Supercharged my 3300...

cord · Post by **cord** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 9:45 pm

I have a large project here which is very messy. I'm working on a house remodel where I'm stripping large amounts of wall plaster. The plaster makes a pretty good pile that's easily shoveled. After removing 95% of the material, I'm then left with a mess which consists of large chunks mixed in with sand and a very fine dust. I first tried the shop vac which worked great, but doesn't have the filter capacity and it soon clogged. I then tried my 3300 which can handle the fine dust, but doesn't have the static pressure to pick up anything bigger than the sand. Besides that, it's painfully slow. Then I got a brain storm... I removed the filter from my shop vac and then took the 3300 and hooked it to the outlet of the shop vac. Now I had the static pressure to pick up big chunks and the fine filtering capacity to handle the dust. The drum of the shop vac would also collect the big chunks and keep them out of the bag. It worked great! At least until the 3300 collection bag burst. I had a regular garbage bag installed. Just wondering if you guys have any suggestions as to a bag which can withstand the higher pressure? That or should I go with a larger filter hood? Yea, I know that I'm exceeding the original intent of the 3300, but I'm trying to solve a problem here.

charlese · Post by **charlese** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 10:04 pm

Sorry for laughing, cord! After a yeoman's trial of using the heaviest trash bags I could find, I went back to the Shopsmith plastic bags. They are heavier and I can see how full they are. I bought a few packages of those bags at their last sale and will not go back again. Sometimes I've re-used a Shopsmith bag twice. They are pretty darned heavy duty - have never broken or ripped one.

About the 3300 filter. Yes it can get plugged!!! Nick said he and Drew "shook down" the bags twice a day in their shop. They used the largest filter.

I use a similar set up when thickness planing. I hook the 2200 up to my Dewalt 735. The 735 blows chips out with a force and volume much larger than any shop vac I've owned. I use the medium sized filter bag. The biggest issue I've had is keeping the 3300 hose from blowing loose from it's connection with the planer.

putttn · Post by **putttn** » Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:03 pm

The best invesmtent I've made vacuum wise was the Dust Deputy. Got the one with the plastic cyclone and buckets and hardly ever get anything in the SS bags and nothing in my Festool C22 vacuum.

bucksaw · Post by **bucksaw** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 12:20 am

cord wrote:I have a large project here which is very messy. I'm working on a house remodel where I'm stripping large amounts of wall plaster. The plaster makes a pretty good pile that's easily shoveled. After removing 95% of the material, I'm then left with a mess which consists of large chunks mixed in with sand and a very fine dust. I first tried the shop vac which worked great, but doesn't have the filter capacity and it soon clogged. I then tried my 3300 which can handle the fine dust, but doesn't have the static pressure to pick up anything bigger than the sand. Besides that, it's painfully slow. Then I got a brain storm... I removed the filter from my shop vac and then took the 3300 and hooked it to the outlet of the shop vac. Now I had the static pressure to pick up big chunks and the fine filtering capacity to handle the dust. The drum of the shop vac would also collect the big chunks and keep them out of the bag. It worked great! At least until the 3300 collection bag burst. I had a regular garbage bag installed. Just wondering if you guys have any suggestions as to a bag which can withstand the higher pressure? That or should I go with a larger filter hood? Yea, I know that I'm exceeding the original intent of the 3300, but I'm trying to solve a problem here.

Try the contractor grade trash bags sold by Home Depot and Lowes.

Ed in Tampa · Post by **Ed in Tampa** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 1:03 am

One concern in many shop vacs a percentage of the air that passes through the filter goes through the motor to cool it. If you don't have the filter on the shop vac that means unfiltered air is passing through the motor (shortened motor life) and is being blown back into the room.
In fact when I did this using my 3300 I had to keep it outside because of the dust that was excaping from the bag and being blown past the motor. And I didn't need to turbo charge it.
Dry wall dust is very abrasive.

cord · Post by **cord** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:25 pm

Boy I really like that Dust Deputy idea. I did a little research on them and couldn't find a bad thing that had been said. That's pretty rare in today's brutal electronic world.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:41 pm

Ed in Tampa wrote:One concern in many shop vacs a percentage of the air that passes through the filter goes through the motor to cool it. If you don't have the filter on the shop vac that means unfiltered air is passing through the motor (shortened motor life) and is being blown back into the room.
In fact when I did this using my 3300 I had to keep it outside because of the dust that was excaping from the bag and being blown past the motor. And I didn't need to turbo charge it.
Dry wall dust is very abrasive.

Damp sponge no create fine dust.

12" drywall trowel remove bumpy high spots.

Damp sponge smooth out everything else.

Sanding bad!:eek:

putttn · Post by **putttn** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 10:51 pm

I've been using the Dust Deputy since last fall and in my Festool vacuum, which I use most often, I have maybe a cup of sawdust and I've emptied the Dust Deputy a number of times.
I'd venture to say that anything short of using one of these is going to end up costing as much as the Deputy, which wasn't expensive when you look at the price of the Festool bags and other solutions. I attached the Deputy to my vacuum and wherever the vac goes the Deputy is right there taking care of 99% of the solids. Kind of fun watching the sawdust whirl down the chute too.

putttn · Post by **putttn** » Sat Apr 10, 2010 11:37 pm

I just played around w/3300 and placed the dust deputy just behind the plastic bag on the 3300 and I think it can easily be bungied on ... if I can figure out how to include pictures here I'll post my solution.

8iowa · Post by **8iowa** » Mon Apr 12, 2010 9:00 pm

I don't think that the fiberglass impeller on the DC3300 woiuld have a very long life after being constantly sandblasted with an abrasive material.

That said, I reuse the Shopsmith plastic collector bags many times before one develops a split and must be replaced. I empty the 30 gal Shopsmith bag upside down into a larger trash container lined with a 42 gal plastic "contractor's bag". The then empty Shopsmith bag goes back into service.