While using my 4″ dust collector hose freehand to suck up a pile of shavings, I ended up sending my shop apron and the plastic cannister that collects dust off the palm sander into the machine. Lots of noise …..
I learned a lesson, but I was wondering what objects others have had disappear into the dust collector hose. (Or am I the only one to make this mistake?)
Thanks.
Paul
Replies
Your collector doesn't have a cross over the inlet? What kind is it? I have a Harbor Freight 2HP unit and it has one. If yours doesn't, I would add it. That way, you won't have the same problem again.
I sucked up some nuts and small bolts. I won't do that again. Gravel, either.
I'm sure you're not the only one to have an excellent dust collection adventure. You'll probably get many replies.
My story is an almost, so I guess it doesn't officially count. I worked briefly in a shop with a 10 HP collector. I was using it freehand to pick up a ton of dust I had swept into piles around the shop. I was leaning down to push some of the dust toward the hose when my glasses began to slip and it started to suck them right off my nose. I got them just in time. While I didn't lose the glasses, I heard stories of tape measures, rulers, squares, packs of cigarettes and a bunch of other stuff heading north through that monster. It was ducted directly outside, so you could walk over to the pile out back and see what was left of whatever got sucked up.
Not with a dust collector, but my first shop vac.
A long time ago, my wife and I lived way out in the sticks. We only got to the city, which had a large Sears store, about twice a year. On this particular trip, I bought two things for my shop: a huge Craftsman shop vac and a Panasonic boom box. I intended to use the boom box to play my bluegrass tapes while I worked in my shop. I spent most of the following weekend recording music from LP records onto cassette tapes. On my next day off, I had a great time making sawdust in the shop, just me and Flatt & Scruggs and the rest of my treasured tapes. At the end of the day, I used my new shop vac to clean my shop. It worked so well, I was enjoying vacuuming up every single speck of sawdust in my usually dust laden shop. I was almost done when I noticed, in horror, my new boombox had dust on it. I quickly sucked it off. I was in the middle of a cleanliness frenzy. I pushed the "eject" button and retrieved my best Doc Watson tape from the player, one I had recently spent hours transferring from LP to this tape. There were specks of dust on the tape! Not for long, not after I stuck the vac nozzle to it. I suddenly heard a faint screeching noise over the roar of the vacuum. It was the tape unwinding. Extremely fast. I was suddenly left holding the empty tape cartridge in my hand. The tape I had patiently spent hours creating, transferring it from LP to cassette tape, was instantly transferred into the belly of the vacuum. It was not only covered in dust, it had caught on a sharp edge of the fitting and had shredded. Poor Doc. He deserved a better fate. Gary
Gary,
Ever heard Doc sing Homer and Jethro's parody of "Movin' On", the old Hank Snow number"?
"The old mechanic was gonna fix our car,
Til he grabbed 'holt of the spark plug wire,
Now he's movin' on, he's rollin' on.
He turned it loose, when he felt the juice!
He was movin' on."
And:
The old hound dog was feelin' fine,
Til he fell in a barrel full of of turpentine.
Now he's movin' on, he's travelin' on.
Well he went through the gate, like an "88"
He was movin' on.
Here's a new verse, just for you:
Gary's cassette was dusty, thought he'd clean it out;
Then it got sucked into his new dust spout.
It was movin' on, that tape was rollin' on.
Gary felt a fool, as he saw it unspool,
It was movin' on.
Sorry for your loss,
Ray
RAY, I bet that you could add some wood worker stanzas to Marvin Rainwater's "So you think you got troubles" . I still remember at least half the words-and I am a Yankee- it was a few years ago. I will"check in" to my favorite Motel 6 mid PM on Sunday in my latest treck to God's country, East Tn. Regds, Pat -the original South Brooklyn country boy.
Ray,
Yes, I have that Doc record with the ditty on Homer & Jethro. I think I have most all his records. Thanks for the new added verse; I should print it and tape it to my vac as a warning reminder. Gary
I was dusting off some cans of finish when suddenly, one lined up just right. Slluurrrp! My 1 1/2 hp DC sucked in a full pint can of varnish, fortunately into the 2nd stage can. I have 4" clear tubing, and so the pint can was quite visible and actually going pretty slow, being so heavy. It reminded me of the old office and bank vacuum delivery systems where they put papers or money into a cylinder and launch it off down the pipe to another office or the drive-up teller box.
Some folks recommend making a hose-end cap out of hardware cloth to keep from losing anything much bigger than a pencil unknowingly. I think a 2nd stage chip bucket is good idea, since anything big will stop there before it hits the fan.
Edited 7/18/2006 1:13 am ET by dmohle
Edited 7/18/2006 1:15 am ET by dmohle
Edited 7/18/2006 1:18 am ET by dmohle
Obviously not much help afterwards, but a cyclone separator will leave anything heavy in the can and it won't get anywhere near the impeller blades. I actually do this on purpose with a 12 oz can to find clogs (and sometimes just for fun). It goes up through a 4" hose like the old pneumatic systems at the bank. It rattles and bangs its way through the system unless it hits the clog, or until it gets to the can, where I pick it out.
My DC Remote...again!!
"My DC Remote...again!!"I was putting a huge profile on a 20' piece of Bubinga, handheld with my Evil Martinsky 10 HP Briggs & Stratton router and a 4" raised panel bit this morning when both carbide cutters let go. One bounced off my belt buckle and right into the DC. The other one bounced off the chainsaw I was using with my free hand and right into the DC. Talk about a racket!
Too funny!!!Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral. Frank Lloyd Wright
WAY TOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"WAY TOO FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"Yeah, funny now, but not when it happened. I'd have been a nervous wreck without the two drinks I had at coffee break.
Only two? I though that I set a better example than that! (Unless they were quarts of 151 then that would be acceptable)John
Edited 7/18/2006 5:53 pm ET by Jmartinsky
How did you get my 10 hp router?John
"How did you get my 10 hp router?"Picked one up on sale at:http://www.daredevilwoodworker.com$699.00 plus shipping with a 10% discount for smokers.
OK, everyone fess up. How many clicked on the http://www.daredevilwoodworker.com link just to see if...
Paul
Cheap trick, playing on our trusting nature.
Yeah, I clicked on it!
Since the house is on fire let us warm ourselves. ~Italian Proverb
"Cheap trick, playing on our trusting nature.
Yeah, I clicked on it!"Hey, I made it up and posted it and still couldn't resist a quick click to see if just maybe... How stupid is that? It's a sad testament to the fact we've become little more than cyber lemmings -- "I see the link and I must follow." What a world!
Edited 7/19/2006 5:15 pm ET by Mike_B
Yeah, I clicked on the link too. I thought it would lead me back to a site I found a year ago and lost. It was a cornucopia of simply-dangerously-awful rigged up woodworking tools. The one really bad idea I remember featured a hand held power planer rigged upside down with a wooden fence as as "job site jointer." Brrrrr! Still makes me shudder to think about it.
"The one really bad idea I remember featured a hand held power planer rigged upside down..."Sounds like my kind of site -- sort of the Jackass for woodworkers. I've heard of circular saws hung from a piece of plywood and used as a makeshift table saw -- sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do.
MikeB said: "I've heard of circular saws hung from a piece of plywood and used as a makeshift table saw"
Hey, nothin' wrong with that! ;-)
That was my first TS. Made up a table with 2X4 legs, 1/2" ply top, the saw clamped to the underside with the blade coming through the table through a plunge kerf, rigged up a switched plug, taped the saw trigger down, clamped a 2X4 on the ply table for a fence, and rocked on. Ripped a bunch of sheet goods (50 or 60 sheets of Homosote) to mount on the underside of roof sheeting for a cathedral ceiling in a barn. Hey, it's a circ saw with way less HP than a TS, so kickback was not a real concern - just didn't have the "umph" to toss anything. Granted, no blade guard, but my guess is that 90% of all TS cuts are made sans guard. (I'm not advocating this, just my observation of reality.)
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
A couple of weeks ago my daughter called me at 1 am from upstairs on her cell saying she heard a mouse in her closet. It turned out to be a rat. I quickly evaluated my rat hunting options ruling out the 12 ga and deciding on the Fein Turbo II shop vac which is a very strong vac indeed. The rat was too big to fit in the tube, but was effectively immobilized allowing me to apply the coup de grace.John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
The more things change ...
We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.
Petronious Arbiter, 210 BC
Most innovative use posted so far!!Regard it as just as desirable to build a chicken house as to build a cathedral. Frank Lloyd Wright
"Most innovative use posted so far!!"I couldn't agree more with Rennie's reply. Too cool for words! "This week on the Outdoor Channel, Shop Vac rat hunting with Ted Nugent"
That sounds like the Captain Hook jobsite jointer: http://hometown.aol.com/woodmiser1/hook.htm
all of us!
http://forums.taunton.com/fw-knots/messages?msg=8223.1
hi,
i work in a shop with a 75hp central dust collection system. one day a few years ago i was working on one of the wide belt sanders, passing stock through to another person who was catching and stacking it. the foreman came around with our paycheques and decided it would be funny to pass my buddy his checque by sending it through the sander. needless to say, the duct collection sucked it up off the feed belt and would have eaten it completely had it not gotten caught on something on its way up the chute. 30 minutes of opening up the machine got it out, but that was the last time the foreman handed out the paycheques.
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