# Shop Vac Water Filter



## Soapdish (Jan 18, 2010)

While this is not a new idea, many of you may have never seen anything like this. Thoughs of you who have or have seen the Rainbow vacuum knows that it uses water as the filter. While building our house and tired of cleaning/buying filters for my shop vac, I decided that I would figure out a way to make a water filter for it. My set-up uses the smaller shop vac and hose, a 5 gal bucket with a lid (the lid I use has a rubber seal in it), and some assorted pieces of shop vac hoses accessories. Drill 2 holes in the top of the lid just big enough for the hose connector to pop in. Then you will need to connect a long tube that will extend down into the bucket (about 2” from the bottom).The other tube will only extend down a few inches. Hook one hose to the shop vac and then to the SHORT tube. Hook up your other hose to the LONG tube…this will be the end you use.Now put enough water in the bucket to cover the end of the long tube by a few inches. The vac will pull a suction through the water, and all of the dust and dirt will be trapped in the water. I don’t have a whole shop vacuum system, and I hate paying $12 dollars for the pleated filters..This system works awesome. You will hear lots of bubbling and gurgling while it is running, and there will be some water carry over into the shop vac (so only use the foam sleeve). If you use this for Sheetrock dust cleanup (this is the best damn thing in the world for this BTW) you will need to clean the water out fairly frequently. For sawdust removal every few days (depending on how much you use it). Mine is not fancy or pretty, but it works fantastic. One of these days I will make a better one, fixing the water carry over issue, and I’ll put it on some sort of dolly so it can roll with the Vac. Check out the pictures. I hope this helps some one.

Oh, BTW, about 6 months after I made this thing, I saw something similar in the Sheetrock section at HD. It was only there for a short time, and I don’t think they sell it anymore, so much for me making any money off this idea.


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## jschaben (Jun 21, 2009)

Looks like a great idea, just may put something like that together this weekend to give it a try.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Jake

That rig looks good ,nice job , but they have been around a long time for the 5 gal bucket 

Dust Collection Accessories - Peachtree Woodworking Supply, Inc.


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Soapdish said:


> While this is not a new idea, many of you may have never seen anything like this. Thoughs of you who have or have seen the Rainbow vacuum knows that it uses water as the filter. While building our house and tired of cleaning/buying filters for my shop vac, I decided that I would figure out a way to make a water filter for it. My set-up uses the smaller shop vac and hose, a 5 gal bucket with a lid (the lid I use has a rubber seal in it), and some assorted pieces of shop vac hoses accessories. Drill 2 holes in the top of the lid just big enough for the hose connector to pop in. Then you will need to connect a long tube that will extend down into the bucket (about 2” from the bottom).The other tube will only extend down a few inches. Hook one hose to the shop vac and then to the SHORT tube. Hook up your other hose to the LONG tube…this will be the end you use.Now put enough water in the bucket to cover the end of the long tube by a few inches. The vac will pull a suction through the water, and all of the dust and dirt will be trapped in the water. I don’t have a whole shop vacuum system, and I hate paying $12 dollars for the pleated filters..This system works awesome. You will hear lots of bubbling and gurgling while it is running, and there will be some water carry over into the shop vac (so only use the foam sleeve). If you use this for Sheetrock dust cleanup (this is the best damn thing in the world for this BTW) you will need to clean the water out fairly frequently. For sawdust removal every few days (depending on how much you use it). Mine is not fancy or pretty, but it works fantastic. One of these days I will make a better one, fixing the water carry over issue, and I’ll put it on some sort of dolly so it can roll with the Vac. Check out the pictures. I hope this helps some one.
> 
> Oh, BTW, about 6 months after I made this thing, I saw something similar in the Sheetrock section at HD. It was only there for a short time, and I don’t think they sell it anymore, so much for me making any money off this idea.


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## Marco (Feb 21, 2009)

That's a very god idea for the Shop Vac dust colector's........ a few weeks back my shop vac got full and then half clogged before I realized why it was so dusty........ it looked like all of the dust that it could suck in was being blown out!!!! Your water filter would greatly hinder both of those from happening


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## Soapdish (Jan 18, 2010)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Jake
> 
> That rig looks good ,nice job , but they have been around a long time for the 5 gal bucket
> 
> ...


Bobj3, the link you provided only shows some sort of cyclone separator, not a water filter, different link maybe? With this setup, the the dirt and dust is carried with the suction through the water, and as a consequence stays in the water.


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## Noob (Apr 18, 2009)

So the shop vac is connected to the short hose and the hose that is sucking up the whatever is connected to the long hose that is submerged under water?


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Jake

Yep, saw the long hose going in the bucket, the wet and dry vac.work the same way  dirt and water go in and mix in the can but in the separator the dust goes to the vac. can or to say most of it but the hvy. stuff like chips and water are in the separator..

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Soapdish said:


> Bobj3, the link you provided only shows some sort of cyclone separator, not a water filter, different link maybe? With this setup, the the dirt and dust is carried with the suction through the water, and as a consequence stays in the water.


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## Soapdish (Jan 18, 2010)

This thing bubbles like crazy (as you can imagine) and that's the reason there is some water carry over. I need to sit down a figure out an elbow or something that will not allow any bubbles to get sucked up. During sheet rock dust removal it doesn't take long for the water to become mud, but, there is no dust escaping from the exhaust of the shop vac. I'll post up a better pic tomorrow that shows the water level better, maybe ill use some clean water lol.


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## Bob N (Oct 12, 2004)

hmmmm.... my wife has one of those Rainbows, I wonder if she would miss it if I took it out to the shop :jester::sarcastic:


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## Soapdish (Jan 18, 2010)

Yes...she would. I used ours once on some drywall dust where I had been doing some work in a closet. Mine was not happy.


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## CanuckGal (Nov 26, 2008)

Maybe if you had a U shaped end on the line running to the vac it wouldn't pick up the water? Or at least a lot less.


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

Bob N said:


> hmmmm.... my wife has one of those Rainbows, I wonder if she would miss it if I took it out to the shop :jester::sarcastic:


I know mine would. We're on our second Rainbow. First one lasted 30 years.

I had actually tried using the first one to clean up drywall dust many years ago. Surprisingly, it didn't do as well as I thought it would. Probably tried to clean up too much of it without emptying the machine.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Jake your idea certainly has merit and is worth developing, in the meantime this Triton is what I use very successfully.


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## Soapdish (Jan 18, 2010)

Canuckgal, that kinda along the lines I was thinking, might just work. I need to find an elbow.

Harry that thing looks cool!. The filter is a good idea.


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

harrysin said:


> Jake your idea certainly has merit and is worth developing, in the meantime this Triton is what I use very successfully.


I use the same one. I wonder how they would work with a longer outfeed and water? I see my local supermarket, Lidl, has metal ones at the moment, suggesting they can be used for cleaning chimneys in conjunction with a vacuum cleaner, for Eur20 !

Cheers

Peter


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## gav (Oct 12, 2009)

I've seen those chimney vacs as well Peter and had thought they would be great for dust collection connected to any normal vacuum of decent wattage.
If the metal tin is water tight, it would work for the water filter idea, but you'd have to extend the input tube further to the bottom.


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## bac0n (Sep 8, 2021)

Soapdish said:


> While this is not a new idea, many of you may have never seen anything like this. Thoughs of you who have or have seen the Rainbow vacuum knows that it uses water as the filter. While building our house and tired of cleaning/buying filters for my shop vac, I decided that I would figure out a way to make a water filter for it. My set-up uses the smaller shop vac and hose, a 5 gal bucket with a lid (the lid I use has a rubber seal in it), and some assorted pieces of shop vac hoses accessories. Drill 2 holes in the top of the lid just big enough for the hose connector to pop in. Then you will need to connect a long tube that will extend down into the bucket (about 2” from the bottom).The other tube will only extend down a few inches. Hook one hose to the shop vac and then to the SHORT tube. Hook up your other hose to the LONG tube…this will be the end you use.Now put enough water in the bucket to cover the end of the long tube by a few inches. The vac will pull a suction through the water, and all of the dust and dirt will be trapped in the water. I don’t have a whole shop vacuum system, and I hate paying $12 dollars for the pleated filters..This system works awesome. You will hear lots of bubbling and gurgling while it is running, and there will be some water carry over into the shop vac (so only use the foam sleeve). If you use this for Sheetrock dust cleanup (this is the best damn thing in the world for this BTW) you will need to clean the water out fairly frequently. For sawdust removal every few days (depending on how much you use it). Mine is not fancy or pretty, but it works fantastic. One of these days I will make a better one, fixing the water carry over issue, and I’ll put it on some sort of dolly so it can roll with the Vac. Check out the pictures. I hope this helps some one.
> 
> Oh, BTW, about 6 months after I made this thing, I saw something similar in the Sheetrock section at HD. It was only there for a short time, and I don’t think they sell it anymore, so much for me making any money off this idea.


interesting concept. Don't forget to swap that water out constantly or put some disinfectant / bit of bleach in it to stop it from growing mold. I thought about a similar setup, but decided against it.


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Welcome to the forum @bac0n 

For your info this thread dates back to 2010. You may or may not receive a reply to you post. Enjoy the forum.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Welcome to the forum.


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