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So I was using my shop vac the other day a 6 gal craftsman and it tipped over a few times, the final straw was during the final cleaning it tipped over a spilled onto the floor i was doing the final cleaning on. I got upset and booted that puppy like i was sabastian janokowski the raiders field goal kicker booting a 65 yarder. needless to say i broke the bucket on and got to either chase down another one or buy a new shop vac..grrrr i can take just so much grrrrrrr…. needless to say i had to sweep the floor with broom and dust pan after that grrrrrr :/
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What ticks me off about shop vacs is that they may have a 16 gallon bucket, but the filter gets totally clogged by the first two ounces of dust.
-- J.S.
*Get yerself the 3 gallon one this time, Ron. (Shop Vac brand.)You can latch that puppy onto any plastic 5 gallon bucket.And get a longer pickup hose too.
*Why can't they make these things so they don't tip over so easy! I've got a 12 or 14 gal Ridged vac. Works great, but you'd think the thing was mounted on ice skates or something.
*Yeah. and when your give it a tug by the hose to bring the can closer, why does it go 90 degrees to where you want it to?
*I've got a few 6gal sears cans 'kicking' around. The motors go out quicker than the bucket for me.
*Stray, that would require a wider base or a shorter cannister and motor. Then you'd be saying it's a bear to get through the door or why don't they make one with larger capacity.Or you could take the one you have now and put a weight at the bottom of the cannister. That would effectively increase the righting moment.
*Hey, there ya go. Pour up a concrete pancake in the bottom of your shop vac. LOL
*mebbee it is a communication thing Ron.You say "This damn shopvac sucks!" and the folks at craftsman puff out their chests and say "You betcha!"I bought an upgraded filter for mine- now it really sucks! Still won't roll over its own chord without tipping...
*I've always hated how tippy they are, but the noise is worse.I finally bought a Fein, would have bought a wap or aero maybe, too. But the Fein is an excellent tool. Not that noisy, not as bulky, and sucks like... I don't want to give her name.You can get a big cloth filter for it, 5 micron I think, that filters out dry wall dust really good, and sucks hard even with a good bit of drywall dust in it. The cloth filter limits capacity for bulky stuff, but if its sawdust, etc., you don't really need it. It's pricey, but like any tool, you get what you pay for. And most of the sears stuff is crap, and none of it is well designed.
*Doug, Ron: It's because these things are designed by people who never have had to use one.I mean: How 'bout this:keg-size,fewer amps, more suck,quieter,longer hose that doesn't kink&die,better swivels on the hoses,bigger wheels-at least big enough to roll over it's own life-source,one lift handle,better filter, and cheaper.Is this too hard?Tom
*I replaced a small shop-vac with a 6 gal Ridgid, and I like it. . . sort of. The pleated filted traps dust pretty well, and it's a bit hard to clean, but I have discovered more than once that it will contimue to suck up sawdust and planer shavings right up until the inlet port on the side of the cannister is full. When you pull off the hose and sawdust falls out, that's full!
*Tommy, I'm contemplating a Fein as I migrate to remodel mode. How does it do w/wet stuff? Could have used it this morning as my bathroom sink leaked over its top and out the door and down the hall . . . (user error, of course). TIA
*wow kai what did you eat for dinner??? :)
*There are better commercial wet/dry vacuums made by companies like Oreck, but the 17-gallon versions are close to $1000.
*ouuuuuchhhhh 1k for a shop vac
*I wrote Sears a snotty letter about their vac motors burning up because they use a cheap bushing instead of a two-bit bearing on the motor arbors. They said they'd give me the money back for all three, if i could produce proof. Since i had all three canisters still in use for garbage containers--having dumped the motors--i got $300 back. I was figuring on spending the unexpected loot on a real vacuum when i did a art fair in a nice neighborhood in Spokane about six years and ended up trading a lazy susan for a Dayton vac at a yard sale down the block!
*Uhhh......that sounds better than the bottom of your own bucket!
*We bought a "Loveless drywall vac" some time ago. I hate it, hate it hate it. I hate it.
*I can have three jobs going at once and need a vac on each all the time so I buy Sears 'cause it's a decent price for a throw-away unit. I would love a fien but my guys might treat it like a sears and it's too expensive for that.
*Good try, Ron, but dinner was moot. I did not turn the faucet completely off (drip, drip) and a bar of soap gradually disintegrated enough to clog up the drain. BumMER!
*My Sears came with a length of plastic that ties the hose to the lower apron of the vacuum; when used, the vac never tips over. 'Course, the plastic cord is virtually useless, so I replaced it with a bit of cheap chain and it works great, even with the double-length hose (came with a 10', added a second 10' - I think everyone does that).
*Joseph, I need a smallish one because my doorways are narrow, but can't imagine spending quite half that. I did some investigating a while back. Maybe I can locate the link to that thread (in CT) and see if you can critique it a bit for me if you have time. Wet/dry will become important as remodeling/refurbishing or whatever comes into play.I'm thinking that I need more than one tool, so right now, I'm subbing w/a Eureka "Boss" bagless that is doing menial chores, but I will need a bad boy when we get down to business--I (or someone) will be stripping paint from walls/cabinets and lacquer off hardwood floors. TIA, and I'll be in touch when I get it together.
*i even with the double-length hose (came with a 10', added a second 10' - I think everyone does thatNo lie! It seems all appliances are manufactured w/cords that do not allow them to be connected anywhere except tabletop! Grrr :-|
*I haven't looked at the new Sears vacs since the vendor shift (the Ridgids are what Sears would have been selling); but, they rotate a high-end model through the sale mill every 8 weeks; if you're patient, you can get a bargan.
*Tying together shop vacs and stupidity...Jim, a friend of mine, called last night 'cause he had a plumbing problem. Drain in his tub was plugged, so he figured he'd try blasting it out with the shop vac. Put the hose on the outlet. and stuck it in the drainNot sure exactly how he sealed up around it, and put it on, figuring he'd just blow the clot down the drain. Too bad the drain was ganged with the kitchen sink on the other side of the wall. His wife was leaning over the sink at the time getting out dishes from a cabinet over it... I think you can see where this is headed. From what I understand his wife ended up wearing the contents of the trap, and the clot was someplace below the T where the 2 drains connect.
*I bought a Shop Vac a couple of years ago, and have been pretty happy with it. It's the one that's always in the tool Crib of the North catalog, and is about $150. But the canister is stainless steel, and it has a handle for rolling it around like a hand truck. Both the cord and hose are pretty long, and it has wheels in the back instead of casters. Check it out at:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004RHKL/qid=1005849363/sr=1-9/ref=sr_1_15_9/107-6160228-3126955or:http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004RHKL.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
*Thanks Phill, interesting. I haven't looked at a Sears ad for years, but will check it out.
*I got a Ridgid for my birthday this year. Haven't had much chance to use it but man does it suck. It blows, too. (It's the model that has the detachable blower unit.)Replaced a glass block window in the basement, and was sucking up the old remains. Our walls are some form of rough plaster directly applied to stone, painted. The paint was in pretty good shape. We had some dust on the rough crags of the wall, so I waved the wand over it real quick. Damn thing sucked the paint off the wall! Huge chunks, say 4-10 square inches at a time. I figured the paint wasn't holding as good as I thought. So, I started experimenting, trying to see where the paint was failing. Could not tell any loose patches, but wave the "magic" wand, and suddenly I need to paint the basement.I'm just a DIY so I don't know how it'd hold up to some of your needs, but it has the lifetime warranty, so good enough for me. I'm pretty happy with its performance so far. I need to do more work though so I can use it more. But I can't, or I'll create more work for me...
*kai - hope it wasn't one of MY soaps. Although i have plenty of soap, should you need more. wink wink!
*Here's one of my favorite stories involving a shop vac:Horus and the Floor Furnace(subtitle: don’t read this while you’re eating or even right after.)We acquired our dog Horus as a companion for Cassie when Bill and I decided it was time to have a baby. I guess having two bull terriers wasn’t enough to drive me ‘round the bend. Horus came to us as a rescue, sadly given up by his owners, who were moving out of the country. That December, about two months into my pregnancy, I was working at a craft faire. Bill and I had left early for the show, around 7:00 am. The dogs had been fed, let out and then secured in the kitchen. After arriving, I realized we had forgotten the sign for the booth. Bill went home around 10 am to get it, and when he got back, told me he was glad he ran home, as Cassie needed to go outside – apparently she’d spent her morning toilet time staring at a bird, rather than attending to business. The show went well. We arrived home around 6 pm – as soon as I was unlocking the door, I knew we had trouble. The gate across the kitchen doorway was down. As I opened the door, both dogs ran up to us, doing the “We did something really, really bad, please love us still!” dance – you know the one - heads down, shamed grins, tails tucked yet wagging and that peculiar sidestepping shuffle. Oh God, I thought. Then the smell hit me. Someone’s been really sick, I say to Bill. We started searching for the source of the offensive odor. And searched. We couldn’t find anything, yet the smell was everywhere. We kept searching. Now, think like a Bull Terrier. Your gut is rumbling – you’ve got a major load brewing, yet you can’t get outside – where do you leave it? Go for the most damage? Sure, why not?The antique rug in front of the fireplace? Nah, too obvious (besides, been there, done that). The slate floor in the bathroom? Too easy to clean. The bed in the master bedroom? Hm – don’t want to sleep in the yard tonite. Hey, look at that grate in the hallway! Perfect! Our house was old – 80 years to be exact – built in the days before forced air furnaces. So there’s a gas fired floor furnace – it kicks on and warm heat rises up and thru a large grate set in the hallway floor and gently heats the house. It’s lovely. At least until a Bull Terrier has runny diarrhea into it! Since it was December, we’d lit the furnace – who knows how long the offal had been baking on the heat fins and filling the house with the enchanting smell of poop-pourri. I made the discovery as the smell seemed worse in the hallway – then I noticed a few telltale marks on the rug – looked like someone had cleaned up something – this was the ever-helpful Cassie, cleaning up what Horus had left as he did the hunched over diarrhea poop-walk away from the grate. Honestly, is there anything Bull Terriers won’t eat? Remember, I’m only two months into my pregnancy and deep in the throes of morning (lie – All DAY) sickness. I’m gagging, smelling baked sick dog poop, and picturing Cassie cleaning it from the rug, and then peering down the grate, wishing she had opposable thumbs. Bill comes and is aghast when I relate what has happened; then he looks down the grate and says “Hmph. I’m gonna need the shop-vac.” This proves just too much for me, and I collapse on the floor laughing until I cried. Bill’s shaking his head saying This really isn’t funny, sweetheart.The clean up was fairly uneventful, save for when, attempting to overcome the smell, I placed a dish of smoldering incense near where Bill was working – unfortunately, I placed it right in the exhaust path of the shop-vac and Bill looks up from having his head in the furnace hole to see flames shooting up right next to his head. So Horus and I were both in the doghouse
*Thank goodness, no, it wasn't one of yours! And I will be placing another order soon! Your ginger-fig (?) scent seems really popular :-)Hey guys, RuthAnn has a lot of satisfied customers over at CT. High-quality, well-priced little gifts for the DW. For y'all, however, maybe some of Mean Chef's Ass Grease. Is that the name RuthAnn? LOL
*ROFLMFAOI don't know if I even want to ask...
*You're a good storyteller, RuthAnn. I nearly gagged.
*I've told it many times - I still think it's one of the funniest dog stories I have about my fur children. Doesn't hold a candle to "Dogs in Elk" though.
*Look here, MC's Ass Grease Luka.
*I knew I didn't want to ask.Oh well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.b : )By the way, won't that stuff leave some nasty stains on those pink capri pants of his ?
*Or, more precisely, http://www.mermaidsbath.com/meanchef.htmOh, please, indeed!
*Dogs in Elk is priceless.
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So I was using my shop vac the other day a 6 gal craftsman and it tipped over a few times, the final straw was during the final cleaning it tipped over a spilled onto the floor i was doing the final cleaning on. I got upset and booted that puppy like i was sabastian janokowski the raiders field goal kicker booting a 65 yarder. needless to say i broke the bucket on and got to either chase down another one or buy a new shop vac..grrrr i can take just so much grrrrrrr.... needless to say i had to sweep the floor with broom and dust pan after that grrrrrr :/