Old sweep in Pittsburgh showed me a trick with a shop vac and a pillowcase

I was helping this guy named Sal on a job in Shadyside last spring, and he had this beat up pillowcase wrapped around the hose end of his vac. He said it catches the fine soot dust that normally blows right through the filter and turns the whole room gray. Has anyone else tried something like that to keep from making a mess on indoor jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sage4d ago

Wait, is the pillowcase going over the intake hose or over the exhaust? @henryr45 you're probably right about choking the vac motor if it's too thick, but I always thought the trick was wrapping it over the exhaust port to catch the fine stuff the filter missed. If you block the intake suction with fabric you might just kill your pickup power instead.

henry_anderson544d ago

...and this is exactly why I don't mess with the pillowcase thing. I tried it once on a drywall sanding job and it did catch some dust but it also killed my suction after about ten minutes. The vac started whining like it was dying and I had to stop and unclog the fabric. Plus you're just putting more strain on the motor for barely any gain. A good HEPA filter and a separator bucket works way better and doesn't risk burning out your equipment mid job.

henryr454d ago

That pillowcase trick is honestly a game changer for fine dust. Tried it myself on a few indoor jobs and it caught a surprising amount of the nasty stuff that usually slips past the filter. Just make sure the fabric breathes enough so you don't choke the vac or burn out the motor.