Floor Sweep, cleaning saw dust from tools, etc....

[Jim Fox]

Looking to find a better solution for the shop in respects to cleaning the floor and tools. I have all my tools connected to the DC, which other than the table saw extraction, all work pretty good. I have a port specifically in the DC run that I have a Dust Right collapsible hose with floor sweeping attachment, but I'd give that whole contraption a 2 outta 5 stars. Wheels never stay in, collapsible is kinda misleading and it's not really quick disconnects. It's also 4", which for the floor sweeping is fine, but for finer cleaning of the dust overspray on tools it's very cumbersome. I do have a nice big shop vac that does work quite well, but it's just one more item in a shop that does have some tight spaces. Trying to pull it around is a pain. Would like to find something that I could have multiple connection points in the shop and easily switch from floor sweeping to just the hose or hose with a brush attachment on the end that's not so cumbersome. Maybe a smaller shop vac unit on wheels compared to the mack truck version I have.

My DC setup is 6" and 4" PVC piping. Only one port steps down to a 2" port for sanding, so I open up the port for the over blade TS collection port to not starve the machine. Other than that it's all 6" or 4".

Or maybe some sorta extra hose setup for the Shopvac and just park it in one place. Maybe a small DC system for that, short runs just to make getting 1/2 of the shop easier than the other.

The other thing I have to deal with, is to much suction and it picks up the floor mats, those interlocking things. But that's minor in the grand scheme.

What have others found that they like?

[Ron Selzer]

I have a Rigid Shop vac hooked to a Oneida cyclone on a 5 gallon bucket that is piped to 2" sch 40 pvc pipe system with about 8 inlets now, more to be installed. 4 under workbench, one on top, one for guard on table saw, one on band saw, one on drill press, etc. Very happy with how it works, just attach what ever hose you want to use, 20' 2-1/2" for general cleaning to 6' 1-1/4" for sanders routers etc. Have over 5 different hoses depending on what I want to do. Use a heat gun to warm the pipe up and then shove something inside to stretch it to fit over the vacuum hose. Cyclone keeps the filters clean, rigid pipe eliminates dragging vacuum every where. Saw some whole house vacuums for $100 on craigslist the other day and should have bought one to replace the shop vacuum.
good luck
Ron

[Jim Becker]

Just a quick note: for a Floor sweep in particular, you want to be using pre-separation (cyclone or equivalent so any metal inadvertently picked up doesn't pass through the DC blower. This is for fire safety reasons. You don't mention your specific DC system; hence, my comment.

I have three floor sweeps in my shop...and they get used.

[Jim Fox]

Just a quick note: for a Floor sweep in particular, you want to be using pre-separation (cyclone or equivalent so any metal inadvertently picked up doesn't pass through the DC blower. This is for fire safety reasons. You don't mention your specific DC system; hence, my comment.

I use a modified Shop Fox 2hp dust collector with the Super Dust Deputy 6" and Wynn filter. I don't have any floor sweeps. Kinda tough with those interlocking floor mats. Not sure they help or not. Not everywhere, just where I stand. Was thinking more like a vacuum method or hand held for more detailed clean up. Like mentioned I have the shop vac, but just cumbersome dragging it all around a tight shop (couple places anyway). I know it's not good to step down from 6" to 2" or 2.5".

[Ron Selzer]

I use a modified Shop Fox 2hp dust collector with the Super Dust Deputy 6" and Wynn filter. I don't have any floor sweeps. Kinda tough with those interlocking floor mats. Not sure they help or not. Not everywhere, just where I stand. Was thinking more like a vacuum method or hand held for more detailed clean up. Like mentioned I have the shop vac, but just cumbersome dragging it all around a tight shop (couple places anyway). I know it's not good to step down from 6" to 2" or 2.5".

Just adding I do have a fully piped dust collection system for the bigger tools and use the vacuum for the smaller things and also floor clean up which my granddaughter handles for me. Use the shop vacuum a lot now that it is in one location with hard piping and all I have to do is drag a hose out where ever I want. Never did care for dragging the shop vacuum around.

Ron

[Jim Fox]

Just adding I do have a fully piped dust collection system for the bigger tools and use the vacuum for the smaller things and also floor clean up which my granddaughter handles for me. Use the shop vacuum a lot now that it is in one location with hard piping and all I have to do is drag a hose out where ever I want. Never did care for dragging the shop vacuum around.

Thanks, was wondering about that. Was thinking about leaving the shop vac in a central location with a couple attachment points. Have a great spot in the far corner under the stairs, but might be too far for the other far corner (I have a L shaped shop) to have enough suction left.

[Jim Becker]

The smaller, easier to maneuver vac type hose will work, but it's not going to pick up as well as a shop vac will because of the way that DC works as opposed to vacuums. I use a small, roll around shop vac for those times when I need that kind of cleanup, although if it's a big pile of fully shavings or something, the 4" ceiling drop for my router table certainly can be used quite effectively instead of sweeping them to one of the floor sweeps.

BTW, the pre-separation you have is a good thing for hose pickup for the same reason it's good for floorsweeps.

[Ron Selzer]

Thanks, was wondering about that. Was thinking about leaving the shop vac in a central location with a couple attachment points. Have a great spot in the far corner under the stairs, but might be too far for the other far corner (I have a L shaped shop) to have enough suction left.

Don't seem to notice the vacuum drop like I do the dust collector drop. Guess I need to get the magnehelic out and check how much drop there is
Do have a whole house vacuum since 2000 with about 60' hard pipe, probably 7-90 ell and 30' hose it has great suction.
Checked it, it will peg a 30" Dwyer magnehelic at the end of 20' of hose hooked to the end of the line with hose end plugged, 17-18" with the over blade
SawStop collector hooked up
I would put the vacuum under the stairs and run the hard pipe to where you want and need it. Remember to use long sweep drain ells and not vent ells.

Ron

[Bobby Robbinett]

I have been considering building a platform for my big shop vac to hang over my sanding table with my 16ft shop vac hose hanging from above so as to not drag on and scratch the workpieces. I would put a DD and 5 gallon bucket pre separator.

I have also considered hard piping some drops from another shop vac at various points for clean up

[Alex Zeller]

I can be cheap. When building my house I refused to pay for the central vac even though I plumbed in the PVC lines for it. Instead I used my shop vac. The hose slides over the PVC piping so it can be removed by simply sliding it off. It's set up with a solid state relay (but a regular one would work) so when the central vac hose is plugged in the switch on the hose will turn on the vac. There's plenty of "suction" even with about 10' of PVC piping and a 30' flex hose. It didn't take me long to realize that adding a port in the shop means I can use the central vac hose to clean up around tools. The shop vac could care less about any metal it sucks up.

[David M Peters]

I've also found the Dustright system to not work that well for cleaning large areas. My solution to that has been to sweep up debris into piles and then hit them with the Dustright. This approach does create wads of material so it's better suited to a dust collector with a separator. It's brush attachment works great for cleaning off benchtops, the lathe, and the table saw.

For general floor cleaning I'm using my old robot vacuum (Neato Botvac 85). It encourages me to keep crap off the floor and stored away where it belongs. It's set to run three days a week at 5:30AM. I got tired of using in the house and it works much better out in the shop! My house just has tooo many obstacles & soft things for it to fail on but the shop is almost all simple surfaces.

[Tom Bain]

There is always this option from Mikita if you have an extra $1,400 lying around

https://www.toolnut.com/makita-drc20...kaAhenEALw_wcB

[Stan Calow]

For cleaning up dust in hard to reach areas, around and inside tools and in nooks and crannies, I use a small handheld 1.5 gallon shopvac. The smaller nozzle attachments are what you need for this. Too much maneuvering and pulling with a bigger one on wheels. I also sometimes use one of those small electric blowers (looks like a leaf blower) to blow the dust off things or out of corners so I can get to it easier.

[tom lucas]

I've been contemplating getting a battery operated portable shop vac to collect fine dust off of the machines. It would seem to be plenty adequate for the task and no cord to deal with. As for the floor, I use one of those dust-rite wand contraptions. It works fine for the sawdust and shavings. If I want to get all the dirt off the floor after getting up all the big debris I'll use an old upright vacuum with agitator roller and then I use a rag mop. But I only do that about twice a year.