Well that's a bummer!

Was cutting out jar holder and noticed my dust deputy was leaning funny on the buckets, then found this!!
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Must have been like that for a while. The only thing in the bucket was all the plugs from my coin sifters!
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All the sawdust and hdpe dust was in the shop vac.
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At least I have a filter on it this time. I found out the hard way that the dust separator won’t separate backup tape pieces after a destructive tape wipe with a sword… Noticed streamers coming out of the exhaust, and had to completely take the vac apart to pull mangled tape out of the impeller.

Oh well, the lid lasted 4 years. Time to design a replacement and cut it out of some plywood. Should last longer that way.

Barry, What’s your honest opinion about the Dust Deputy? I’m sure they work and the idea seems great, ideal for large shops with large vac systems, but in the smaller form is it worth an extra bucket and stuff, I mean you still have to empty a can either way right? Is it just a filter thing?

I love new/better tools to make things easier on me and I keep almost buying one, but have never pulled the trigger.

It’s really just a super filter. Love it! It really keeps you from having to change out the filter as much on the shop vac. I think this last one is over a year old, and I do a lot of woodworking. Also keep in in place every fall when I vac out the barn. So far the double bucket, which honestly, they say to do anyway, has been holding up. The second one keeps the inner from deforming enough to collapse. I’m sure I’m using too big of a vac on the system, which isn’t helping the bucket issue, but I don’t want to buy a smaller one. The new lid is in place and seems to work pretty well. I need to redesign it a bit so the groove is a bit bigger. The current design is too narrow so it doesn’t fit down over the lip, but I filled it with silicone and it’s actually working quite well. I built a cart to hold the vac and the bucket when I got the system.
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Should have got bigger casters, but it works.

I like this diy one it looks petty compact.