Why do my shop van bags keep busting?

[John Huber]

Because of the peculiar setup of my shop, I use a 2" Ridgid shop vac to collect dust and chips from all my tools. That is, table saw, jointer, drum sander, and oscillating spindle/belt sander. It does a good job and never loads down. But when the primary dust bag gets a little over half full, it bursts. This has happened five times using two different brands of bags. The worst impact is that the secondary filter (the pleated paper cylinder) gets loaded with the debris and it takes about a half hour to get it clean again.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
John

[Bart Leetch]

Not to be snide but it a shop vac not a DC. The bag pores get blocked & blewey.

[Phil Thien]

My bags rarely break during use. My vac has a diverter. This turns the input port so it turns towards the side of the vac (sorta making a cyclone if you didn't have a bag installed). Without the diverter I could see a lot of small cut-offs going right though the bag.

Does your vac have a diverter?

[Phil Thien]

Not to be snide but it a shop vac not a DC. The bag pores get blocked & blewey.

Never noticed this.

[glenn bradley]

I think Phil may have it. I run Clean Stream filters in my big Ridgid and pre-stage it with a 5 gal. bucket with this $20 accessory:

http://www.ptreeusa.com/Peach%20Graphics/trash_cyclone_lid.jpg

I actually have the Rockler version but this Peachtree version is superior for about the same price. Nothing bust the finest dust ever makes it to my vac and I empty the 5 gal. bucket at least 6 times before I have to clean the main vac filter.