Shopsmith Forums

No plans to upgrade to a festool vacuum anytime soon even with the 15% savings. What I have works well if I can remember to turn it on. I have a dust deputy in front of both of my shop vacuums and a garbage can collector in front of the big dust collector if I want when I use that.

Ed

reible wrote:No plans to upgrade to a festool vacuum anytime soon even with the 15% savings. What I have works well if I can remember to turn it on. I have a dust deputy in front of both of my shop vacuums and a garbage can collector in front of the big dust collector if I want when I use that.

Ed

Does this do what you need, Ed? Notice that it uses power from two different 15amp circuits thus reducing the likelihood of overload.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/149950 ... oCWFLw_wcB

This is the box that I have.
It works for some of the tools I have and the older vacuum but I will not even try it with the shopsmith and vacuum.

Ed

I was holding that box in my hand about 24 hours ago in my local Woodcraft store. It sound good and was on sale but since I wanted more information I didn't take it. Amazon reviews were not kind. It looks like a good idea that wasn't carried forward. A sticker says current limit of 9A or was it 10A but either way that is not going to work with either the shopsmith or the 12A shop vacuum.

It does have the other things I was hoping to find but.......

Ed

dusty wrote:

reible wrote:No plans to upgrade to a festool vacuum anytime soon even with the 15% savings. What I have works well if I can remember to turn it on. I have a dust deputy in front of both of my shop vacuums and a garbage can collector in front of the big dust collector if I want when I use that.

Ed

Does this do what you need, Ed? Notice that it uses power from two different 15amp circuits thus reducing the likelihood of overload.

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/149950 ... oCWFLw_wcB

Yeah. I can see why it may not work. The Woodcraft ad says that both circuits are protected by 15amp breakers. It does not say that it can be used under 15amp load. You report 9 or 10amps. That is really some safety margin. Yes, good concept and then it ends there.

reible wrote:The problem I'm sure was having to do with it thinking it was receiving a signal but I never found out what was happening. There was no setting options so if someone else in remote range had one too or something else used the same sort of remote I just don't know. I live in a subdivision packed with houses on small lots. It didn't happen often but it happened enough that I didn't trust it. I don't remember the brand but it has been a lot of years ago now. Maybe around 1986 or so????

I don't wear an apron except sometimes when I'm turning so that wouldn't help me.

They do sell a unit with two power cords, one can plug into one circuit and the other into another circuit but according to reports the current limit is very limited.

Ed

Just FYI...

The FCC has come a LONG way since the mid '80s in non interference with RF products. Of all the federal agencies it is one of the most effective. Field strength (transmit power) has been limited for in home RF devices to reduce interference and frequency allocations have been changed depending on the class and intended use of the device.

My grandfather built his new house in the early '50s. He owned the Berlin Lumber Co. at the time which my cousin still owns. The house had an electric garage door opener from day one. I remember going to the empty lot before the house was built. I spent every summer there in the mid '50s. One of the things that we would do coming home from the lumber company was see how far away we could open the garage door. After all it was a very new thing back then. Nobody had one. It was always 3-4 blocks away. Today I need to be less than 200 feet to get mine to open.

You don't have to hook it on an apron if you don't wear one. I don't always wear my apron. In those cases I just hook it on my T shirt under my chin. If you have a pocket that works too. How about a belt loop?

I am not sure what the big problem is with a remote control DC.

reible wrote:This is the box that I have.

IMG_1942sc.jpg

It works for some of the tools I have and the older vacuum but I will not even try it with the shopsmith and vacuum.

Ed

I have that exact same box. Been using it with my 520 and a large Ridgid vac for years, no problem, on a 20A dedicated circuit. But there's a couple of things I don't like about it. One, it has a turn-off delay for the accessory (vac), but no turn-on delay. It would be better if it staggered the turn-on. Before I put in the dedicated circuit, it would sometimes pop the breaker on a shared 15A circuit. Two, it doesn't have a switch to turn on the accessories independently. So if I want to simply vacuum the floor or something, my choices are to use the 520 as a "power switch", or else unplug the vac from the box and plug it in to a different receptacle. PITA, that is.

For around 20 bucks, you could use one of those Aux outputs to power the coil of a 20A relay, and use that relay to switch the vac on and off. Powered from an entirely different circuit if you want. For quite a few more bucks, you could use a time-delay relay to stagger the turn-on time. Either way, I'd wire in a switch to start the vac manually. The only reason I haven't done this myself is that it would take time to properly package the relays and stuff.

I have been looking at some motor start relays. Klixon. These are used on refrigeration equipment to connect the start winding when initial run current ramps up. When run current drops off the relay drops out opening the start circuit.

They are designed to pass run current all the time the equipment is on.

They come in a staggering amount of close/open currents, but for our purpose just about any of them ought to work. I assume the SS will always draw at least 5A so one with a 'open' spec of 5A should work.(the contacts remain closed as long as the ss is drawing more than 5A)

The contacts are rated at 25A(more than enough for a DC) and are Normally Open.

Availability is questionable. Appliance stores are 'make/model' driven.

They also come in a 15A design that plugs directly on to compressor power terminals(not handy for us).

JPG wrote:I have been looking at some motor start relays. Klixon. These are used on refrigeration equipment to connect the start winding when initial run current ramps up. When run current drops off the relay drops out opening the start circuit.

They are designed to pass run current all the time the equipment is on.

They come in a staggering amount of close/open currents, but for our purpose just about any of them ought to work. I assume the SS will always draw at least 5A so one with a 'open' spec of 5A should work.(the contacts remain closed as long as the ss is drawing more than 5A)

The contacts are rated at 25A(more than enough for a DC) and are Normally Open.

Availability is questionable. Appliance stores are 'make/model' driven.

They also come in a 15A design that plugs directly on to compressor power terminals(not handy for us).

Based on the measurements that I posted in this thread, that should be a good assumption.

Thank you one and all for some great information.

I think my next purchase will be one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/X10-XPR-W-Recepta ... B002ZZ7RHM

I have 3 or 4, ok may 5 boxes of x10 stuff from my adventures in to home automation so the only thing I need is one of these to power my shop vacuum. They respond to local control so that takes care of the pesky problem having to deal with just using the vacuum. It doesn't give me the easy of just starting the shopsmith and having the vacuum come on but it is pretty much just the button push away. It can be on another branch/circuit breaker so that takes care of overloading the one branch.

I have enough controllers to have them everywhere......

I did find some other interesting ways of doing this but most of them had me spending a bit more then I wanted. Who knew that they make a cyclone top for a festool vacuum? Hey whats is another $250 on to the cost of the festool????

Ed