Shop Vac

[Dr_Drum]

macman - no it doesn't have a filter type bag. It has a round, blue cloth that gets secured by a plastic ring and a foam sleeve (for wet pickup?). The round cloth is obviously not hepa or used for dust/fine particles. I'd love to see pics of how it works for you if you have the time - thanks!

Sounds like you have the same vacuum I have (came with the blue filter cloth, foam and plastic ring). Here is a picture inside mine with the drywall bag installed.
Mike -

 

[rphurley]

my shop vac is a piece of junk so I bought a 10ft extension hose and put the vacuum outside the window!

Clever bastard! LOL!

 

[woodsman23]

my shop vac is a piece of junk so I bought a 10ft extension hose and put the vacuum outside the window!

I have always done the cleaning this way. Why take a chance on a leak or anything else happening. I simply put on a 8' extension and don't ever have to worry about it. I also am trying a different approch by using my leaf vac wih the ext hose attached to it. I have only tried it one time and have not attempted to clean the stove as of yet. But man that thing can suck!!, I will try it and report back soon. I am making a stand to hold up the leaf blower while cleaning. I did suck up some sawdust in my little shop and it was gone baby gone....

 

[tjnamtiw]

Oh, sorry, guess I didn't say what was on the label. It's a Lovelessash Cheetah II MU305.

You lucky b#$%^^rd! I am NEVER that lucky :coolgrin:

 

[yknotcarpentry]

I recently went out and bought a cheap 1 gal shop vac, just using the standard filter and no problems whats so ever. Before that I was lugging in my huge rigid vac that convert to a leaf blower (haven't tried that trick yet) Don't tell my wife but a few times when I was lazy I used the Dyson houshold vac. (I swear that thing has more power than any of my shop vacs, comes in a close second to my 1hp two stage dust collection system in the shop...Maybe I should try hooking that up to the chimney???

 

[imacman]

Here's some pics of what I do to make my little Husky Vac able to use Rigid drywall bags. There are none actually made for it, but last winter a forum member told me about the ones I mentioned in a previous post that can be cut and made to fit mine.

Basically, I measured the length of the original bag, and cut the ends off the new drywall bag the same length. That give 2 bags.

Then, I carefully peeled the cardboard center suction hole off, and then cut the remaining section in half. All I do then is to double fold one end over and glue with either hot glue, or elmers, and that gives me 2 more bags....4 bags from 1.

So, in a drywall bag package that normally holds 4 bags, I end-up with 16 bags for my little vac.
Here's some pics .....I screwed-up, so their in reverse order from how i described it.

 

[jtakeman]

Here's some pics of what I do to make my little Husky Vac able to use Rigid drywall bags. There are none actually made for it, but last winter a forum member told me about the ones I mentioned in a previous post that can be cut and made to fit mine.

Basically, I measured the length of the original bag, and cut the ends off the new drywall bag the same length. That give 2 bags.

Then, I carefully peeled the cardboard center suction hole off, and then cut the remaining section in half. All I do then is to double fold one end over and glue with either hot glue, or elmers, and that gives me 2 more bags....4 bags from 1.

So, in a drywall bag package that normally holds 4 bags, I end-up with 16 bags for my little vac.
Here's some pics .....I screwed-up, so their in reverse order from how i described it.

That's very frugal, macman. Frugal is just another word for cheap, But with a little ingenuity added! :lol:

 

[HEMI]

Here's some pics of what I do to make my little Husky Vac able to use Rigid drywall bags. There are none actually made for it, but last winter a forum member told me about the ones I mentioned in a previous post that can be cut and made to fit mine.

Basically, I measured the length of the original bag, and cut the ends off the new drywall bag the same length. That give 2 bags.

Then, I carefully peeled the cardboard center suction hole off, and then cut the remaining section in half. All I do then is to double fold one end over and glue with either hot glue, or elmers, and that gives me 2 more bags....4 bags from 1.

So, in a drywall bag package that normally holds 4 bags, I end-up with 16 bags for my little vac.
Here's some pics .....I screwed-up, so their in reverse order from how i described it.

hey mac, i have the same vac, whats the difference from the drywall bags you use and the blue one that comes with it....is it that the bag your using not letting fine dust through and the one that comes with it does? because from what i see they both go on the same way....if it works that good i may as well do the same thing.

 

[imacman]

.hey mac, i have the same vac, whats the difference from the drywall bags you use and the blue one that comes with it....is it that the bag your using not letting fine dust through and the one that comes with it does? because from what i see they both go on the same way....if it works that good i may as well do the same thing.

Yep Hemi, the blue ones that come w/ it aren't drywall bags, and will let fine dust through.

Get the bags at HD. Rigid # VF3501 $12 + tax for 4, but after cutting you end up w/ 16, so they really end up costing about 80 cents a piece.

Yes Jay, cheap, frugal...I've been known to squeeze a nickel pretty hard at times. :lol: But since I they don't make a regular drywall bag for this little vac, I might as well get as much out of them as possible.

 

[Excell]

Just cleaned the pipe with my Shop Vac. Went to a local stove dealer to look for an ash vac however it was a bit more than I had the cash to spend right now. From speaking with the guy there he recommended I try a shop vac. Went home and tried it and it worked fine. I just gotta make sure the stove is cold. Anyone else using a shop vac to clean their pellet stove?

I use one with a metal canister ,so far I have only caught the bag on fire once . That should be enough that I remember to make sure it is cold from now on .
at least with the metal tank you can just cary it outside and dump it ,tank doesn't catch on fire .

 

[teetah222]

Just bought a little 2.5 gal shop vac from Lowes for only $20! Had been $39. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that price. I haven't actually tried it yet, but for the price who can kick if it really doesn't work that well? Since I used my stove last night and didn't yet have this little vac I just used my household vac to clean the ash up this morning. (I had not run it all night and it was definitely cold.) Since I have a removable ash pan it's not a lot of ash the vacuum really has to deal with once I knock everything into the pan and pull it out.

 

[staplebox]

I use a small POS shop vac with no special bags and it works fine once per week, cold. I store it in the garage.

My only special attachment is about 3 feet of 5/16 plastic hose (left over from the fridge/tap/keg project) with foam and electrical tape wrapped around one end to stick in the vac hose. It's smaller and lets me get the tight spots.

Don't tell my wife, but today I accidentally stuck the hose in the 'blow' instead of the 'suck' side of the vac for about 2 seconds. I think I cleaned it all up.

 

[kbjelka]

Just bought a little 2.5 gal shop vac from Lowes for only $20! Had been $39. Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that price. I haven't actually tried it yet, but for the price who can kick if it really doesn't work that well? Since I used my stove last night and didn't yet have this little vac I just used my household vac to clean the ash up this morning. (I had not run it all night and it was definitely cold.) Since I have a removable ash pan it's not a lot of ash the vacuum really has to deal with once I knock everything into the pan and pull it out.

Pick up a small galvanized garbage can with a lid and dump your ash directly into it. I try to vacuum as little ash as possible even though I have a cricket ash vac. Why spend money on bags when most of the ash can be dumped. I use a small paintbrush to sweep anything I can into the ash pan prior to vacuuming. I also keep the can outside just in-case I dumped any hot embers. Just a good habit carried over from my wood burning days.

 

[teetah222]

Used it this morning and it works just fine! Who needs an "ash vac" for $250? And I'm using a paintbrush to sweep out the ash too. That was part of the cleaning directions from Englander.

 

[countk]

Any shop vac 2.5 gal. or better with a hepa filter works great, IMO. The hepa filter is great, just clean it a couple time a burning season and you're all set.