estesbubba Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I have a 36" floor broom which works good on the concrete but not as well on the anti-fatigue mats. I was wondering if anyone vacuums their shops for areas like mats, under machines, and hard to reach areas? If so what do you use? I have a Festool CT26 but don't know if that's good to use on floors and the bag cost isn't cheap. What about a plain old shop vac, backpack vac, or ??? The wider the floor nozzle the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chet Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I don't have any mats in my shop but for the hard to reach places I use compressed air, around 20-30 psi and short burst to get into the open floor space and then sweep it with the rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woodenskye Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I won't use my CT26, but I have used a shop vac to clean up. Normally it goes like this, sweep what I can into piles and then vacuum up and get into some of the places a broom doesn't reach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davewyo Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I primarily use my shop vac in winter. I have a pair of brooms but I try to limit their usage to just getting the smaller piles into larger piles so I can shop vac them. Broom work is grunt work and not my cup of tea. I prefer the leaf blower and/or compressor when I can open the shop doors, but my shop has doors at both ends and four more along one side. I use a dust deputy on the shop vac and hit the filter with compressed air after a clean up session. That's not true. I have eight or ten filters and I switch them out until half are dirty, then I hit a batch of filters with the air. The key is to switch filters very often. I've been using the same shopvac for 16 years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Bob Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I set up a central vacuum system set up with pvc and blast gates, that handles my miter saw, router table, oscillating sander. It came with a 30' foot hose that I use with the ros, domino etc.. and I use it to vacuum after I sweep. The bags are $4 a pop and I need to put a separator on it, but it works really well and I don't have a shop vac following me around and taking up space. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Since I got my DC up & running, I've just used a long piece of 6" flex to vacuum the floor. It does a great job, but I'd like to get or make proper floor tool with wheels on it. Sure cleans a lot better than a broom. My shop is also a garage & the concrete floor is a little bit textured, which makes sweeping less effective than if it were polished concrete. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Proctor Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I vacuum the shop all the time, had a central vac system installed when the shop was built. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
estesbubba Posted February 25, 2016 Author Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 9 minutes ago, Just Bob said: I set up a central vacuum system set up with pvc and blast gates, that handles my miter saw, router table, oscillating sander. It came with a 30' foot hose that I use with the ros, domino etc.. and I use it to vacuum after I sweep. The bags are $4 a pop and I need to put a separator on it, but it works really well and I don't have a shop vac following me around and taking up space. 1 minute ago, CT Proctor said: I vacuum the shop all the time, had a central vac system installed when the shop was built. Either of you guys have pics? It is possible to add a central vac using a cyclone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Just Bob Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 Here is mine. I am going to buy a dust deputy, and re-plumb it to free up some wall space, just haven't got around to it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I use my shop vac to get the hard to reach places. I also made my own thein baffled from a 5 gal pail to separate out the dust as much as possible. The thein baffle works great i hardly ever get anything in the bottom of the shop vac. I need to scale up the barrel from a 5 gal pail to something say 30 gal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 A Dust Deputy works great with a shop vac. I can't see why it wouldn't work with a central vac. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CT Proctor Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 11 minutes ago, estesbubba said: Either of you guys have pics? It is possible to add a central vac using a cyclone? I can shoot a couple pics this weekend. Unlike Just Bob, I only use it to vac the floor, mats, machinery, and mine doesn't use any bags. There is one hose port and a floor sweep which are in the ts outfeed table and the hose is long enough to reach all around the shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeslayer Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 wait for a windy day, open the windows and fire up the leaf blower 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 14 minutes ago, treeslayer said: wait for a windy day, open the windows and fire up the leaf blower Yup. I use the wide broom to get everything easily accessible into a pile by the dc and suck that up. The end of my day always ends with the garage door fully open, high speed fan on, and the electric leaf blower going back to front. After blowing it out, I'll wait five minutes or so before going back out, turning the fan off and shutting the door. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I vacuum my shop almost everytime i work in it. I have a ct26 with a very long hose which reaches pretty much the whole shop. Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SawDustB Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I use one of these, along with a Dust Deputy so I don't need to clean it out very often: http://duravac.ca/model/cvwm510 It's nice because it has a long enough hose to vacuum my entire garage while remaining on the wall. Pain in the butt if I forget to empty the Dust Deputy though. I also use it on my tools for dust extraction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davestanton Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I vac every night. I have the following system which has a dust deputy in-line which my festool hose plugs into. I purchased a long hose from them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdwerker Posted February 25, 2016 Report Share Posted February 25, 2016 I use one of those stringy dust mops to sweep the floors, it kicks up far less fine dust. Then we use the CT26 and the wand & floor tool to go around the edges and in corners. We dump out and re use the bags a few times before tossing them when the exterior is starting to show signs of clogging w dirt. Fans and leaf blower when the weather is nice. Usually in the evening when all the neighboring shops are closed. We still sweep up chips and shavings , just chase the dust out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cstandi1 Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 The have the rockler 4" collapsable hose attached to my dust collector. It can reach the whole shop and works great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephThomas Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 I have a ridgid shop vac with a dust deputy in front of it. I try to avoid using my DC to cleanup around the shop because there's nothing keeping any errant screws from getting sucked right into the impeller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drzaius Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 12 hours ago, JosephThomas said: I have a ridgid shop vac with a dust deputy in front of it. I try to avoid using my DC to cleanup around the shop because there's nothing keeping any errant screws from getting sucked right into the impeller. Not a concern for those with a 2 stage though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodbutcher74 Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 I have just installed my new Jet dust collector with 4" PVC and metal blast gates. Was thinking of hooking up one of these with the extra parts I have left over. It's a floor sweep that I would attach through a blast gate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davestanton Posted February 26, 2016 Report Share Posted February 26, 2016 5 hours ago, woodbutcher74 said: I have just installed my new Jet dust collector with 4" PVC and metal blast gates. Was thinking of hooking up one of these with the extra parts I have left over. It's a floor sweep that I would attach through a blast gate. I have the floor sweep fixed to the wall and sometimes I just sweep the floor if bits and pieces are too large for my vacuum cleaner nozzle, straight into the floor sweep, works well but I also have a super dust deputy in-line so nothing except plastic bags reaches the impeller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkinneb Posted February 27, 2016 Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 I have two hoses (one on each side of the shop that are connected to my 2 stage dust collector. I also have a homemade floor sweep. All have served me well for many years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaneymack Posted February 27, 2016 Report Share Posted February 27, 2016 I have two hoses (one on each side of the shop that are connected to my 2 stage dust collector. I also have a homemade floor sweep. All have served me well for many years. I like your homemade floor sweep, very cool. Looks like you have a pretty sweet shop there ! Is that an Lt18hd bandsaw? Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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