Boys and Girls,

This was posted at LJ on the 26th. December, 2017 as a project.  I have migrated it across and slapped it under my Hints series as I feel it could be more classified as an operational hint than a project.

After having a quick read through the original to consider content, I noticed it incorporated some of my already posted tips, but it also brings in a few new concepts that may be useful for others.

Some minor changes to the original post have taken place.  My original Hitachi shop-vac died and has been replaced by a Fe$tool Bluetooth shop-vac,

 
The remote I used to control the Hitachi (left in picture) is replaced by the Bluetooth remote (right),

The beauty of the Bluetooth remote is that I no longer have to manually select manual or auto mode on the shop-vac… the Bluetooth does it for me automatically. 

I also had to change some of the “plumbing”

to accommodate my overhead hoist,

So, sit right back, relax and see how you can use one shop-vac in your workshop without moving it… the vac, not the shop!

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Boys and Girls,

Sorry for discussing such a dirty little topic. While we may have a hung jury about this being a legitimate project classification, some timber was cut thereby satisfying my ego.

While a centralised dusty is nothing new, I'd like to add my take and some of the gadgetry I use.

It all started with an empty room/workshop and as the machinery began to breed, I found that I was running the gauntlet trying to navigate my shop vac around them.

While a little bit of force would free the vac up and a less than gentle tug on the hose managed to get it to heel, it was often at the expense of something more destructible than a few flakes of sawdust. While my foul mouthed outbursts seem to settle after a thorough soap mouth wash by the missus, the damage had been done and the dog still cowered behind the porta-potty secreted in a desolate corner of the workshop.

Something had to be done… more shop vacs with shorter hoses… All that did was increase my opportunity for further damage and more colourful profanities… Did you know that Hungarians boast the most amount of documented profanity in any human language… I am surprised that someone that left Hungary in 1956 has such a good memory.

What I came up with was a "static" shop vac in the heart of the work area

with overhead PVC pipes radiating from that spot 

 to the four corners/extremities of the workshop 

Just plug the shop vac's hose into the pipe leading to the part of the shop you need to clean and head to that part of the room. At the end of each pipe run, was a 5m length of hose,

scavenged from those "el super cheap" shop vacs woodworkers get as a Christmas present

that inadvertently blows up before the collector manages its first 1/2 capacity fill. Needless to say, I had 3 of these hoses… miraculously amassed around the 25th. December over 3 consecutive years… go figure! Fortunately I had the foresight to hang onto the hoses while I administered the last rights to the decrepit units before tossing it into the bin.

Bloody rooms have 4 corners and I only had 3 hoses. Well Christmas was still a while away (before I would get my 4th cheapo vac), so while searching high and low for cheap hoses (those mongrels cost more per meter than packaged with that cylindrical sucker with an electric cord sticking out of it and a filter bag that goes belly up with first use…. and of course no one stocks those flimsy filters… sound familiar?), I somehow finished up in a pool place who just happened to have a clearance sale on pool hoses. They happened to have some bulk hose that was around $1/m which was too good to refuse even though my spa had died an ugly death quite a few months before.

Armed with my trusty SketchUp, I designed some couplers and through trial and errors managed to make some great friction fitting connectors using my 3D printer,

and with a subtle plumbing redirection managed to route the sucker to the fourth corner,

Now the problem was that with such ingenuity, the newly relocated working end of my dusty was a "packed lunch" distance away from my central vac and I didn't want to order home delivery every time I wanted to turn it on and off. Actually off didn't worry me, as all I had to do was put in some ear plugs so I couldn't hear it wasting my electricity once I finished vacuuming, the problem remained that no matter how much I screamed, no one would rush to turn it on so I could instigate the cleaning procedure remotely.

Well what I did was enlist the aid of several remote controlled power points (one on each dust extractor) with a central controller on a cord hanging around my neck and kept away from light fingered machinery in my shirt top pocket… (that's why I insist on t-shirts with pockets for Christmas… especially from people that don't buy me cheap shop vacs).

This is the combination,

The cute little gismo in the middle was my original controller, but over the years it started to rebel and the off button only worked when I got into arm's length of the power point (it worked beautifully on/off many meters away until I started to use it and legitimately wanted to turn it off). That big bugger on the left is its replacement that I have built a 3D printed cradle for it to attach the cord and hang it around my neck… I keep the old one just in case it has a change of heart and decide to co-operate again.
The remote controlled power point is just a stunt double and the real McCoy is located just above the shopvac,

When I laid out my PVC piping, I didn't pay too much attention to physics and probably should have used 50mm pipes throughout rather than the 40mm. I also neglected the run distance and did find that the "central" vac didn't suck enough for super heavy duty work, hence dedicated vacs on the mitre saw and sanders… However it was still sucker enough to handle general clean up. What I have also done is used some of these stormwater diverters as blast gates,

the 7" pocket rule in front is to give an impression of size so don't look at it as a 1 foot ruler.

While shop made blast gates aren't that hard to make, back then it wasn't part of my bag-of-tricks and one of our local hardware shops had a bargain clearance sale (as probably no one bought them as they were too expensive)… I think they're about $15 (in the Bunnings that stock them).
Along one of my PVC runs,

I have 3 in line and I would have been quite pissed if I had to pay $45 for diverters I never used, but as they were cheap they make a good conversation point even if no one wants to hear about it…

The one in the lathe room,

does get extensive use as even though the hose reaches the other side, it always gets snagged and I'm too lazy to line my hose with fishnets.
The observant ones of you may have noticed the red fishnets on my central vac's hose (and the Festool below… if you're a practitioner of reading ahead). The webbing prevents the ribs on the hose from catching on the material being processed or any other parts of the workshop… not only that, fishnets look sexy… especially in red.
For those that haven't here's a little refresher. The fishnets come in different diameters and slip right over your hose like a man-sized condom,

and there's a grey version for the colour blind,

As I mentioned I have the webbing but am too lazy to put it on… after all I'm too old to worry about birth control.

While the ownership of a Dust Deputy (DD) is not necessary for this exercise, I do have an infatuation with them and I have one holding hands with each of my dedicated "single use" vacs. Without the DD's not only do you need to clean out the vac bin often, you have to clean those awkward filters that probably were never used by their designers (filter cleaning is a rare occasion with DDs).

Down side is that the lid and container supplied with the DD were not robust enough for my shop vacs so I put 6mm reinforcements under the lid (herewith the "finished project that is made of wood" component),

(and found one was needed above as well).

I also have a big Marshal keeping my twin dust extractor honest,

(also remote controlled from the shirt pocket).
 
Its incredible how many different sizes there are of 2 ½" or 50mm diameter hoses. Virtually every 2 ½" hose from one brand of vac WILL NOT fit another 2 ½" brand… luckily all my $2.50 notes are clearly inkjet printed and worth the same. In the past I used to make connectors out of wood, however, I either had to use chunky blocks or fragile lathe turned thin cylinders… Fortunately with a 3D printer this is not an issue and I can cross pollinate to my kinky heart's desire… with my 3D connectors one size fits all… well it doesn't but I'm not gonna tell you that.

 
Also you may have notice the 3D printed battery holder keeping my batteries warm and ready for when not needed,

As always, if you found this boring, read no further and go to this shop vac article to be entertained properly.
 
Any questions about my sanity will not necessarily be answered honestly!