As I mentioned in part 1, I based my cart design around a a Sketchup model I found on their 3D Marketplace. Once the Supercell arrived and before starting to make the cart, I had to unpack and verify that the dimensions I was working off of for my cart design were accurate. It came in 3 boxes. One was for the hose/duct. Another for the wall mount, cyclone and all of the parts.
The third box was the motor assembly which was really well packed with these expanded foam bags.
After checking all of the measurements, I found that they were pretty accurate and only a couple of minor tweaks were required to my Sketchup design.
Since I used 2-by construction lumber, the first step was to use a hand plane to smooth the surface and ensure that everything was reasonably straight and flat. I sort of removed the rounded corners of the stock but didn't worry too much if I got perfectly crisp, square corners. Pine is so much fun to work with a hand plane. It makes even the worst woodworker feel like they know what they are doing. You do have to remember to stop having so much fun with your hand planes. I used Rocklers Beadloc loose tenons where I could to join everything. I bought the Beadloc at an estate or garage sale a few years ago and this was the first time I used it. While it is easy to use, I feel like I am missing something because I had a few minor alignment issues. Nothing was so bad that I could not use it as is for this purpose but until I figure out if I am doing something wrong, I would not want to use it for a nice piece of furniture or something. The back is basically built like a door with rails and stiles. The back of the cart dry fit and ready for glue up. Unfortunately I screwed up the cutout at the bottom of the rails where the front horizontal legs are attached. I decided to cut them by hand rather than clearing off my band saw to cut them and I was not precise enough. After adjusting with chisel and rasp, I lost a little bit of height which meant I had to use smaller casters in the front to keep it from leaning back slightly.
I decided to use 30 minute epoxy on the corner joint to hopefully improve the strength of the joint slightly and to give me plenty of time for relatively stress free clamp up. I needed to use epoxy to attach the axles anyway so it allowed me to do it all in one step without worrying about glue clogging the axle hole. Unfortunately that meant I had to wait overnight between glue ups. I used a loose tenon again here but move it towards the top of the joint and the axle basically acts as a dowel to strengthen the joint as well. The axle goes about 1.5" into the vertical stile (seen laying flat here).
I added the diagonals to make everything nice and rigid, added the wheels and casters and basically assembled the unit as if it was being attached to the wall. Because I had to widen the front legs to attached the casters, I glued 10" long block at the front of the let and doubled up the diagonal struts. The struts are attached to the legs with loose tenons again but where they meet the back is currently attached with screws I may eventual replace those with dowels. I haven't actually attached the outside struts yet. It seems plenty rigid without them but since I have already made them I might as well add them.
Here it is rolled into its temporary home which is where my shop vac and cyclone used to sit. You can see why I cannot attach it to the wall here as well as why it would be difficult to put in static duct work from this location. Here you can see it without the outside struts attached. You cannot see it in the picture but I attached the supplied wall bracket to the back of the cart to stabilize it. I tested its tendency to tip and I do not think that I need to worry about it tipping over. I can stand behind it and tip it backwards like you would a hand truck but it takes a pretty good pull with your foot against the base to get it to tip. I tried tipping it forward but it basically would not tip, even when I put my feet against the front casters to keep them from moving and pulled the hand grips on the motor housing forward. I do not think that there is any risk of it tipping forwards by pulling on a hose and the risk of it tipping back are minimal at best. I could probably force it to tip sideways if I tried hard enough but I do not think that tugging on the hose would be able to cause it to lean far enough for it to fall. I am very pleased with my cart and have no regrets so far not getting their $700 cart upgrade. The wheels are working well enough, though I would have preferred larger casters in the front. If I move it around the shop often I may regret not using swivel casters in the back too but for now at least the larger rubber wheel are working fine.
BTW, as I was walking towards the checkout at HF with the 10" wheels I bought for this, I started smelling what I thought was someone smoking the most nasty cigar I had ever smelled. As I was standing in line I kept looking around for a cloud of smoke that some a-hole was making with his cigar. As I was walking out to the car, I realized it was the rubber on the wheels. OMG! they must of have literally just come out of the shipping container from China. I set them out in the sun for a couple of days but it didn't really help. Fortunately, I had a pair of identical wheels on a hand truck that do not or at least no longer smell which sits out in a garden shed where it does not matter what they smell like (might even help repel varmints) so I swapped them out.
I hooked up my existing shop vac hose and gave it a try. It is damn loud but it is an amazing upgrade from my old DC and shop vac. I can tell that it am going to be pretty happy with it. I have not tried using the included 4" duct/hose yet. I will use it in its temporary location for now as I have not added another suitable 220v outlet yet. I will eventually add another 220v outlet, just not sure where I might want it yet. I may make or buy a heavy duty extension cord so that I can try it out in other locations in the shop. One thing I had not considered is that I need to come up with a good way to store the shop vac tools that were normally stored in built in racks on the shopvac. I also need to figure out how to manage the 2.5" shopvac hose when not in use. I am considering buying or making something like the Fastcap Super Reel but I will need to figure out a convenient place to put it. I also need to get or 3D print some better adapters for the 2.5" shop vac hose The one I have works okay but it leaks a little at the blast gate and whistles.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
Thanks guys. I am very happy with how the cart turned out. Even though it is slightly bigger than my shop vac/cyclone, getting rid of the both the shop vac AND the Delta DC results in a net decrease in floor space usage, which is a good thing.
Steve, DC envy of Earl and Ryan is at least partly why I bought this. I would have gotten it sooner if I had thought about building a cart to avoid clearing some wall space for it.
I still have to figure out how to manage the 2.5" accessories and the hose. The old Craftsman shop vac had built in storage for wands and attachments and the hoses were usually just draped over the PVC pipe that connected the vac to the cyclone which was sitting on top of the vac. I may see if I can add some sort of storage to the back of the cart and I am noodling on some ideas. There was one video taken at what looks like a trade show that Oneida posted of the cart model where they had mounted one of their hose reels to the front of the metal cart somehow. Unfortunately they just give a glimpse in the video. Not sure how they did that without it getting in the way of the blast gate unless they turned the cyclone section so that the gate came out the side of the cart. I will have to look for that video again.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
Nathan, I out the miscellaneous pieces on the ledge portion at the bottom of the cyclone. That way I can find them. For the hose i hang it behind and below the table saw. I thought about some kind of reel but they all take up so much space.
do you have enough space to get at the drum to empty it?
Earl, The 14 gallon bin does not have the hose hanging below to connect the barrel like yours does. There are clamps on 2 sides that actually pull the bin up tight against the bottom of the base (there is a gasket there) so that the wheels on the bin are off the ground. When it is time to empty, you simply release the clamps to lower it to the ground and roll it out.
I thought about putting the various shop vac style nozzles on the ledge base. That looks like a good solution. I still may make some holders to organize them. I have been thinking about hanging the hose on the back of my cart similar to what you did on the wall but I need to make sure that extra weight hanging on the back does not make it more likely to tip backwards or require it to sit so far out from the wall (in its currently location) that the front legs become a tripping hazard. I like the idea of a reel but like you finding a place for it is going to be tough. The Fastcap Super Reel sticks out about 23" from the wall. One idea I am playing around with is to hang it on the ceiling but then winding it up becomes difficult so I am trying to devise a way to use a rope or something, similar to how a chain hoist works, to wind it up. I can't seem to find an example now, but I have seen a pulley design that uses a knotted rope to engage pockets around the rim of a pulley like a chain to turn the pulley. I suppose I could just use a rod to turn a crank similar to how a steam locomotive converts linear motion to turn the wheels but that might be a pain and slow. Another idea is to have a spool on the side with rope that winds up around it as you pull off the hose. When you want to wind the hose you just pull on the rope but then you have a piece of rope hanging down that might be in the way. Just sort of throwing ideas against the wall (or ceiling) to see if any of them stick.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
Yep, anything rubber from HF smells like chit, and not in a funny way. At least a 3 day airing it out process out on the covered porch, and up, so it gets good air flow around it, and it quits making you want to puke.
I like the cart a lot. I think you won the DC loto by not spending the 700 bux. Not sure why, probably because my others always have, but I imagined a floor of sorts, but you are just letting the wheeled bin roll along it looks like. That would give me something to consider if/when I get well enough to make the jump myself.
Hope it solves all of your clean up issues. The HEPA part makes it something of a win even if everything isn't perfect. Net gain in floorspace is also a win, so you are on your way to paying for this thing.
These wheels are especially bad. They were definitely a new shipment because they were out of stock when I stopped by HF a few days before and when I went back, they had dozens of them on the shelf. They may never stop smelling. I left them in the sun for a while and it had no impact on the smell that I could detect. I've had them for more than a week now, sitting in my shed, and I can smell them as I walk up to the shed.
I am seriously considering replacing the 10" wheels with casters make it easier to maneuver around tight corners. For the rare times that I will need to tilt it back to roll it over a lip, I think that the weight will be manageable with care. If I do, I will go with 3" steel casters because I have had several instances where the plastic ones have disintegrated after a few years which would be a PITA to switch out and I don't need non-marring wheels on my concrete floor.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
I think the HF stuff stinks so bad because they use dissident parts in their process. Good call on the all-steel wheels for durability, only downside in my experience is the occasional tiny stone or wood chip that will stop them dead. The non-steel will do slightly better at climbing over and are quieter if that matters.
Remember the ones I suggested you get? They did cost more, but were not your average Chiwanese type product, they may have been from elsewhere, they sure were good though, plus no stink at all. I like the big wheel back idea more than medium wheel all way locking wheels for bigger loads though, you can roll it like a handtruck, and by shifting just your hands turn left, or right like a whip. For me it works a lot better in tighter spaces. But then for almost 10 years after HS I worked in Drive through beer places, and pushing around 6 high stacks of pop cases of 16 ounce bottles, was all day long, and 8 cases of beer bottles, or 15 cases of cans was all day when you weren't pushing around pop. Skinny row after row of stacked cases on both sides, and wheeling past, with a breath of air between you and them. easy peasy... :-)
Nice project Nathan. If you replace the 10" wheels with casters, would that allow you to also get larger casters for the front? Or replace the 10" ones with 12" and get larger front casters?
"Duck and Bob would be out doin some farming with funny hats on." chrisstef
Thanks, Duck. Yeah. If I replace the rear wheels with casters, I will definitely step up the size a back to 3" casters. I don't really want to make the rear wheels larger than 10" but it might allow me to change the front casters back to the original 3" size.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
Nathan, The only downside about the clamps is they damage the plastic bags, which aren't cheap. I'll bet you can creatively stuff the bags in the drum so you can still get multiple uses out of them, even if the clamps poke holes thru the plastic.
I like the chainfall idea for rolling up the hose and hanging the reel from the ceiling, or higher up the wall, as long as you don't lose too much length. Should be something Youtube about how to DIY a chainfall that would work. There are also plenty of evil genius types on here (LBD) that might have an idea or two.
Chainfall! That is the term I was looking for. The simplest chainfall mechanisms I could find are 1:1 pulleys for manual garage door openers. I also found some chain operated wheels (chainwheel) for overhead valves and other hand wheel operated components.
It uses lock link chain like this. I did find a chain hoist that I could cannibalize for $35 on Amazon, though it may be a little small?. I would prefer having a rope rather than a chain hanging from the ceiling so I may experiment with using my CNC to make one. I have been unsuccessful in finding a rope based one online. I could see cutting some pockets around the perimeter of a plywood disk and gluing two disks together to make the sprocket. The hardest part may be tying knots evenly spaced along the rope's length.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
The whole thing may be light enough you may not need knots. What if the two cheeks that capture the rope were sloped towards each other and lined with rubber? As long as you’ve got some downward tension on the rope to engage the rubber, I’d think it would allow for rotation via rope. Maybe.
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
I thought about that but when you first start with 20 or more feet pulled out from the reel, I could see that it might might require a 3rd hand to pull on both sides of the rope to maintain traction and feed the hose into the reel to get a neat wind up.
--Nathan, TX. Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.
