Cleaning machines and workshop

This is not something most worry about - unless like me you are subject to endless grief should swarf find its way onto the living room carpet!

However, another complication is the use of flood coolant and the resultant pile of soggy swarf, and how to dispose of it. I had reverted to the jam-jar of cutting fluid and paintbrush method which wasn't too difficult to clean up with an ordinary domestic vacuum cleaner, albeit the small capacity bags needed frequent changing (at no little cost), but having reinstated my flood coolant on the mill the small domestic cleaner simply can't cut it any more.

So today I took delivery of a larger wet and dry vacuum cleaner which I thought was pretty good value at around £100 ( **LINK** ) and it seems to do the job nicely. No more worry about a dust bag getting soggy or swarf being sucked into the motor, this thing is designed for sucking up wet stuff. Much more powerful at sucking swarf out of crevices too - provided you don't let it suck up stray drills and taps etc., at the same time. The 30Ltr capacity is also a bonus. I wish I had it a couple days ago when I accidentally released a half gallon of coolant onto the workshop floor!

Chris

Beware of leaving the inside damp making the filter soggy then sucking up regular dust or worst plaster. Ideally keep it dry inside. The 'wet and dry' is the marketing dream. Try to take off the filter regularly and reverse blow it with the airline (outside of course).

I have got a similar model and it works very well considering the amount of oily filth that gets sucked into it. Only one problem has arisen and that is the corrugations on the vacuum tube can trap oily muck and swarf and on occasions gets partially blocked. Vigorous bending and twisting (the tube, not me) whilst the motor is running usually clears it but the time is fast approaching when I shall need a new tube. Who sells them?

Mick

You can make a system using an ordenary vacuum, And a 12gallon drum, make a wooden top for the drum with two holes, one takes the hose from the vacuum cleaner, the other is for another hose. On the under side of the lidput a vertical partion that will hang down 6" or 8" in the drumand make up some sort of filter over the suction hole, anything that gets through that filter will be caught in the cleaners own bag, but 99% of the workshop rubbish will end up in the drum. Secure the lid with say 1/4" / 6 mm bolts fixed to the drum, with wing nuts to hold it together, 2 bolts seems enough. Ian S C

Bazyle,

I to have a "wet and dry" cleaner, this time by VAX. The "wet" part refers to the ability by swopping some parts for the cleaner to be used for jobs such as shampooing a carpet, sucking water out of a drain, sucking up spills. The "dry" part refers to its main ability as a dry(ish) dirt remover. I say "dry(ish)" because within reason it will suck up damp stuff such as swarf wet from whatever cutting lubricant I have been used. Now ok, in this mode it does cause a stain on the cotton dust collector bag.

As such, it does work remarkably well in both "wet" and "dry" modes. Hence certainly in my case, this not a marketing dream.

Usual disclaimer as a very satisfied user of a Vax Power 4000 cleaner bought around 20 years ago, and which has been used mainly in the workshop, but to clean carpets, to suck up water during & after a flood, to empty an external stop cock hole of water, and to suck the water of some new concrete foundations prior to building on them.

As regards the comment about the p[ipe getting blocked, in my case this is entirely due to me using a pattern part rather than an original after I broke the original. Prior to that, I never had a blockage.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

Edited By Peter G. Shaw on 27/06/2013 15:24:42

Chris;

How does the suds work in the house? Any smell? I've got my shop in my house, and that's both good and bad.

I've changed liquid for air - and the jury is still out. I'm using air jets to cool my CNC milling machine tooling, and I think it works ok. It also blows away the swarf. It's noisy, though!

My shopvac is used for cleaning up the shavings; long coils, of course, I pick up by other means, as they'll plug the vacuum hose quickly.

Another JohnS - http://cnc-for-model-engineers.blogspot.com has a little bit on my air cooling of the KX1 mill that I have.

No smell from the suds I use, some are better than others though (low odour should be on the container) and it should also have an inhibitor to stop fungal growths. I find suds gives a easier cutting and better finish, cooling isn't really a problem for me.

Chris

I have an Earlex (branded as Wickes) wet'n'dry vac bought 2002 when we moved in to help with major DIY and still going strong. The house has got through several cleaners including two Dysons in the same period.

Neil

I to have an Earlex wet'n'dry vac had it quite a few years and has been mercifully abused in that time but still going without complaint!

Mark P.

I've had two Earlax wet & dry as I'm a plumber its the best bit of kit I have, you do not want to know what goes through my hovers even I try to forget, in the workshop I have a cheap £40 wet & dry hover only ever use the sponge filter and cable tie it to the hover works great, the first Earlax only bit the dust because of the switch, the workshop hover gets everything through it including a lot of coolant and some cutting oil, when its a third full or so it's tipped in to a builders bucket through cloth (curtain) left to drain then tipped back on the machine, the coolant that goes through tends to keep the hose clean.

Alan.

I have a Vax

I picked it up at a trash N Treasure market for a few dollars..... It works very well. Not sure how old it is? it is Yellow plastic with a black plastic bin. more than 10 years I guess. It is always beside the lathe, I use it every day.

If you do use a Wet N Dry Vac they can get quite stinky if you do not empty the cutting fluid and other muck out after use.

Regards
John

I dimly recall having a Vax at some point years ago, my only memory of it was it sounded like a Jumbo Jet starting up! One thing about the Ryobi - it is reasonbly quiet in operation. For the stinky thing, there are a variety of chmicals you can add to kill the smell.

Chris

Yes Chris the Vax is powerful it will empty a bucket of water in a few seconds. not bad for a small machine.

My VAX is 1200W, and like John, once it gets going on water it is really fast. In carpet cleaning mode, under full power if can be almost impossible to push the cleaning head over the wet carpet. I assume this why it has a variable speed control.

Noise-wise, it is no more noisy than the household 2000W Hoover cleaner, and may be less noisy, but suction wise it's definitely better.

The machine is actually supposed to be used with disposable paper bags, but the cotton bag is an alternative and considerably cheaper as it is washable. It isn't as good as the paper bags in that some fine dust does get through, but for what I use it for, so what?

Smells? Haven't noticed any - I assume they get lost in all the other lovely workshop smells.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

Aldi have got one out this Thursday for £60 and a 3 year warranty

**LINK**

The link goes to Lidl, rather than Aldi. Looks a good machine, though sadly a bit big for my limited space.

Andy

D'oh !!!!!!

Yeah the email was from Lidl. Bit of brain fade there

The Lidl offering is probably good quality (Aldi/Lidl stuff usually is) although it is not as powerful as the Ryobi (vacuum is 190mbar as opposed to 235mbar on the Ryobi), and the hose looks to be smaller diameter. Still, worth considering at the price.

Chris

Just a thought:

Has anyone tried centrifuging their swarf to separate the cutting fluid (you know, like the 'big boys' do)?

Best regards,

Swarf, Mostly!