Super Simple / Inexpensive Baffle setup

[terrysessoms]

First post; first, thanks for the great forum and sharing of great DIY knowledge.

What led me here was some google picture searching to get ideas on what folks have done for debris collectors. I hope you find my post informative or inspirational somehow. I had at my disposal a central vac which came with the house, never used or installed, and figured it would make for a decent small-shop vacuum. It has a built-in debris collector with some sort of baffle.

Though I don't do nearly as much wood work as most folks here, I am a basic fixer-upper/DIY guy. I do car work, basic wood work, metal work, etc, but was tired of lugging the shopvac around. So I decided to make a debris collector to go along with the garage vac.

Intention:

I needed to keep it as cheap as possible, and wanted to use as much on-hand material as possible. What I ended up with was using a 5 gallon Lowes "food grade" bucket (the ones which come with the rubber seal in the lid), since I have 10 of them on hand. I also used some spare plywood, and piped the system using 1.5" ABS pipe, as it is super cheap. All I had to purchase was some of the ABS pipe and the PVC couplers. This is about as cheaply/simply as you can get the project done.

Over the past month the project has expanded. I have 3-4 vacuum ports/overhead hoses suspended via bungee (pull them down to use them, and they go back by themselves), and I tossed together a simple wireless fob system, so it can be turned on/off from any of the drop ports or a switch on the workbench.

Cost:

The buckets are $5 at lowes, the 1/4" plywood for the baffle was $5, and the pvc couplers were $5/ea. So if I didn't have this stuff on hand already, it would've cost me $20 for the baffle. Cheaper than the store-bought crappy systems.

The whole month-long project, including all of the expansion I've done, wireless switching, hose reel, etc, I have maybe $100 invested, the majority of which is vacuum hose I got on ebay (1.5" pool vacuum hose). Already had the bucket materials and wood on hand.

Bucket/baffle:

The overall design is simple. The bucket sits below the vacuum. The bucket outlet runs up from the center of the lid, into the vacuum. It sits below the lid, about 1.5" from the baffle. The inlet is a side-inlet. I didn't cut the pipe at an angle, instead facing the pipe head-on with the baffle "skid" zone. I highlighted the exposed inlet pipe in pink in the photo. I used some screws and silicone to hold/seal it (the duct tape is cosmetic, to prevent the silcone from being messed up while drying).

The baffle isn't fixed to the lid like most designs, instead is fixed to the wall of the bucket. Much easier in my mind. I went with a simple thien-style baffle, as you will see. Though not shown in this early photo, I added PVC slip couplers to the inlet and outlet, to make it a snap to take the bucket lid off and dump material.

The lid has no sealing issues whatsoever, and I do not "lock" it in place. Vacuum alone does the job. The ABS piping isn't glued together, merely pushed; vacuum again does its job.

Results:

First, I ran the system without the baffle (using only the bucket), sucking up thick particles and objects, as well as super-fine "sanding" byproduct dust. With just the bucket, it kept about 90% of all material from reaching the vacuum. What made it to the vacuum was mostly just the sanding byproduct, and a couple of candy wrappers and a bottle cap. Not bad.

Next, I put my simple baffle in, and it kept 99% of the same particles out of the vacuum. After filling the bucket more than halfway up, the only debris which made it to the vacuum's debris collector, was a teaspoon or two of the sanding byproduct.

I've been using it for a month now, and it's great. Hardly anything other than molecular-size stuff makes it to the vacuum's debris collector, and nothing ever makes it out of the vacuum's exhaust port. I want to port the exhaust outside next, right now it pours into a filtration catch thingy.

Pictures:

The pictures show the vacuum/bucket, a workbench-debris-catcher, and a recently-made vacuum hose reel. The vacuum/bucket photo show the general orientation, and the pink lines are where I put the PVC couplers. Another photo shows the baffle in the bucket.

The triangular debris catcher is great. The workbench I built has an area on the rear which is open, allowing any debris on the workbench to go into the mouth of this (or be swept into it, etc). I can attach a hose to it as well (hose is suspended above the bench via bungee cords). This is great for quick vacuum cleanup, or attaching it to power tools like sanders/routers. Being able to sweep crap into the catcher and turning the vacuum on, makes for easy cleanup. A simple piece of chicken-wire grate prevents you from dropping tools or large pieces.

Recently added was a simple hose reel I built from scrap wood. It accomodates 100' of 1.5" hose, I have about 70' on it right now. Easily reaches into the street, and the vacuum is surprisingly functional, cleans out a car like a champ. I use a modified PVC coupler as a 'hose swivel', having packed the seal faces with grease, I tightened it down just enough to spin, and then locked it in place with a screw.

Hope someone finds this post worthwhile.

[NYwoodworker]

This was a huge help.  How much woodworking do you do and how does it relate to how fast the 5 gallon bucket fills up?  Also I would love to see pics of the hoses hung by the bungie cords.