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I was in the process of removing an older still working built-in house vacuum. I was wondering if anyone has ever converted one to use as a wall-hung shop vac. I already have a dust collector, and a Festool vac. This would be in addition to these. Any thoughts or comments welcomed.
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There's no reason it won't work, but it may be limited in capacity compared to a shop vac. The one I've had always had to have paper bags, and they weren't bankrupt expensive but still somewhat costly.
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
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The one I have, a Hoover, works very well but I doubt it would be good as a shop vac. The container is too small I think, maybe 2-2.5 gallons, but no bags required.
Doing it right cost less than doing it over
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I converted my whole house vacuum to a whole shop vacuum. The house vacuum I have is a mini cyclone and vents the fine dust directly outside. The bin is probably 3-4 gallons. At first I planned to make a larger collection bin but it packs the waste so tight I haven't fount it necessary. I can say the one I have is crazy powerful. I have a festool vac and the whole house vac has way more suction.
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Like mentioned the bin is small and they are very powerful. Great for a whole shop vac but has to be emptied often. Might look into some sort of speed control.
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Vacuums are rated in "inches of lift" and "cfm" of air moved.
The old Kirby's were a low lift/high volume design and most central vacs are towards the other end.
It will make a good shop vac if you're needing a lot of suction to pick up stuff, but if you want to use it as a dust collector on a chop saw you may be disappointed.
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Wild Turkey
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I did it with a Dust Deputy cyclone inline, I think I have shaken out the paper bag a couple of times over the last 10 years. Found about a 25 foot pool hose to use with it. Works great. Thought about someday plumbing to various corners of the shop so I didn't have to have one long hose but this has worked great so far. Really nice not having that shop vac to drag around, opens up a little more floor space.
