Tools that work & Etc.

[ebb]

Was born with a metal can Shop Vac. Hated it. Hated it for YEARS. Nothing stayed together.
Pulled on the hose the plug would pull out of the wall. Try vacuuming with hose extensions and everything would pull out of everything else. Use just the hose and it would drop out of the vac.

Worked recently with a giant Rigid for years on the boat. It ate a lot of glass. Kept sucking until you had to empty the enormous bucket. Most of the stuff was impacted in the pleated filter. Couldn't replace the filter because a new one cost too much - so it got a lot banging and whacking to clean it. When I did, the vac acted new for awhile.
I ran a hose from the exhaust side out of the boat. Didn't phase it.
But it was too big any more and had to go.

Now I have a smaller 'cannister' type Rigid, the type with two cart wheels that you pull around with the hose. It does not have enough power to have hose attached to the exhaust side. Can't lock the wheels so the damn thing moves all the time like grease.
It was fairly cheap but it really is a PITA.
And it's loud. The on/off switch works OK in one direction but not the other. Halfass.


Looking forward
I really wanted a vac that would do well with an oscillating 5" 8hole sander for seasonal bottom work - but also anything else around the boat requiring dustless - which is absolutely everything around the boat. I have used the Festool right angle 5" oscillating sander with the matched vac. ( I don't like working with palm or vertical sanders.)
That's about $1200 right there, before the special hook and loop deutsch disks you have to buy to fit the import platen..

So far here in this thread the Porter Cable 5"RO gets good marks.
I don't know if I can just jump back to a ShopVac I guess the PC Vac is axed by a poster here....... I'm at a loss for a good small vac.

So what is a good combo?
Need a well designed, light, easy to hold oscillator with an inexpensive source for 60grit.
Would be great if common 5" 8-hole papers could be used.
Need a small, powerful, QUIET, easy to maintain, light weight vac (washable cloth filters rather than paper) maybe wetvac feature as well. One that likes the sander it is attached to.

When I get hauled for a DIY bottom job I want to at least appear to know what I'm doing -
and I don't want to switch on a loud vac and an annoying whining sander. Do I want to attract that kind of attention? And want to avoid draping the boat with blue plastic to keep dust contained. Ideas?
Seriously.