OK, the hubby came up with the title for this one, so if it's bad, blame him. But if you like it, I let him do it so...ya. The next project in the shop is upgrading the dust collection system. Currently we are using an old Craftsman wet/dry shop vac bought way back when Sears still sold the good Craftsman stuff. At least that's what the hubby says, what he means by it I have no idea. I just agree with him and pretend to listen to him complain about one thing or another about old Craftsman verses new Craftsman....I don't.....what ever. Anyways, the shop vac we have has seen better days, I will give him that.
After he cuts a bunch of wood on the table saw, you can see dust floating in the air. The uncontrollable coughing, that's not so good. So I agreed we needed to be able to breath better and have better performing equipment. So what does he do, a ton of internet research to see what's available. Then several trips to Woodcraft in Knoxville TN to check out different dust collectors. He finally decides on one and tells me "it's on sale honey" and we can save 10%. Kind of funny how he used my tricks on me.
Hmmmm. Anyways, he brings home this huge crate in the back of his truck. We have to call my brother-in-law to come over and help us unload it. I told him it looks huge! He replied with "this is the smallest one they make with a built in cyclone separator" and commences to describe to me what it does in super glorified details. You women out there will know where my mind went next.
Anyways, about a month passes before we can start putting it together. We had to make the drying/storage rack first. Now that's done, back to the dust collector. We opened everything up and laid everything out in the basement. Fast forward about 4 hours and it's all put together. I remember back a few decades ago helping the hubby take the car apart and install huge audio systems in the driveway. Laying in the floorboard, upside down for hours, twisted and bent in all kinds of ways, ya, not so much any more. I think we both are going to have sore backs for a few days. But we got it put together and it actually looks good.
The next couple of steps are on the hubby. I don't mess with electricity, let him get shocked instead of me.
The wife is upstairs watching Hulu, so I'm going solo on this part. I ran a new wire to the circuit breaker, installed a new dedicated 20 amp circuit breaker, installed a new electrical box, outlet and cover. Plugged in the dust collector and the breaker trips after about a second. So I check everything three times, all looks good. Do some internet research and I guess even though the motor only uses 18 amps, on start up it draws well over that. Seems like everyone is having to use a dedicated 30 amp breaker. Back to the hardware store in the morning I go, OK, afternoon as I don't go to bed till the sun comes up. Get new 30 Amp breaker, install that and hope for the best. Glad I decided to go overboard on the wire size when I was running it.