I'm shot full of shop vacs now

[fan-of-fans]

Well yesterday I went to another thrift shop and happened upon a Craftsman shop vac, complete with most of the tools for $10. I didn't buy it. But last night thinking got the best of me and I went back today and got it.

I already have my 5 gallon Shop Vac from 1997 I've had since I was a kid.

As well as my Kenmore Cleanmore system which is basically a wet/dry vac with a pump.

And a 2 gallon Hyper Tough wet/dry vac I picked up from Walmart a few years ago to do my car with so I wouldn't have to get out the 5 gallon one.

So now I have yet another wet/dry vac (and this time a HUGE one) that I don't need. I have no idea what I was thinking...

 

[huskyvacs]

Sell 'em, they sell fast. My Restore has them often for $50 a piece completely run into the ground and people buy them immediately and don't even care.

 

[gsheen]

Cole

I dont think you can ever have enough shopvac style vacuums.
I have so many, and always get more when I find one at a good price, I am always busy with some project that requires one so why not have a few, here are some of mine

Karcher NY70 and wd7
Silkfin 40L ( nilfisk)
Rigid 18 gal ( converted to 220 Volt with a motor replacment )
Electrolux aquadry (1980's)
Electrolux Hurricane 2000 ( 1990's )
Bennet Read tough 60
Euro vac twin motor
Columbus cyclone 20 ( soteco )
Rowenta Ru11
Wetrok twin vac25

 

[fan-of-fans]

Very nice machines there! I have always found the commercial style shop vacs interesting. It seems in other countries you get more of a variety of styles and others with carpet cleaning ability whereas that didn't take off as much here in the US for as long as it did over there.

We got a Global Supply catalog when I was a kid and I remember being fascinated with the commercial ones in there. And we got the Craftsman tool catalogs from Sears all the time and they had lots of interesting ones too, models with cord winder, variable speed, etc.

This one I just got I should have opened the tank before I bought it. I looked inside and somebody had used it with just the foam sleeve sticker and it is caked in sand. Ugh. I will probably have to take apart and clean it out.

It has those huge 2 1/2" diameter hose and the huge tools, never had one with this size before. I noticed the hose folded over when the machine fell over in the car, seems very thin material. I thought that Emerson made all the Craftsman and Rigid shop vacs but this one seems it might be a Shop Vac made model.


I was looking at attachments in the store and noticed they have another size at 1 7/8" diameter which I never hear of.

 

[fan-of-fans]

What I like about the wet/dry vacs is they're so easy to clean everything. You can just hose it all down (other than the motor) after each use, which is what I usually do.

 

[panasonicvac]

I agree with Gareth

It's always nice to have more than enough wet/dry vacs. Especially when they're all at other locations where I would need them whether it's at the garage in my house, my storage shed, woodshop, vacation home, etc. And it's also nice to have different types of wet/dry vacs for different types of jobs as well. For example, I can use a more expensive German made Bosch for a Domino machine to build different types of furniture and a less expensive Ridgid to just clean up wherever I can use it at whether it's from wood shavings, pumping out water from a hot tub, vacuuming out vehicles, etc.

Now keep one thing in mind about Craftsman, they're just a brand like Kenmore. They get from whoever makes their vacuums.

 

[panasonicvac]

Correction

Only the Domino machine is used for Festool, not Bosch.

 

[thevacomaticiec]

I  sure love my  16 gallons  Shop-Vac Ultra    with blower port  and drain plug.  


 


I  have taken  3   8 foot  hose   and  put them together   to form a 24 foot   aprox   long central  lenght   hose   2-1/2 inch  . I  use   a  bag and  cartridge filter so the thank  stays   clean   ,  i do  hose it down after a wet pick up   makes  big job a  breaze as well cleaning cars back in the day for the lonng h ose  love it   . As  well  for DYI   .

 

[ericl1245]

I have a Ridgid 16 Gallon Wet Dry Vac with a 20 ft 2 1/2" Hose,the Shop Vac Model 700c 8 gallon, Shop Vac 600L 6 gallon has blower port and inlet on top, and the Shop Vac Model 3150 5 gallon, it is a quieter due to not having a blower port.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I know some of the older Craftsman Shop Vacs were made by Emerson (as was Rigid). I think I heard the new Craftsmans are made by Cleva (which also makes Kenmore) but I'm not certain.

Does anyone know who makes Stealth and HyperTough wet/dry vacs at Walmart?

Has anyone had the 2 1/2" handle grip accessory with suction control ring? I've seen them for sale, I remember seeing those on some of the older Craftsmans also from the 90s.

 

[gsheen]

Alex

I had a Festool CT33

It was great but the cost of bags, filters was ridiculous.

What made it worse is that unlike other festool power tools their is nothing really special about the festool that you can't get on a different High quality vacuum at a quarter of the price,
Take a compound Mitre saw, If you need to do intricate  work, Ie really high end furniture or where your costs have to be 100% true, there is nothing , absolutely nothing on the market that is as good as a festool, Some come close but festool is just superior in every way so it makes sense to spend the extra to get it, especially of you are a high end carpenter.

Its also worth noting that often the vacuum is given at no cost with purchases of mitre saws and the like.

The thing is that if you want a dust extraction system for your woodwork tools then you can get away with a lot cheaper and same quality as the festool.

a wap attix 3 had the same motor and you could order it with the auto on off for the tools, if you went to the attix 5 at the time you could get that with the auto clean function which would clean its own filter, meaning you never had to use bags ( their ones were a lot cheaper too)
the waps or even a Karcher had much bigger capacities than the festool too.

Its worth noting that unlike household cleaning Vacuum bags are a disaster in the woodworking industry, if hooked up the my mitre saw or hand planer I could fill 2 or 3 bags a day on a festool , if hooked up to the sander the fine dust would clogg the bag in minutes and you would have to open the machine and shake the bag to loosen the dust from its sides .
it's worth noting that Festool vacuums bags cost about $ 45.00 for 5 and you will use them fast.

It's not a bad machine there are ust allot better and less costly options out their.

Oddly enough as far as my woodwork goes, my huge rigid is my favorite, massive airflow from its single fan motor and a bin thats huge, yes its a cheap machine but oddly enough it works great. I just need to fit auto on and off to it with a plug outlet

 

[thevacomaticiec]

My beast    shop vac  16  gallon   blower port  and    drain  24 feet hose  with  floor  tool  14 inch wide   beast   .

 

[panasonicvac]

Hi Gareth. I definitely do agree that most Festool products are just so unnecessary to buy for the price. However when it comes to joints, I like the Domino machine the best compare to other joiners and machines that I've used before like biscuits, pocket screws, brad nailer, dowels, etc. And I don't have to buy a Domino or a dust extractor new, I could always look for a used or recondition one for alot cheaper. Also I don't have to buy a dust extractor for the Domino, I can always use a dust bag for it if I wanted to. But I'd rather have a dust extractor for it. Makes it cleaner to use, I can also easily clean my area up with it afterwards, and it's definitely more fun to use when you have a vacuum with you I also agree that bags and filters for Festool are pricey. But one of the Festool dust extractors that I've used before the CT MINI, was used as bagless. Not really recommend to use it as but it worked. Plus you can also get a separator for it if you wish to save on bags and filters. I'm not sure though that I agree there are other better dust extractors out there than the Festool. At least according to this testing video in the states, the Festool is proven to be one of the better options out there. But of course though, I personally wouldn't use a dust extractor to clean up EVERYTHING in the shop. I'd rather use a simple wet/dry for that purpose instead. In fact I'm looking into getting a Ridgid for my shop that I have because I really do like those for what they are. I agree that they are very powerful for the price.

 

[gsheen]

Alex


 


I am not saying the festool is bad, it isnt , if it were better priced then I am sure I would be far keener on it than I am. 


My issue came in when doing some research and when I still owned my festool, (I traded it for a really awesome table saw ) I looked at other models on the market, two that came up were a Karcher and a Wap alto. both had the auto on and off, both had the exact same motor as the festool but both had biger drum and better filtration, what made it worse was that both the machines cost half the price of the Festool, meaning I could buy 2 for the price of one festool, as you know in a wood work shop two are always better than one. The only advantage the festool had over them was its storage facility on top of the unit  which is nice for mounting a separator tank, but I can easlit make a trolly myself.


 


Often I think that festool gets given the best results because its festool,


 


and yes a domino is just amazing 

 

[panasonicvac]

Interesting

I'm not too familiar with those kind of wet/dry vacs but good to know. Still however, I could find a used Festool at a budget price. But one TOL wet/dry vac that I would totally buy in a heartbeat would be the Bosch 3931, I really like those the most. I wished they were still being made.