# Shop Notes Vac Cart



## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

This cart has likely appeared in some of my other uploads but I don't believe I mentioned it in the past.

I put this together some time ago from material I had in the shop and was using it with a Dirt Hawg vac - 12 gallon, 5 HP peak (Costco sold these a number of years ago - they may have been made by Emerson, not sure) and a Thein baffle I had made. Well the baffle was ok, but I wasn't real happy with it, and the 5 gallon pail kept tipping over on me, blah blah blah.

So I was in Florida for 5 weeks and naturally, took advantage of some shopping. Picked up a Dust Deputy at an Ace hardware (the price in Canada is unbelievably high)

When I got back decided to get a new shop vacuum - Ridgid WD1450: 14 gallon, 6 HP peak - can't believe how quiet it is compared to my Dirt Hawg, which sounded like a jet engine revving up. I'll either put the Dirt Hawg in the garage or give it to my son-in-law.

I've got a Delta dust collector that stays connected to my table saw, so the vac will get attached to various other tools as the need arises.

Fixed up the cart to add a hinged cover that folds over the outlet on the Dust Deputy and keeps it from tipping. I've been cleaning up the shop and dumped some sawdust on the floor to test out the Dust Deputy. There isn't a speck of dirt in the bottom of the vac. Oh, and the color of the Ridgid nicely matches my pail that I got at Home Depot. :grin:

The cart isn't pretty, but after a couple of beers, it looks great. :wink:

thanks for looking


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

Take the casters off the vac and get rid of the overhang. Less snagging on anything that way. Then you can either put a weight inside (since it doesn't get anything in it) or run a couple lag screws thru the bottom to keep it on the cart, or run a lip around it. Those Dust Deputys are neat aren't they?? Menards had them for $74 on sale. Just remember to empty the bucket or the vac will fill up.

Your shop's too neat. Go work on something and mess it up!!!!


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

John - there are no casters on the cart - those are the holders - left them on intentionally as the two against the upright surround it nicely. The cart was built for the old Dirt Hawg so there was a recess where the base fit perfectly (but I ain't redoing the cart - eventually I'll just set it up in a corner as I have lots of hose). Got the Dust Deputy from Ace - the store ordered it in for me, for $59. Oh, and I just cleaned the shop (somewhat) - you're seeing the clean end where my workbench sits. Had to move that around so I could get the Bosch 4100 in place, until I build a stand for it and move my Beaver TS off to the side. I'll set that up with a dado set. The other end of the shop has a ton of cutoffs from a number of projects, including a bunch of cutting boards I made for Christmas and another bench, a couple of drill presses, an out feed table and my Bosch 12" slider on another table and some larger pieces of ply. Yea, I've got a bunch of stands to build. Just may have time now that southern Ontario is getting a snow storm. A week ago I was in 75-80 heat in Ft. Walton Beach, FL and came back to this. Not nice, Mother Nature. I've got to redo my shop, but it's only been 14 years, so there's no hurry.


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

I was saying take the black caster holders off the vac. One screw on the bottom and they pop off with a little help. Just saves a little on the width.

I got the whole Dust Deputy setup including their gaskets, hardware, hose adaptors, and "official" overpriced white buckets with logos. I'm not color coordinated.


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## hawkeye10 (Jul 28, 2015)

vchiarelli said:


> This cart has likely appeared in some of my other uploads but I don't believe I mentioned it in the past.
> 
> I put this together some time ago from material I had in the shop and was using it with a Dirt Hawg vac - 12 gallon, 5 HP peak (Costco sold these a number of years ago - they may have been made by Emerson, not sure) and a Thein baffle I had made. Well the baffle was ok, but I wasn't real happy with it, and the 5 gallon pail kept tipping over on me, blah blah blah.
> 
> ...


I have the same vac and DD set up but my cart looks worse than yours. I am almost finished drinking a six pack of tall boys and both carts are starting to look better. > I took my feet off as they will just knock off with a dead blow hammer and shot three screws through the bottom of the shop vac. 

Man I just looked and your cart is looking real good but mine still looks like crap. Oh well I get another six pack. :laugh2:


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

@honesttjohn - sorry John, I thought you meant the actual casters. I may remove the holders, then put them away some place I'll eventually forget about. I might have got the entire "official" package, but SWMBO and I were traveling back from Florida after 5 weeks and we probably couldn't get another toothbrush in the car - 2 sets of golf clubs and all her clothes :laugh2:, full camera gear (mine) among other things. Oh, and I made a few trips to Harbor Freight for some cheap clamps while I was there. Last year we took my 5 series Beamer and I brought back a Bosch 1617EVSPK and other accessories - this year it was her new Honda Accord
@hawkeye10 - Don - sorry to hear about your feet - did you remove the vac's feet as well? Like the old Northern Pike's song goes: "she ain't pretty, she just looks that way"


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## bryansong (Mar 4, 2015)

vchiarelli said:


> This cart has likely appeared in some of my other uploads but I don't believe I mentioned it in the past.
> 
> 
> Vince, I think this is outstand and is a good example of a direction for me to go when I rebuild my vac cart. I build my vac inside an insulated box because I hate the noise and wanted to see how much I could quiet the sound. Getting an idea for this off YouTube I build this. It does work great as a vacuum and cyclone and significantly quiets the sound so I'm happy with that but it's too big, too tall and just too much. I find that when I need to use it I already have on my hearing protection so I don't think I'll keep the sound deadening box.
> ...


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

Bryan - I looked at a few places that sold actual Shop Vacs as comparison, and was pleasantly surprised that the BORG had that unit/model reduced "new lower price" to $129 Canadian. And it comes with a full lifetime warranty - bonus. Besides, I think the BORG will be around for a long time.


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## bryansong (Mar 4, 2015)

vchiarelli said:


> Bryan - I looked at a few places that sold actual Shop Vacs as comparison, and was pleasantly surprised that the BORG had that unit/model reduced "new lower price" to $129 Canadian. And it comes with a full lifetime warranty - bonus. Besides, I think the BORG will be around for a long time.



What's the BORG? Is that Home Depot because I know Ridgid is their house brand.


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

BORG - Big Orange as opposed to Big Blue (not IBM, but Lowes)


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

vchiarelli;
The cart isn't pretty said:


> Just what I have been looking for, need one to hook up to the palm sander and router.
> Was given one of those
> $15.00 off shore Dust deputys and was mulling over putting it on a cart.
> Herb


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## woodworker47 (Dec 19, 2008)

Vince.

Here is a photo of cart I made from the same plans. My only problem with the cart is that the casters tend to make the cart tip when they come in contact with something on the floor. I only use it to clean up small piles on the floor. My whole shop vacuum does most of the work. 

Frank


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

Herb Stoops said:


> Just what I have been looking for, need one to hook up to the palm sander and router.
> Was given one of those
> $15.00 off shore Dust deputys and was mulling over putting it on a cart.
> Herb


I see the price went up to $24.00, on Ebay, I think this one was from ababababadadadababa. com


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

Herb Stoops said:


> Just what I have been looking for, need one to hook up to the palm sander and router.
> Was given one of those
> $15.00 off shore Dust deputys and was mulling over putting it on a cart.
> Herb


been using my ROS without much dust control.. yeah, yeah... anyhoooooooooo

few months back, I gave an ole 5 gal shinny Craftsman vac a go with the ROS...I've been kicking myself in the arse ever since for not having done this YEARS ago... I never realized just how much fines that thing was putting into the air/shop.... GO FOR IT!!


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

@Stoneface - Frank, the biggest pain I found was the vac cord itself. I threw a screw hook into one of the joists near the middle of the shop and drape the cord over that to keep it out of the way. But again, I've got a fairly long hose going to the DD inlet. I've taken the 2 1/2" hose from the Dirt Hawg and coupled it to a 1 1/4" hose from an old small shop vac I had in the garage so I've got quite a bit of hose to work with.

Herb: Does that knockoff work well? I thought the website you quoted was yabadabadoo.com :grin:


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

TwoSkies57 said:


> been using my ROS without much dust control.. yeah, yeah... anyhoooooooooo
> 
> few months back, I gave an ole 5 gal shinny Craftsman vac a go with the ROS...I've *been kicking myself in the arse* ever since for not having done this YEARS ago... I never realized just how much fines that thing was putting into the air/shop.... GO FOR IT!!


Bill - you ever live on the east coast of Canada - Maritimes? You don't hear the term "arse" much anywhere else


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## Herb Stoops (Aug 28, 2012)

vchiarelli said:


> @Stoneface - Frank, the biggest pain I found was the vac cord itself. I threw a screw hook into one of the joists near the middle of the shop and drape the cord over that to keep it out of the way. But again, I've got a fairly long hose going to the DD inlet. I've taken the 2 1/2" hose from the Dirt Hawg and coupled it to a 1 1/4" hose from an old small shop vac I had in the garage so I've got quite a bit of hose to work with.
> 
> Herb: Does that knockoff work well? I thought the website you quoted was yabadabadoo.com :grin:


Yeah, something like that,direct importer is my guess.
Dont know as I need to make a cart and get it hooked up, I don' like cleaning the filter on the vac a real pita. Thye person who gave it to me ordered 2 and set one up like yours and said nothing gets to the vac everything ends up in the bucket, maybe the fine dust you can't see gets to the filter in the vac, but if you can't see it it must not be there,eh?
Herb


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## tomp913 (Mar 7, 2014)

TwoSkies57 said:


> been using my ROS without much dust control.. yeah, yeah... anyhoooooooooo
> 
> few months back, I gave an ole 5 gal shinny Craftsman vac a go with the ROS...I've been kicking myself in the arse ever since for not having done this YEARS ago... I never realized just how much fines that thing was putting into the air/shop.... GO FOR IT!!


Did the same - found that the hose end off the vac was a perfect fit to the nozzle on the ROS after the canister was removed. It's amazing how efficient that set-up is, removing almost all of the dust generated during sanding.


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## TwoSkies57 (Feb 23, 2009)

vchiarelli said:


> Bill - you ever live on the east coast of Canada - Maritimes? You don't hear the term "arse" much anywhere else



LOL.. naaaaaaaa.. not sure when I started using that... maybe in a past life?????


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## TenGees (Sep 12, 2012)

I'd like to set up my ShopVac with a Dust Deputy like that, Vince. Where can I find a yellow bucket though?


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## woodknots (Mar 7, 2012)

TenGees said:


> I'd like to set up my ShopVac with a Dust Deputy like that, Vince. Where can I find a yellow bucket though?


Here you go Paul


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## Nickp (Dec 4, 2012)

vchiarelli said:


> The cart isn't pretty, but after a couple of beers, it looks great. :wink:



I certainly wouldn't throw it out of my shop...  she's a beauty...

Nice touch with the hinged top to keep the dust deputy from tipping...


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## honesttjohn (Feb 17, 2015)

You also screw a bucket to the cart and then put a second bucket with the DD attached, to catch the dust. Then just take it out and mt it when needed.


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## Knothead47 (Feb 10, 2010)

Similar to my setup.


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