop up.
I keep my DC just for sucking up chips & dust from the tools.

I would think with the laminate to hold the bag open & a nylon sock over the filter you should do just fine.

I have the washable filter on my shop vac with the top to a pair of panty hose over the filter with the leg holes tied shut. Since I put the nylon over the filter I've never had to wash the filter & cleaning the dust off the nylon is a snap.

[Mike Holbrook]

I'm with Carole. I have the big 18 gal. Shop vac that I use with Shop-vac designed air permeable bags. I believe the bag cost/ lb. of dust is a little better with the larger bags. I believe these bags are designed to pass air through so I am not so sure you want a "solid" plastic bag in there. There are two different bags one is designed to stop sheet rock dust and the other isn't. The sheet rock bags seem to reduce suction a little.

If you are cleaning up after sheet rock construction (or other very fine particles) the sheet rock bags are very helpful. I tried sucking up a small amount of sheet rock dust with my HEPA equipped carpet vac and discovered real quick that a small amount of that stuff will completely clog most micro filters. My carpet vac would not suck anything until I pulled all three filters out and hand cleaned or replaced them, a time consuming and expensive proposition. Vacums that are not designed to stop micro particles may launch them into the air and clog human breathing apparatus.

I have found the Shop-vac bags to be much easier and healthier to deal with. The little lady bought me a Delta dust collection system which I returned. The dust collection bag was so porous, I was afraid it would launch large quantities of small dust particles into the air, increasing rather than reducing the health hazard. I imagine that a good dust collection system backed up by a micro air filtration system would remove micro particles. I am concerned that dust collector launched micro particles will be in the air I am breathing until the air filtration system removes them, however.

[Charlie Plesums]

I can't use my DC to suck up stuff from the shop vac because of all the little crap that the shop vac sucks as I use it to clean my shop up.
I keep my DC just for sucking up chips & dust from the tools.


When I clean out my shop vac with the dust collector, the "dust" component is much lighter and is immediately sucked out. When I get down to the heavier grunge - bent nails, chunks of wood, etc. - I dump those directly into the trash. It is pretty easy to keep them separate. But best of all, the dust from shaking out the vacuum filter is pulled directly into the dust collector, so I just bang the filter on the side of the vacuum - no trip outside.

[Tyler Howell]

I like to keep my DC collection as "natural" as possible so I can recycle it in the compost pile. If bagging yucky stuff like MDF, paint chips ext. I switch in another separator with a garbage bag and go to town.
The shop vac's another story. Dust mask, gloves, eye protection...... some real haz-mat percolating in there. Outside, mist from the garden hose to keep the dust down, heavy g. bage. Blast from the garden hose cleans up the pleated filter. Have a spare to alternate while one dries.

[mike malone]

We all have the same problem...UNLESS you live close enough to Jim Becker to hook up to his super DC system...all it takes is several miles of 4" hose, and bob's your uncle!.

[Randy Meijer]

I like to keep my DC collection as "natural" as possible so I can recycle it in the compost pile......
Tyler: A little off topic....but what the heck??? I am just starting a compost pile and got a little info sheet from Lowe's. It said that sawdust/wood chips are very high in carbon and will slow down the composting process significantly. Do you do anything special to speed up the composting of the saw dust or are you just a very patient person??

[Frank Guerin]

and hold it in with a piece of scrap laminate. Just let the laminate hold the bag to the side.