15 Gal Coal Vac System Tutorial

Great idea Wiz, thanks for posting. A few questions.

1.) I didn't even see where you had the Shop Vac. Can it be placed anywhere?

I added system after you stopped in.

2.) What did you clean the last bit of the grease out of the barrel with or did the garage already have it cleaned out for you?

Barrel had 90 lube oil in it, didn't bother to clean it. I'm setting up system for friend today using grease drum, I just wipe it down with rags.

3.) 15 gallons of coal is about 150 pounds? So once a day you can feed your hopper slowly but surely all the coal it would need, maybe even 2 days. That is really a great idea

I'm keeping hopper filled and barrel daily, this allowing me to have no dust at all. Now I'm keeping shop clean

do you think it would work with buck sized coal?

Yes it will vacuum buck size coal

Added a cyclone dust collector to help reduce coal ash from entering shopvac. Wife was going to hang me if I didn't return her Dyson canister back. So for now had to make one until I find old broken dyson.

Wiz wrote:Added a cyclone dust collector to help reduce coal ash from entering shopvac. Wife was going to hang me if I didn't return her Dyson canister back. So for now had to make one until I find old broken dyson.

Nice DIY job on the cyclone Interested to find out how it works with the coal dust. What diameters did you settle on for the top and bottom and how high did you make the cone?

What diameters did you settle on for the top and bottom and how high did you make the cone?

Cone is 2 ft long. top dia is 7 in and bottom 3 1/2 in. all joints seal with caulk then duck tape. Hardware store on way home to pick up 2 quick connects the test.

Very cool system, well done.

I tested cyclone to compare results without it. 500 lbs test without it, vac was clean proir and new bag. Problem I was having is bag would clog with coal ash then blow out of vac. Dust cloud in shop.

Now results with it. Note used different vac with filter. Very little dust on filter seen on bottom of image. Much cleaner using cyclone. images sideways.

Approaching perfection

I've had good results since using my dust deputy.