When I started working wood 35 years ago the power tools never came with dust ports. Those were the days of paper masks, clouds of dust and wading through shavings on the floor. Today, all sanding, shaping or cutting tools have built in dust ports. That’s a good thing. The bad thing is lack of standardization. It seems like every manufacturer insists on making their tool unique with different dust port sizes and shapes. I don’t know how many times I’ve found myself standing with a hose in one hand and a new tool in the other wondering how I’m going to get my vac hose on the port. I’ve purchased several step down fittings and cut them to the appropriate size. They work OK for larger hose fittings, but for small port on tools such as palm sanders, they are just too bulky. I have also resorted to reams of duct tape and other flexible fittings to jerry rig some kind of connection only to have to undo the whole thing and re engineer a new fitting when I switch tools. Rockler has come up with an answer.
Rockler’s Universal Small Port Dust Kit solved just about every tool connection conundrum I could throw at it – even when dust ports aren’t round. The kit comes with two rubber tipped connectors (1” and 1-1/2”)
The two shape shifting rubber tipped swivel connectors (1” and 1-1/2”) are soft enough to fit over odd shaped connectors such as this Bosch palm sander.
The soft rubber tips handle the variations in dust ports with ease. The only exception we found was on an older Ridgid sander with a 2-1/4” port.
Each rubber tip mounted to a reverse threaded swivel connector. The swiveling connector reduces hose hindrance and increases tool maneuverability. The reverse threads easily screw into the open end of the rubber flex hose for quick tip changes. The opposite end of the hose is attached to a standard 2-1/4” port that connects to most shop vacs and dust separators.
The hose itself has some big plusses, but also some big minuses. On the plus side, I loved the expandability and kink free flexibility of the hose. The hose stretches from a mere 3’ to a whopping 15’. Amazing.
There were a couple things that disappointed about the hose: the weight and the static shocks. This is not a static dissipating hose, so you are in for a shock from time to time, especially in the dry winter months. The hose was surprisingly heavy (1 pound 13.6 ounces on my postal scale). You may want some kind of hose suspension system to hold the hose up if you are doing a lot of sanding. (I use a bungee cord suspended from the ceiling). Also, because the hose always wants to contract, it has a tendency to pull your tools off the bench when you set them down, especially smaller tools such as palm sanders.
Like the rubber tips, the hose is not quite “universal”. The 2-1/4” fitting was a touch loose on my Dust Deputy, forcing me to get out the duct tape once again.
Finally, although it easy to change the rubber swivel tips, having to unscrew one and screw on another is a bit of a pain, especially when you need to go back and forth between two tools that require different hose ends. It would be nice if Rockler could break with tradition and offer the elements of their kits as stand alone products. That way I could have a hose for each fitting making the changes a whole lot faster. The only way to buy an extra hose right now is to purchase another kit.
The Rockler Universal Small Port Dust Hose Kit is in the end, a great buy that goes a long way towards allowing you to connect just about any small dust port to your vac or separator. I hope some day Rockler will offer an improved hose made with static dissipating material and hopefully a lot less weight.
Source:
Dust Right® Universal Small Port Hose Kit
Item #: 48212
$39.99
Photos by David Munkittrick and George Vondriska
According to what I saw on Rockler’s website @ 850PM 6/8/2019 CST they had them as you asked ala cart. Unless I am misunderstanding what you guys are asking for.
I have used this system to collect dust from ceiling to floors. Even on my outside deck. The different size connectors make almost any tool a vacuum dust collector.
I marked my adapters so I know what tool they fit and don’t have to do the trial and error method when it comes time to use the system.
The metallic duct tape works well and holds better than regular duct tape when fastening hoses to fittings. Also, I have had to use hose clamps to keep the adapters onto the tool. They tend to slip off if too much tension is applied to the hose.
The “Dust-Right” hoses and to some extent, the anti-static hoses from Rockler, just aren’t worth the money. They are too flexible and can’t maintain any real length under high suction levels. Whether they pull the tool out of your hand or off the table, or pull the shop-vac into your leg, it’s way too easy to damage your workpiece, your power tool tool, or even injure yourself. And I was very disappointed when the Dust-Right 2-1/2″ adapter didn’t match up to a Ridgid 2-1/2″ hose connector.
I have often cut sections of the hose to in effect, leave a pig tail off of the tool so that the hose from the shop vac will plug in easily. So, one hose has given me about 5 or 6 tool connections. But this also means I needed more connectors than in the basic kit that Rockler sells. Seems like I bought a subset of those connectors at one time and didn’t have to buy the whole kit; I have several really small blue connectors that don’t fit anything.
I am surprised the 2 1/4″ O.D adapter fits loosely on your dust deputy, as on mine, they do not fit at all.
The I.D. of the vac adapter is 1 3/4″. Dust Deputy ports are 2″ O.D., tapering to 1 7/8″ O.D.
As you can imagine, 1 3/4″ I.D. will not go over 1 7/8″ O.D.
your local auto parts store will have exhaust pipe fitting adapters that work GREAT for this application
The hose must have a coiled steel spring in it. I accidentally dropped a magnet near my hose and it snapped right onto it. The magnet will stick to it from end to end. That should give everyone an idea how to prevent/discharge any static buildup. I think the hose setup is a good idea, but it’s definitely a “near hit”. I was a little disappointed, to say the least. It does do a good job when you can control the hose though.
A good review of the hose and adaptors. I agree with other comments that the hose is rather strong in that it will pull the vacuum or filter over when the hose is only partially open. The very small adaptor needs the soft material to be longer to adapt onto various units, I found it to be hard and not flexible enough and kept popping off, if it was flexible as per the larger adaptor there would not have been a problem. Overall, I found the kit to be a bit of a disappointment and the only piece that will get used a lot will be the larger of the two adaptors, a shame as it had so much potential. I hope they sell the adaptors on their own in the future.
I have noted one problem with the hose when connecting to my Shop Vac. The hose does not extend into the vacuum far enough to engage the bag. This causes my filter to clog up.
I built a cyclone separator to minimize shop vac filter clogging problems. You can also buy a low cost separator.
Very good review and commenting on the good and bad. I got bit sometime back from Rockler with their Dust Right 2-1/2″ Expandable hose. Complaints were that it was heavy and that it had a tendency to snap back to original size if something plugged it up. I had it attached to their (Blue) Dust Separator. As I was cleaning up the dust on my floor if anything plugged up the end, the Dust Separator would fly toward me and once tipped over would send all of the particulate matter into the shopvac instead of just the dust. I eventually gave up on that whole combination and got myself a “real” dust collection system.
When Rockler comes out with (hopefully) version two that is lighter and doesn’t have that snapback issue. I’ll definitely look into this but once burned….
That’s EXACTLY what happened to me with their Dust Right hose. One of the biggest wastes of money I’ve had with Rockler (and yes, I’ve had others). But the fact that they chose to use the same type of hose system on this makes it a deal-beaker for me as well.
Your review is very thorough. Yes we have a problem connecting to the dust deputy. I also have a problem connecting to my Makita Random Orbital Sander. So far, I am not that impressed with this product.
Nice overall review of this product and the problem every woodshop faces: how to connect every different manufacturer’s version of a a 2 1/2 inch port for instance. Walking down the plumbing isle one day we found flex couplers in 2 & 3 inch sixes for around $6. Now I can connect permanently by screwing the clamp down hard or make a removable connection by backing the clamp off just enough. No more duct tape. And I have good solid connections with no parasitic suction loss.
The last picture is my usual solution. It’s hard to beat a Duct Tape adapter both in availability and price. It will adapt almost anything to almost anything else. Just be sure to buy good Duct Tape, not that cheap crap from China that only sticks for the first five minutes.
Attaching a light weight steel chain to the hose (with a hose clamp) near the vacuum or separator and letting it drag on the floor. That will eliminate most if not all of the static charge. This is what I do with the vacuum hose attached to my drywall sander. I used to always get a shock when I went to shut the vacuum off. It eliminated the problem completely.
Attaching a light weight steel chain to the hose (with a hose clamp) near the vacuum or separator and letting it drag on the floor. That will eliminate most if not all of the static charge. That is what I do with my vacuum attachment for my drywall sander.
brilliant static control solution!
thanks for sharing!
I agree with you review but the thing I hate about the hose is the weight and when I hook it to my shop vac and use it the suction contracts the hose and pulls the shop vac to me witch makes it get in the way The rubber connecters also don’t fit tight on my millwaukee 1/4 sheet sander so to keep it from falling off I put a hose clamp on it
You are spot on…… the weight is a problem and it doesn’t fit everything. But, it’s better than anything out there. As you said, hopefully Rockler will start offering the parts seperately.
I like my kit as well and use almost daily. Two areas for improvement would be the weight of the hose and having to unscrew individual dust ports to fit the tool being used. At least the ports screw on with ease. I haven’t had a static shock issue with my kit.
Nice review and very informative. The “killer” for me is the static problem. It defies reason why manufacturers use such static-prone materials for dust collection applications. It seems so obvious…anti-static materials are what is needed for ALL dust collection hoses and accessories.
Excellent review. I have two such hoses. I really like them. I have found that I need to use hose clamps on most tools to keep the hoses on as the “universal” fittings usually will pop off during use. I never use the hose stretched more than 6′ or so as it will pull too much. When sanding I have found that using a small 5 gallon shop vac with a filter bag is preferable to using my dust collection system as the super fine dust will plug up the DC filter. I too hope Rockler will offer additional fittings ala carte for use with other tools. Using a heatgun and 1″ PVC couplings I have fabricated a number of adaptors for my other sanders. Overall, this hose is a vast improvement over other options.