I was pondering what all would go in my mechanical room and how much room to allow. This led in to having a central vacuum system in the shop. I absolutely abhor dragging a freaking shop vac around. They are always in the way and they take up so much floor space. The hose is always falling off on to the ground blah blah blah..... Anyway, is it feasible to plumb the shop with pipe and have drops occasionally with a vac hose to pull down, use and then retract? Would the stuff in a shop be too much for a "house" central vac system. I grew up with one in the 60's-70's. Mom had it installed when the house was new. As far as I know, dad never had to do anything to it. It was in the garage attic and ran through the carport eaves.
I do some woodworking. There are systems made for woodworking shops, but I really don't know much about them. There are some big buckets you can use at the end location that have a cyclonic feature that catch all the debris there rather than running all the junk through the whole system. That all being said, what they are catching is sawdust. I doubt it would work well with anything wet or greasy.
My house has a central vac system and there is a drop in the shop and another in the room where my Bridgeport is. I have a 30 foot hose. I use it to vacuum up metal shavings from my mill and lathe and every other dirty job. I use it to vacuum the last of the glass beads from my blast cabinet when I am switching over to walnut shells. It is 20 years old and has never given me any grief. It works great for vacuuming out cars too. Way more powerful than any shop vac I have ever used
Not a central vacuum but, I use a regular household vacuum to clean the floor when I done. I use a shop vac to vacuum out cars or to clean BIG messes, but I like the regular vacuum for the shop floor.
The Jalopy Journal
