Workshop Vacuum Cleaner

[Dr.Al]

A few years ago I bought one of the Lidl Ash Vacuum cleaners to use for cleaning the workshop up. Problem is it has about as much suction power as a mouse taking a deep breath. To be fair, it works okay if you can get the hose right on top of the thing you want to pick up and that thing is very, very light (I guess it's designed for ash, which isn't exactly heavy). I was hoping for something that would dig all of those little curls of aluminium out of the bottom of the t-slots on the milling machine and it's no use at all for that.

Since I'm thinking of an upgrade, as well as coping with magnet-ignoring swarf I'd quite like to get one that can be attached to circular saws, sanders etc to keep the sawdust levels down. I'd also like one on wheels as it's becoming essential that I can quickly move things around as I have so little space in the workshop.

Any suggestions? I was wondering about this Nilfisk one from CPC. I don't want to spend much more than that really unless it's going to make a huge difference to quality / effectiveness but am open to suggestions / comments.

 

[123hotchef]

A few years ago I bought one of the Lidl Ash Vacuum cleaners to use for cleaning the workshop up. Problem is it has about as much suction power as a mouse taking a deep breath. To be fair, it works okay if you can get the hose right on top of the thing you want to pick up and that thing is very, very light (I guess it's designed for ash, which isn't exactly heavy). I was hoping for something that would dig all of those little curls of aluminium out of the bottom of the t-slots on the milling machine and it's no use at all for that.

Since I'm thinking of an upgrade, as well as coping with magnet-ignoring swarf I'd quite like to get one that can be attached to circular saws, sanders etc to keep the sawdust levels down. I'd also like one on wheels as it's becoming essential that I can quickly move things around as I have so little space in the workshop.

Any suggestions? I was wondering about this Nilfisk one from CPC. I don't want to spend much more than that really unless it's going to make a huge difference to quality / effectiveness but am open to suggestions / comments.

a henry!

 

[zzr1200]

Wot he said^^^^

Mines a £20.00 boot sale jobby....had it about 8 years now..

 

[Lewis_RX8]

I have the older version of this - https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/cvac25ss-wet-dry-vacuum-cleaner/

Good wet and dry vac, I've only ever used the dry myself but lasted many years and strong suction (1400 Watt) so more power than your linked one.

Even better on a VAT free voucher.

 

[jordan1]

Consider a Record Power DX5000, very powerful, attachments available for most hose sizes.

 

[123hotchef]

Wot he said^^^^

Mines a £20.00 boot sale hobby....had it about 8 years now..

i got 5 2 in each workshop! 1 in use one spare one for the cars they are great £20 cheap man! id sell one of mine they keep getting in the way

 

[Tigman]

Henry all the way !

 

[123hotchef]

I can just about pick the henry up next to the lathe! I will weigh the bag when i take it out full of swarf

 

[rmwesley]

Got a 30L / 1600W wet and dry Draper. Similar price to the one you linked. Rock solid for 15 years. There is so little to them that I don't think you will get too many differences in quality and reliability between all the well known brands at a particular price point.

 

[winchman]

For some reason Henrys and Henriettas are favoured as they just keep going. Mine was found in a bush with a very noisy smelly motor, £4 for new bearings and a few hours later she is working fine sucking up all kind soft rubbish and hoovering the plastic grass.
I think the local hoover man sells them for about £40

 

[masleeve]

I have an aged Grey Wickes DIY vacuum plus a cyclone for the fine dust , always said when it dies it will be replaced by a henry

 

[Ashley Burton]

I've got a wickes job & it's been plenty good enough for my needs

 

[gaz1]

new ones are crap compared to the older ones

loss of sunction slower motors to name but a few

 

[R-D-R]

Good thing about Henry, Charles and George's is they are dead simple to self maintain and get parts for so you can keep them going for years mines like triggers broom. Be warned EU rules mean the newer domestic Henrys have a switch that throttles power (as i understand it) to make them quieter, i went for a Numatic commercial variant which is exactly the same just says Numatic instead of Henry but has the same performance as my older one.

I own 2xHenry, 1x charles, Dewalt wet/dry cordless and Festool wet/dry extractor. You could buy all the others twice over for the price of the festool, yes it sucks (in a good way) better than the others but the Henry is way better given its price and my go too for most things.

 

[awemawson]

I have a remarkably cheap one from Wickes - it's an earlier version of this one as I've had it for years :

https://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Wet+Dry-Vacuum-with-Blower-20L---1250W/p/215735

It's done all I've asked of it for about 15 years, and is still going strong, but FOOLISHLY I let the wife borrow it to clean out a chicken shed and now every time I use it, it stinks the place out so I think it's time for it to go !

 

[Ashley Burton]

@awemawson that one in your link is the one I've had for 3 years now

 

[Rannsachair]

I got one of these a few months ago on offer for £34.99, think it is quite good for the money if they are on offer again https://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-ttb350vac-1300w-16ltr-wet-dry-vacuum-cleaner-240v/36516

 

[Parm]

This is something I’ve been looking at for a while as part of a work project in the pipeline for next year.

Any vac will be good enough to clean up dry swarf from machines

However if you want good extraction to control fine dust from woodworking machines then you need to be looking at something better as the Henry doesn’t have enough volumetric flow and doesn't generate enough static pressure, also it has very poor filtration efficiency for fine particulate, most of it comes back out in the work room

Something like the Nil Fisk you link to is good. If you want to go all out then a proper M class vac is the way to go. Quite speedy starting upwards of £400

 

[Anguz]

henry on steroids

 

[julianf]

I have a Henry next to my CNC machine, connected to one of those cyclone things on top of a 30ltr drum.

Henry has a bag in it, but last time I checked it had nothing at all in it. So no suction loss at all, I guess.

I'm not convinced those cyclone things would be as good with lighter material, like sawdust, but for metal swarf, it seems very comprehensive.