Drywall Vac

housedr

Does anyone use a shop vac to keep dust down when sanding drywall mud? We use the Porter Cable "pole" sander to sand our drywall. Hooked to a vac. to keep the dust down. I've heard of the use of a "water bath" of sorts in line to help keep the filter clean. Anyone have any info on such a creature? Thanks all!

Housedr

ProWallGuy

We only use a standard craftsman hd vac, with a sanding attachment for screens on the end. Bought an extra 30ft hose to use with it. Unfortunately, its not good for large areas, only with repaired areas. Its basically only a hand sanding attachment, no way to attach a pole to it. The other systems I saw for exclusive drywall work were pretty pricey, $750 +++.

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Wallpaper Hanger St. Louis
Digital Murals Installation

Crankshaft

The water trap is from Magna Sand & Clean. A 5 gal bucket, vacume adaptors, 15' hose, and a hand sanding pad. Menards about $45.00 or www.amazon.com/toolcrib I think HD has them also. I've seen a new version somewhere that has a pole with the kit. We replaced the hand sanding pad with an electric 1/3 sheet sander that works very well. The system does work well and catches 95% of the dust before the vac filter.

PipeGuy

Some years ago I was desperate for a replacement filter for my Craftsman shopvac. The Sears I went to was out of the standard, pleated, paper cartridge that I needed so I broke down and bought a reusable Gortex filter that was $30 or so and on the shelf. It was some of the best money I ever spent. It will not pass any fines (drywall dust, fireplace ash, etc.) in the exhaust. Every once in a while I rinse it off, let it dry and reinstall it.

Teetorbilt

Pipe, your mention of fireplace ash reminds me of the time when ol' #1 decided to vacuum the fireplace in the NC house. Unfortunately there were still a few embers. Any idea of what happens when you mix embers, vacuum cleaner dirt and forced air? Bye bye Electrolux!

PipeGuy

Let's see...heat + fuel + air = hmmmm?
Yeah, I'm reminded of that by the 'safety director' every time I drag the shop vac into the family room. You know the routine "you're going to burn the house down one of these days!". Starts to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher after a while.

Glasshousebltr

Bye bye Electrolux![/QUOTE]?...........That's exactly what I said to my second wife at the break up.

Bob

housedr

Thanks all. I was looking for something just like that. I was expecting something a little more complex. Don't know how that would hold up with the riggars of daily usage. May just have to try one and let ya'll know.

housedr.

lpsonbuilders

Have you taken a look at the Porter-Cable 7800 Sander, with or without Vac. I just bought one a few weeks ago and it works nice hooked to my shop vac, however the Porter-Cable vac has a double filtering system that ends up in a oversized hoover type bag for easy disposal. :Thumbs:
Note: It does not sand into the corners.

pbrad911

There are only two drywall vacs that I know of Porta cable & Loveless made for drywall you could also use a pullman vac that has a soot bag used for cleaning furnaces, I have a porta Cable and a pullman I use the porta Cable Vac just for drywall because its not very good as a regular vac, It could be used as a shop vac but tends to plug up the filter fast and if you use bags it would probaly be alright but at $25 for three bags which get distroyed when taking off it gets expensive