Keep Sawdust From Clogging A Shop-Vac’s Filter With A DIY Pre-Separator

Keep Sawdust From Clogging A Shop-Vac’s Filter With A DIY Pre-Separator

Video: The more you use your Shop-Vac, the more suction you lose as its filter gets clogged up. This DIY pre-separator will help prevent your Shop-Vac’s filter from clogging, and keep its suction power from deteriorating.

When you vacuum up material like sawdust, pre-separators divert most of the sawdust into a separate vessel, so it never actually makes it to your Shop-Vac’s filter and main chamber. No sawdust getting to your filter means it says cleaner longer, and allows for more suction. This build, from Instructables user Art Mulder (wordsnwood), uses buckets and scrap plywood to recreate the same effect found in commercially available pre-separators like the Dust Deputy Cyclone. Pre-separators like the Dust Deputy and other similar products can cost hundreds of dollars, but this build will cost you next to nothing if you have some of the components lying around your workshop. You can find complete instructions for the DIY cyclone separator at the link below, and see it in action in the video above.

Almost Free Cyclone Separator, From Two Buckets [Instructables]

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