Like many hobby woodworkers my wood shop doubles up as the garage which, limiting the amount of permanent ‘installation’ for equipment. This includes dust collection, and for many years I have been working with a single generic workshop vacuum moved between each source machine’s dust port.
Over many years the number of tools I own has multiplied and most of them seem to have uniquely sized dust ports. Recently I reached a point where I had enough and decided to tame this Vacuum Hose Hell (VHH) of adapters and connectors that made it all work and decided to do something about it.
Workshop Vacuum Hoses
Workshop vacuum hoses come in various types and sizes to accommodate different cleaning tasks and equipment. The choice of workshop vacuum hose depends on the specific cleaning tasks you need to perform, the equipment you’re using, and the conditions of your workspace.
The size of a workshop vacuum hose is typically specified in terms of its diameter and length.
The diameter is the important specification in taming my VHH and refers to the internal measurement of the hose opening. This determines the amount of airflow and debris that the hose can handle. The most common shop vac hose diameters are 1.25″ (32 mm), 1.5″ (38 mm), 1.75″ (44 mm) and 2.5″ (64 mm).
- A smaller diameter hose (32 mm), works better with smaller handheld power tools with dust ports, such as sanders, jig saws, and even circular saws. The small diameter also makes the hose lighter, which makes handling the tools easier.
- A medium diameter hose (38 mm, 44 mm) is a good compromise for cleanup tasks and tools, like routers) that produce lots of chips and dust.
- A larger diameter hose (64 mm) is good for general cleanup tasks and for connecting to larger tools with similarly sized dust ports as you don’t want to use a step-down adapter if at all possible.
Standardization
The solution to my VHH seems to split into two parts – the connector at the end of the shop vac hose and connectors to each of the tools.
As I have now mostly converted my manual electric tools to DeWalt (DW) brand and most of them come with a DW standard dust port, this was my starting point for standardizing the vacuum hose connections. If I could find a solution for the shop vac connector, most of the tool connections would be ‘solved’ by default.
Shop Vac Connection
Fortunately, DW has a solution for the end of the hose attached to the shop vac – the DWV9000 accessory, also known as the Airlock Dust Connection System Main Connector. It is used to connect a variety of DW dust extractors or vacuums to compatible (ie, DW brand) power tools.
The hose connector solves a number of my problems:
- It screws directly to 32 mm hose, replacing the current ‘plug’ end of the hose. As it screws to the hose, it could be moved to a different shop vac when a changeover is necessary.
- It has a twist lock action to positively plug it onto my tools which makes it easy to share the shop vac between tools.
- It allows the hose to swivel 360° to prevent it becoming twisted during use – important as you move around electric hand tools!
Thingiverse also has a solution that allows you to print an Airlock adapter for one-handed operation (see the design here) for tools that support this new DW standard. I printed one to test it on my DW battery powered orbital sander and it works well. Highly recommended if you have access to a 3D printer.
Airlock Plug Connection
To connect the remaining non-DeWalt tools, I now needed to design and 3D print converters between the tool dust ports and the Airlock socket on the vacuum hose.
One side of each connector was clearly going to be an Airlock plug, so I spent some time documenting, from existing DW tools, and perfecting the 3D prints for this side of each connector. For the record, the profile dimensions that work well for are detailed in the figure below.
Once this was done, it was time to work on the custom side for each converter.
Custom Equipment Connections
All the models and 3D print files for the items below are available from my Thingiverse account.
35mm Plug
The first converter to get designed was a generic 35 mm plug. This gives me a straight connector that could be used on tools with a 35 mm duct sockets.
Flexible Hose Connector
Another generic converter is to connect a 35 mm hose to the Airlock socket. This connector allows the connector to be screwed onto the end of a hose. The converter is useful when the dust port has a similar hose screw connection, like my Triton TRA001 router.
AEG Jigsaw (AEG STEP100X)
My mains powered AEG jigsaw needed a non-standard size with a relatively short plug end to mate with the special plastic spout used to collect dust at the saw blade.
Bosch Sander (PEX 400 AE)
This random orbital sander has a relatively small dust port that allows a Bosch supplied dust bag to be attached. The port includes an O-ring seal but is located very low down on the machine.
The adapter therefore needed a step on the end to accommodate the O-ring and is offset to allow the DW hose adapter to lock on without scraping the surface being sanded.
Belt & Disc Sander
I have a small belt/disc sander that comes with generic 45 mm dust ports. In this case I designed a custom socket to fit over the dust port to maximize the diameter of the hose at the collection point.
Drill Press
For my drill press I have a short length of expandable washing machine hose that can be clamped to the drill press table and positioned to collect drilling dust/chips at the source. As this hose is intended for plumbing connections, the dimensions do not resemble anything compatible with a shop vac hose.
For this connection hose I made a custom adapter and, while I was on a 3D printing roll, a nozzle to make the dust collection end more efficient.
Hose Clip
For good measure I also designed yet another version of a clip to attach the tool’s power cable to the hose connection. This keeps the connections to the power tool bundled together and makes moving it around easier.
I have had the opportunity to use this new setup a number of times since it was implemented. The moving the shop vac around is now simple and the connections are a pleasure to use. I am also finding that I and now a lot less ‘lazy’ about moving the vacuum hose between machines, which also results in less uncaptured dust around the workshop.
Arduino++ 