Would you consider a central vacuum for small tool DC

[Charles Lent]

William,

I don't know if all models of central vacs are separately air cooled, but the one that I have is. Mine came from a major home remodel to the home next to me. When I saw the homeowner carrying it out to the construction dumpster I yelled out to him "Hey, can I have that?" He brought it over and placed it next to my shop, saying "It doesn't work", and I replied "I'll fix it". Over the next week everything associated with the central vac, including the hose and attachments, all of the pipe, and all of the inlets, arrived at my shop as they were being removed from the home next door. A quick check of the Vacuum wiring found a bad control circuit transmitter, which was a doorbell transformer. I found one the right size but a slightly different configuration for $16 at Lowes and installed it that afternoon.

Installation of the pipes in the walls and ceiling of my shop went well, but was quite a job. I used most of the used pipe and fittings, but ended up buying a few fittings and pipes for a total project outlay cost of less than $60. I added a ceiling light (one of those spiral bulbs in an orange color) to the shop ceiling, so I would be reminded that the central vac was running, and to keep me from leaving it on (I did this once, then added the light). Downstairs in the shop there is almost no vacuum motor noise and only the rushing air noise to let me know that it was working before the light was added. If paying close attention to the motor noise I can hear it, but it's very quiet.

All of the electrical contacts in the inlet ports were connected, so the vac starts whenever a hose is plugged into an inlet port. I have the original 25' hose, but have now purchased a couple of used shorter hoses and leave one connected at my scroll saws, another at the sanders, and the 25' hose gets used for almost any other need. I have ceiling hooks to route this hose across the ceiling to the tool in use and because the shop ceiling is only 8' I can pull a loop in the hose and hold the center of the loop up to place it on a hook or remove it without the need for a step ladder. My nearest Vacuum sales and service store was my source for help, new pipe fittings and lengths of straight pipe, and they sold me the shorter used hoses very reasonably when I later asked about getting shorter hoses. The exhaust from my vac exits my shop just under the North facing roof soffit (Pipe above the vac in the photo). There are no neighbors North of me, except ducks and geese in the lake adjacent to my property, and I don't care if it bothers them. They aren't the best neighbors to have either. My next door neighbor has a pool located behind and to the East of my shop, so to test the noise level I went over to his pool while the vac was running. It could be heard and sounded like a jet plane, but one almost near the horizon and miles away, so both he and I agreed that this would not bother him or a pool party if I was in the woodshop working while he was having a party.

Adding this central vacuum to my shop has made a significand difference in reducing the fine saw dust in the shop air, so it's doing what I was hoping for. The Dust Deputy is doing a great job, since there is only a trace of micro fine saw dust in the Vac's dust container stuck to the sidewalls. Nothing has ever been in there but that trace of saw dust. With the exhaust going to the outside of the shop, none of the even micro fine dust is ever getting back into my shop, so the shop air is much safer than before it was added. I have a window style 23,000 BTU heat pump mounted through the North wall of my shop for heating and cooling, and found that a 12 X 20 pleated furnace filter fits behind the face cover, so does a great job of cleaning dust from my shop air as well, and it doesn't need replacing as often now that the central vacuum has been installed.

I am less worried about saw dust from my Unisaw and Jointer than from the fine saw dust producers in my shop, so I am now much less worried about the health hazards of working out there now.

I hope this helps. Add a post here or send a PM if you have any specific questions.

Charley