Hi. Plan to use this for my LR4. I made a shop vac enclosure purely for sound suppression. It’s worked well for a year. It’s made of plywood, and sound deadening foam.
Has some casters so it rolls. And theres a hole where the exhausts goes through these baffles and then out into atmosphere. The baffles are now covered by a plywood sheet obviously.
Is this dangerous at all? I’m thinking it may overheat and cause a fire? Dangerous or fine? Thanks
Has it got hot in the year you’ve been using it?
Tounge firmly in-cheek:
Well what I would have said pre Jackpot days is that the 3D printer control boards we use have thermistor ports and can be set up to shut down in a case of overtemp problems. It’s a little more difficult now.
Seriously though…
Shop vacs generally cool themselves with the exhausted air. They can overheat when they can’t get enough intake air, which is why they’re a poor choice for a vaccuum hold-down bed. As long as you are allowing the hot air from the outlet to escape, even through your “muffler” you should be fine. Caveat: any time you restrict air flow through the shop vac, you run a risk of overheating. That setup can allow (for example) the shop vac to fill with dangerously flammable wood chips, and then start to strain with air flow, which you may not hear due to noise reduction. This can allow the motor to reach the flash point of the wood chips (or the paper air filter) and there’s your fire. Of course.tje same might happen with my vac, while I’m wearing ear defenders.
Oh look, yet another reason to Never leave your machine unattended while it is running.
I run mine inside a box /silencer too. It runs a little hot yes but +1y and it still runs hard. (I use mine without filter but running 2 dust separators)
I had a shop vac fail from a period of extended use (vacuuming water in this specific case) and what happened was the plastic brush holder got hot and deformed, which stopped the brush from contacting the armature. The motor just stopped, no sparks or anything.
That’s one piece of anecdotal information, but I wouldn’t worry about the shop vac getting hot enough to start the enclosure on fire.
The CNC router is another story completely.
Great points. Since the air is escaping and it cools in that way, I feel better knowing that. Anything is possible, but I am not too concerned about the vac getting so that hot that combustion of dust is a concern. Never leave machine unattended even while not running. Check 
Nice! Definitely will add a dust separator. Was thinking of going with the HF dust collector for around $300, if you are familiar. Might is be overkill for this LR4? If I had $1M I’d buy it for sure, but it a shop vac will do the job well, that that is fine too for now.
Thanks Tom.
Yeah but as im not in the us they cost nearly 1000+ bucks due to weight and import charges. Im looking for one locally but 2 shopvacs are doing the work here.
My business is growing and that calls for some investments here. I have a bigger shop, that was the first step, had to begin operations with the basics and there is a lot of work to be done here
the rigid vacs have their own motor fan, so if the box can’t get fresh air, then it’s just recirculating the same hot air over and over.
I ran one of those for my lowrider when I had a barn. Worked great. They’re still loud, but it’s a different sound.
I prefer the dust collector. I have a smaller Jet, but will switch to the HF at some point. I’ve been happy with the amount of dust it collects at the shoe, especially with the 2.5” hose rather than the old shop vac hose. I’m not sure its actually any quieter.
But the sound is quite a bit lower pitch. This allows me to hear the cutting sound better. I do think there is a lot to learn when the sound changes. Potentially if I act quickly I can save the cut with a timely change to a sharper bit or other intervention.
With the shop vac, so much of the noise was in the same range for my ears it made trying to pay attention to the cutting sound more challenging. I also wear hearing protection, and I think the lower frequencies are more effectively eliminated so the higher ones are dominant.
I bought the exact same today locally. 
Having a bigger shop is the foundation you need. Now you can fill it up.
Yikes. Well the outlet to the rigid goes through the baffles and out to the atmosphere. and of course, the inlet comes from the suction. Are you saying there is a dedicated fan on the rigid that has an inlet and outlet independent of the suction and exhaust that will be contained in the boundaries of this box I have built?
I will get one as soon as budget allows. I love it when cleanup is minimized. Looks sweet.
Hell yea. Such an improvement.
I hear that.
Yea, pretty much any modern shop vac that costs more than $50 will have a separate cooling fan for the motor. Otherwise you’re just blasting the motor/bearings with dirty air.
Oh got it. So it’s basically standard now. Good to know. Well, I’ll take a temp reading next time after some usage and see what it is. Maybe contact the manufacture and see what they think. Of course theyll say dont do that! hahah
