Tom said, in his posting on "Dust control": "P.S. Look at the noise ratings on the shop type vacs. Some of these screamers can be quite unpleasant." Tom, You are absolutely correct! In fact, that whole statement should have been in Caps! That message needs to be shouted from the ramparts, so to speak. I suffered many different shop vacuums, over the years. Every time the vac was turned on we all reached for the earplugs/muffs!The worst were the "Shop Vac"s themselves. With the exception of one that they made that was touted as "Quiet", which was LESS noisy, but still in the 90-95 Decibels range. Some of the others were in the 100 -110 range.Another really bad one is the Shop Smith, (sucks everything up, including the dog if you're not careful!). It is extremely loud! About a year ago I got a Fein Vacuum. It touts the DBs, (although erroneous), so we know ahead of time.<G> It has some shortcomings, but is considerably quieter. If you use the crevasse attachment, it will get markedly louder, btw! (that attachment concentrates the air flow, making the vacuum more efficient.<G>) Another plus, is that it is easy to dump. Also, great filter system. Down sides: does not come with attachments. Doesn't have any place to store the attachments. The wheels are barely adequate. Oh, I should have said I got the Medium sized one. There is a teeny little sucker, (pun intended<G>), and a HUGE sucker! The little one isn't really adequate for a working shop and the Huge one is a bit too much, kinda like the "Vacuum Systems" from Grizzly, etc., which are noisier than a banshee from hell!<G> Be aware that most Vacs that are quieter, will NOT have a "blow" outlet. That's how they quiet them...baffle the output. Most are not very efficient in filtering. This is why I really like my Fein. It does a very good job of filtering. It is, however, really pricey! I got mine at Woodcraft. I suspect you could go elseware for a cheaper price, I suspect. I did that for a Dewalt Planer. But, that's another story. Oh, one other thing. The longevity of most Shop Vacs is not very good, in my experience. So far, so good on my Fein.<G> Regards, Joe Joe Garrett, R.P.T. Captain of the Tool Police Squares R I -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://ptg.org/pipermail/pianotech.php/attachments/20110224/a8769416/attachment.htm>
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