by Lou Bush
I’ve had my canister-filter dust-collection system for about two years. It works great, but I figured out a new way to get it super clean.Some high-end shop vacuums clean their filters using a built-in vibrator. I asked myself, “Why not adapt this idea?” The last time I emptied my dust collector, I cleaned the filter as recommended by the manufacturer by rotating the internal flappers two or three times. Then I removed the sandpaper from my random-orbit sander and placed a small piece of material cut from a nonslip router pad under the sander. I used the sander with very light pressure to vibrate the canister’s top and sides. A lot more dust shook out of the filter in just a couple minutes.