Anyone tried a Bucket Vac from HD/Lowes?

[SunshineMiner]

Curious if anyone has any experience with these things. The one from lowes seems to work pretty darn good!

Bucket Head 5-gal. Wet/Dry Vacuum-BH0100 - The Home Depot

Shop Shop-Vac Bucket Max at Lowes.com

Heres the lowes bucket vac imploding the walls of a 5gal bucket. Not that hard to do really i guess





I admit... They don't really compare to the power of Vipers Gas/Vac: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/drywashing/331022-build-your-own-vacuum-blower.html

But it might be worth it to some people to check out for less than $25

 

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[meMiner]

The price is good and I bet you could avoid the imploding walls with a few drill holes towards the top of the bucket. Big issue is AC power. Need a generator to run it away from home (or a very-very long extension cord).

 

[ratled]

Just make your own with a leaf blower on top and you don't need the cord. Plenty of free info on these out there

ratled

 

[wtetro]

The price is good and I bet you could avoid the imploding walls with a few drill holes towards the top of the bucket. Big issue is AC power. Need a generator to run it away from home (or a very-very long extension cord).

A very long and thick extension cord when you factor in voltage drop

 

[KevinInColorado]

Or a little Honda generator and a 100' of power cord

 

[fowledup]

Or..... a solar generator ($250-300 DIY) and run it for free. I don't have the bucket model, I have the small 2.5 gallon stinger. The solar gen has a 1500 watt inverter and it runs it just fine, so I'm pretty sure it would run the bucket model as well. I also use the solar generator to run my 3700gph highbanker off the 12v side or I can charge my RV batteries, run the blender, camp lights a rotohammer or whatever.......free! No motors to mess up or secondary containment or genny noise to get hassled about, no extra fuel jugs, just power- and did I mention FREEEE! Sorry I get all jacked up over it, it's my new favorite toy!

Next project for the solar genny to run may be a stealthy twin 12v 3700 gph 2.5" gold collection device Don't think I will be posting any build pictures at this point in time

 

[LP13]

Magnetite in the sand is attracted to the motor (electro magnetic fields) and will very quickly grind the motor to uselessness. That's why they use gas powered setups.

 

[fowledup]

Magnetite in the sand is attracted to the motor (electro magnetic fields) and will very quickly grind the motor to uselessness. That's why they use gas powered setups.

Good point, I agree with what you say and if I was using it all the time as a major mining component I'd go gas, which is something I plan on doing. My use of a crack vac has been pretty incidental thus far, and the twenty dollar vacs have been ok. However our new claim has a ton of schist style bedrock so now they are gonna get a serious workout. How long are their gas ones lasting? My goofy thinking makes me wonder which is more cost effective based on longevity, a $200-250 blower set up and constant fuel and oil costs. or keep replacing $20 dollar vacs as they blow up. As i said I don't use it much but this one I have now I've used for around 5-7 years for just about everything, I can't believe the thing still works.

 

[Aufisher]

Go for a gas sucker!

 

[LP13]

Well I suppose as in all things not everything is created equally, so I suppose that there are some electric vacs that won't die so quickly as others. Everyone I ever talked to who had tried using shop vacs reported poor success. But then too one has to take a battery or a generator with them wherever they go to run one. Gas has way more power per pound than the power you can store in a battery and most generators are just too heavy for me to lug around!

 

[jcazgoldchaser]

This guy went cordless

 

[SunshineMiner]

LP13 You made a pretty good point about the magnetite's and the motor! That would be one thing to factor in, more filters to buy so you don't kill your engine :x
Although possible fix would be a deflector plate and some magnets somewhere to help hold the sands

Definitely digging the Dewalt vac there. More batteries, batteries batteries. Who knows, with a solar charger hooked up to deep cycle with an inverter.. you can run anything all day/night if you wanted to! Might be cheaper in the next 5-10 years the way tech is going, who knows

I will say though... I'm liking the idea of my deep cycle with an inverter and the lowes vac. The Dewalt is over $100

Thanks for the input guys. I think I may throw down on the Lowes version, as the motor appears to be 6.5 vs just 6 for the HD, and when I do, i'll post an update and video.