Dust Collection for ROS

[Ken McColly]

Has anyone tried plumbing in a central vac system for dust collection for ROS and similar tools? If so, how does the suction compare with a shop vac?

Ken

[Steve Schoene]

It could well be too much suction, when applied in a 1" oe 1 1/4" hose, through 5 or 8 holes. Infact I believe the Festool vac has a way to turn down the suction so the ROS isn't pulled down too tightly to the surface.

The way to use a central dust system for the sanding is to have a vacuum table pulling the dust down into the system.

[Jim Becker]

Dust collection systems don't work because of "suction"...they work by moving large amounts of air at low pressure, unlike a vac that moves relatively small volumes of air at high pressure. Your small, hand-held tools will be better served by a quality shop vac because they have very small ports and that requires high static pressure--something DCs don't deal well with. Hooking to a DC will "work", but not optimally. Fine Woodworking recently did a nice review on the better vacs that you might find useful.

[Robert Waddell]

Is Ken taking about a central vac system or a central dust collector? They are two differ things. A central vac system would work the same as a shop vac, a central dust collector would not do a very effective job unless hooked up to a small down draft table.
Rob

[Jason Roehl]

I think a central vac system would be somewhat problematic because of the fine sanding dust. Even if it had a HEPA filter system, the filter would probably be quickly clogged when sanding any length of time, so the airflow would be cut to the point dust is not being collected at the source.

A ShopVac with a bag and HEPA filter is a good, economical way to go. Newer ShopVacs are much quieter than their predecessors of just a few years ago, even. Or, if you have the $$, or are doing this commercially, you might look into a Festool or Fein.