Hit 1,000 hours in my garage shop and the dust collection hit a wall

I was cleaning up after a big maple slab flattening job last week when my little shop vac just gave up. I checked the hour meter I put on the outlet when I built the shop, and it read 1,002 hours. I guess that cheap unit was never meant for that much fine dust. It's been my main tool for everything from sawdust to drywall sanding for about three years. The motor still runs, but the suction is gone, and the filter is shot even after a good clean. I'm stuck now because my whole workflow depends on keeping things clean, especially with all the hand tool work I do. Has anyone else had their main dust system fail right around that 1,000 hour mark? What did you replace it with that can handle a mixed bag of fine and coarse debris?

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joseph5295mo ago

Jamiegreen has a point about shop vacs, but mine lasted way longer than that. You might have just gotten a bad unit or it's clogged somewhere you haven't checked yet.

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jamiegreen6mo ago

Man, that's rough timing. What's your budget look like for a real dust collector? Those little shop vacs just can't handle fine wood dust for long. I killed two of them before I finally saved up for a small cyclone unit. It's a game changer for the fine stuff, but you'll still need a vac for the bigger chips.

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