Remember the older Craftsman wet/dry vacs?

[fan-of-fans]

I was having a bit of a nostalgia moment the other day. Does anyone remember all of the Craftsman wet/dry vacs they used to offer? I used to look at them in the Sears catalogs and after those stopped, we used to get the tool magazines all the time and I would look at them.

They had really industrial style ones that had the big motor on top, the tank sat on a cart like assembly and the attachments were die cast metal. Really well built. I don't know when they discontinued those but it was in the late 90s I'd guess?

Plus there were other cool ones like the TOL 16" plastic ones had variable speed and cord reel. There was also a 6 gal or maybe 5 that was all WHITE and had a cord reel too. I actually saw one in the trash several years back.

Plus there was a power nozzle like attachment that used wheels to turn a brush sort of like a Regina carpet sweeper. There were steam cleaner kits too that connected to the faucet and you could steam clean carpets or furniture like a Regina machine.

 

[real1shep]

I do remember metal shop vacs of many makes, including Craftsman, which were of course made by somebody else.


 


I waited to buy though until they started appearing in plastic.....why, I can't tell you. So.....I have plastic wet/dry shop vacs including a big Craftsman from the late 90's, early 2000's. I retrofitted the Craftsman to take those big canister liners. I still keep the cloth filter over the foam for motor protection. 


 


This remodel job I'm working on now.....the owner has a short/fat Craftsman of unknown age. He was trying to suck up sheetrock dust with it and the motor bearings were screeching. He had a T-shirt around the foam filter. After a stern lecture on sheet rock dust, he went to Home Depot and found the appropriate canister liner. I took it home, blew out all the sheetrock dust from the motor/casing, donated a cloth filter over the foam, put in the canister liner and it roared back to life. We're still using it three liners later.


 


Kevin

 

[kirby519]

I remember one of our neighbors had one like this that they used to clean the house with. They had both the 2.5 inch hose and attachments as well as the standard 1 1/4 hose and attachments and the coupler to hook them together.

 

[tolivac]

The Sears Craftsman shop vac in the picture is like one that a radio station had.when a water line burst at their transmitter site that Sears shop vac cleaned up the water.Was a godsend-then I had to make like a plumber to fix the pipe that broke.Was a VERY cold,misreable freezing day.