Talking with an electrician made me rethink my dust collection setup

I was on a job in Raleigh last week and this old electrician, Greg, saw me dragging my shop vac around for the miter saw. He said why hoover up the fine dust when you can just push it into a bucket of water. Honestly I laughed at first, but he showed me his DIY cyclone setup using a 5 gallon bucket and some PVC. Ngl, it hit different because I've been chasing filters and bags for years, never thought about wet capture as a real option. Has anyone else tried a water-based separator for their saws, or is that just asking for rust issues?

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troyjackson12d ago

Man, that Greg sounds like a real problem solver. I tried something similar last year after my shop vac filter got caked so bad I could barely hear the motor. I rigged up a five gallon bucket with a PVC pipe going almost to the bottom and another one out the top. The water level I kept just below where the pipe ends, and it worked way better than I thought it would. The fine dust that used to get in the air and on every surface just kinda sinks and stays put. I did worry about rust too, but I just put a little bit of that rust preventative stuff you use for tools in the water and it seems fine so far. Definitely not the cleanest thing to dump out every few days, but beats buying expensive bags.