Would you consider a central vacuum for small tool DC

[Doug Garson]

It was just CFM for the shop vac. The vacuum i think had water lift but it isn't a good compare unless they both have it.

It's almost like they don't want you to be able to compare performance of their machine to anything.

[Doug Garson]

I found a Shop Vac with whopping 6.5 HP Peak horsepower and the following:
150 CFM and 370 Peak Air Watts which would mean about 21 in wg suction.
Compared to a high performance Beam central vac with:
142 CFM and 650 Air Watts which would mean about 29 in wg
So I think in general, shop vacs may have higher CFM but central vacs have higher suction which seems to agree with Paul's post.

[Jim Becker]

I found a Shop Vac with whopping 6.5 HP Peak horsepower and the following:
150 CFM and 370 Peak Air Watts which would mean about 21 in wg suction.
Compared to a high performance Beam central vac with:
142 CFM and 650 Air Watts which would mean about 29 in wg
So I think in general, shop vacs may have higher CFM but central vacs have higher suction which seems to agree with Paul's post.

That's actually a helpful analysis...for small tool extraction, the higher SP is a benefit just due to the nature of the task. The question in my mind is whether or not the central vac is going to be amenable to the higher volume of fines that come from being connected to, say, sanders as compared to doing floors and surfaces in home/office.

[Andrew Seemann]

That's actually a helpful analysis...for small tool extraction, the higher SP is a benefit just due to the nature of the task. The question in my mind is whether or not the central vac is going to be amenable to the higher volume of fines that come from being connected to, say, sanders as compared to doing floors and surfaces in home/office.

Mine just has a couple of foam filters, nothing else. Probably not even adequate by today's vacuum cleaner standards much less HEPA. My thought was to mount it outside, since the cfm would be quite low. My main worry in winter isn't even losing heat, but losing the little moisture in the air that I can maintain. When you pull in air that has a dew point below 0F (sometimes dozens of degrees below 0F) and raise it to 60-70F, you get to the low single digits of RH pretty quick.

[Doug Garson]

I think the volume of dust collected can be addressed by adding a second stage upstream (Thien baffle or dust deputy) or modifying the unit to increase the volume of the cannister and the concern with fines by directing the exhaust outside or thru a HEPA filter mounted in the exhaust. I agree this will reduce CFM and static but for small tool collection should still be adequate.

[Paul F Franklin]

I think the volume of dust collected can be addressed by adding a second stage upstream (Thien baffle or dust deputy) or modifying the unit to increase the volume of the cannister and the concern with fines by directing the exhaust outside or thru a HEPA filter mounted in the exhaust. I agree this will reduce CFM and static but for small tool collection should still be adequate.

I suggest only doing this if it actually proved to be a problem in a specific situation. I've made dozens of rips on plywood with my track saw and didn't make a dent in the canister volume. Sander dust volume is even less. And the canister is so easy and quick to empty compared to a "real" dust collector bin that I don't give it a second thought. Some CV power units have bags; that might change the equation.

[George Yetka]

I have a ct26 with the longest festool hose with jacket and cord. I have it run to a hook on the ceiling then to one that drops over my bench. It allows me to reach my whole shop if I take it down but it normally just works at my bench.

In my basement I have a rigid 6hp shopvac for winter/night time(daughters BR is above garage) sanding. I ran 2" pvc from one side of the basement to the other and run it through a dust deputy. I havent noticed any suction issues. I dont have too many hours on it, maybe 50. but if it goes down its much cheeper than a CT

[Mark Bolton]

I'd do it in a heartbeat especially if you put a super dust deputy ahead of the central vac pump. CNC here runs vac hold down with the F4 setup which is basically 4 central vac motors manifolded together. Makes a ton of suction. I too have run several rigid shop vac's with dust deputies and 5 gallon steel pails. Its cumbersome, wastes a lot of space (the shop vac, pail, dust deputy) and building rolling stations for them hogs up even more floor space.

Similar to your concept mine has been to just purchase central vac motors and install them at the ceiling with a hose drop where needed. The outlet side of the central vac motor dumps to the nearest DC line. DC is pretty much always running but is high volume low velocity so the central vac motor provides the high velocity low volume for small tools, sanders, saws, routers, joiners, etc,..

Long runs from the central vac you'll surely have some line loss but in most reasonable shops your runs would be pretty short compared to a whole house system.

[Sean Nagle]

I have had a vacuum setup over my workbench for over 10 years. It works very well for my Domino, biscuit joiner, 5" ROS and track saw. I also use it with my routers that have dust ports, but is less effective with those. I also use the hose to vacuum up my drill press table between drilling holes. I ran 2" central vacuum pipe from an adjacent store room to above my workbench.

At the workbench I use Rockler's Dust Right FlexiPort Power Tool Hose Kit which has adapters that fit pretty much all my handheld power tools.
https://www.rockler.com/dust-right-f...UaAoekEALw_wcB

In the other room the 2" central vacuum pipe feeds a Dust Deputy and then runs to a very old Fein Turbo I shop vac. I use a Penn State Industries Long Ranger to turn the vacuum on and off from the workbench.
https://www.pennstateind.com/store/LR110-3.html

I have researched replacing the Fein shop vac with a central vacuum power unit for some time. However, I've always wondered whether it would be as effective as a shop vac, especially since the cost of a new central vac power unit can be as much as a Festool dust extractor.

Central Vac 1.jpgCentral Vac 2.jpg

[Dave Sabo]

I don't think a central vacuum unit remotely mounted will have the cpm air flow of a good shop vac that is only a few feet away.

What are you basing this conclusion on ?

All things being equal, a vac mounted further away will have less suction than on closer. But things are never equal , are they ?

Central vacs are designed to operate throughout an entire house and have the increased length of pipe and resultant higher static pressure factored in their performance. You can even spec dual turbine units that will outsuck any festool, FEin, Hilti or Nilfisk vac you choose with 3 meter hose. And , it will do so from hundreds of feet away.

Some models have cyclone units as well as being wet pickup capable. They could be triggered to run automaTically with your tool using someThing like an iVac system - though the wiring won’t be plug and play simple. Outside venting is a big plus to some. They range in capacity form 3 gallons up to 12 gallons of capacity, some even use bags.

[William Hodge]

Lisa, I hooked up a Dewalt shop vac as a central vac. I have a Dust Deputy on a 55 gallon drum as a pre-filter. I wrapped the paper filter in the vac with a piece of cloth bag from a horrible dust collector. The barrel and vac sit outside under a shed roof. I need an indicator light to tell me that it's on, because I can't hear it. I blow off the filter every once in a while, but the paper filters last forever.

Inside the shop I used 2" central vac pipe. Old shop vac connectors make the transition to shop vac hoses, or whatever. There are rubber plumbing patches at Home Depot that hose clamp on to make other transitions.

about the best final hose I have found is the a Bosch 1 1/4" hose. The rip say has a 2 1/2" shop vac hose to a crevice tool jambed into a stock feeder, over the blade. Sanders work great. I have a longer hose to vacuum the floor.

I'm looking for a used central vac to replace the shop vac. Replacing a motor on a central vac is cheap and easy, so used seems worth it.

The one thing I need to improve is blast gates. 2" blast gates leak. I m thinking of using central vac ports, which are tight.

[David LaRue]

I will have three systems in my Shop:

1) Oneida Dust Cobra - High Suction Pressure Hybrid Dust Control - 3x more airflow than standard shop Vacs

• 245 Actual CFM at 23" WC ideal for handheld and benchtop tools
• I recently purchased an Oneida Dust Cobra HEPA "Super Vacuum" https://www.oneida-air.com/contracto...2-stage-vacuum for the purpose of running a high suction low CFM small tube
• It will be connecting to 3" Main pipe (once it comes back in stock locally) and running it to my CMS, stationary sander, bandsaw, and will have outlets to clean the shop and use with a handheld sander
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNbQDwgHv4Q
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-wJ-VNQSno

2) Large central Oneida cyclonic chip collector

• I have https://www.oneida-air.com/dust-coll...dust-collector
• Delivers up to 2,150 Actual CFM at 2" S.P. - ample airflow for multiple 4" woodworking tools at once.
• Mine is piped with Oneida 8" 23 GA main to 5" drops, non Hepa

3) HEPA Festool Mini - portable "shop and tool vacuum with variable speed "Dust Extractor"

• 130 CFM (3 700 l/min) Max. vacuum 96" static water lift (24 000 Pa)

Not sure how it will all work, but I will have 3 main systems, the portable HEPA Festool Mini, The large Chip collector (non Hepa) attached to my jointer, planer, Table Saw...) and the Hepa Dust Cobra for high static pressure small opening stationary tools that need high suction. Wish me luck!

-D

[Jim Becker]

I don't think a central vacuum unit remotely mounted will have the cpm air flow of a good shop vac that is only a few feet away.

I missed this earlier. Please keep in mind that a vacuum system, both a "shop vac" and a central vac for cleaning are not designed around CFM. They rely more on pressure drop/"suction" because of the small pipe/hose that can't actually support a lot of air movement. So a "shop vac" and a stationary vacuum system should have similar performance with the same pipe/hose conditions as they work under the same principles.

Larger dust collectors are different...they depend upon moving large volumes of air at a given speed to move dust/chips through the duct to the unit. The pressure drop is a fraction of what a shop vac develops as a result.

[Charles Lent]

I installed a used and repurposed Beam Central Vacuum in my small shop to use with my sanders, drill presses and scroll saws. I added a Dust Deputy and a re-purposed 30 gallon grease barrel to it to separate the saw dust and drill cuttings. Not having enough space in my shop for it I installed it in the shop attic. It has been in use for about 8 years now and I am quite pleased with how well it's working. No, it isn't a full wood shop dust collector, but it sure does a great job for what I got it for. My jointer and table saw are not connected to it, nor are my grinders for sharpening. The jointer has a chute and drops it's chips into a waste can adjacent to it. My Unisaw cabinet holds the saw dust below it. I always use my DeWalt 735 planer outside in the driveway with the accessory hose and barrel cover connected to a 60 gallon plastic barrel. The planer is mounted to a folding stand with wheels to make it easy to roll out of the shop and set up when needed. The vacuum has several inlet ports in the shop, one in the shop attic, and one to the outside next to the passage door, so I can take the original 25' hose and attachments outside to clean my cars and trucks. The Dust Deputy works so well that the dust container on the bottom of the vacuum never has anything in it, except a thin film of micro fine dust on it's sidewalls, about like the amount of dust that settles on your home tables, etc. The 30 gallon barrel gets about 1/2 full in a year of use and fits down the folding stairway easily, so it isn't that hard to remove and dump. The micro fine dust that gets past the Dust Deputy and the fabric filter in the Vacuum gets exhausted to the outdoors near the peak of the shop roof so it never gets back into my shop work area. I've been very happy with how well this vacuum installation has been working for me.

Charley

[William Hodge]

I installed a used and repurposed Beam Central Vacuum in my small shop to use with my sanders, drill presses and scroll saws. I added a Dust Deputy and a re-purposed 30 gallon grease barrel to it to separate the saw dust and drill cuttings. Not having enough space in my shop for it I installed it in the shop attic. It has been in use for about 8 years now and I am quite pleased with how well it's working. No, it isn't a full wood shop dust collector, but it sure does a great job for what I got it for. My jointer and table saw are not connected to it, nor are my grinders for sharpening. The jointer has a chute and drops it's chips into a waste can adjacent to it. My Unisaw cabinet holds the saw dust below it. I always use my DeWalt 735 planer outside in the driveway with the accessory hose and barrel cover connected to a 60 gallon plastic barrel. The planer is mounted to a folding stand with wheels to make it easy to roll out of the shop and set up when needed. The vacuum has several inlet ports in the shop, one in the shop attic, and one to the outside next to the passage door, so I can take the original 25' hose and attachments outside to clean my cars and trucks. The Dust Deputy works so well that the dust container on the bottom of the vacuum never has anything in it, except a thin film of micro fine dust on it's sidewalls, about like the amount of dust that settles on your home tables, etc. The 30 gallon barrel gets about 1/2 full in a year of use and fits down the folding stairway easily, so it isn't that hard to remove and dump. The micro fine dust that gets past the Dust Deputy and the fabric filter in the Vacuum gets exhausted to the outdoors near the peak of the shop roof so it never gets back into my shop work area. I've been very happy with how well this vacuum installation has been working for me.

Charley

Charley, Does the Beam vac have separate air to cool the motor? I'm looking for a vac that has the dusty air bypass the motor.

I'm using a Dust Deputy on a 55 gallon drum with a good shop vac, but the fine dust is making me clean the filter too often. The central vac piping works great in the shop. I use it for catching the spray off the top of the rip saw blade, sanders, cross cut saws, band saws, and fine dust on the floor. It takes two months for the barrel to fill up. I have dust collectors for the regular dust collection.

I found a refurbished Beam central vac with a new motor for $300. at Twin Cities Vacuum. How do you like the Beam brand?