I have a confession to make. Once upon a time, I lost the one stupid adapter that would connect my Makita compound sliding miter saw to my shop vac hose. For years it was attached with…yup, you guessed it, duct tape. DUCT TAPE. I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s true. To say that dust collection ports on power tools are non-standardized would be a major understatement. This is one of those areas where tool companies seem to love to throw proprietary features on their equipment, and for no apparent reason whatsoever! I don’t get it! Can’t we all just get along? Round, square, oval, 1”, 1 ¼”, 1 ½”… ridiculous. It appears that woodworking wundershop Rockler (a Home Fixated sponsor) has heard our pleas. They sent us their new Dust Right Kit to review.
The new Dust Right Universal Small Port Hose Kit Adapter is such a simple device, it is easy to almost overlook its elegance. The kit includes two sizes of flexible rubber dust ports—1”, 1-1/2” that flex to fit on almost any tool, plus a 2-1/4” port that connects to most shop vacuums and dust collectors. The tool-end ports are designed with a slight elbow that helps lift the dust hose off of your work, and these boots are amazingly stretchy, fitting tightly around even non-round dust ports. I even dragged out my ancient Rockwell belt sander, which I call “the boat anchor” because it is so huge and heavy. This is another long-time recipient of the duct tape adapter treatment.
The ends reverse thread into the hose, which is awesome… no more tugging on barbed connectors or stacking multiple adapters up to get the right connector size. The connectors spin on and off in a flash with no struggle. And this hose…Holy crap, this thing is a marvel in and of itself! It comes out of the box a scant 36 inches long, but stretches easily to 15 feet. No, I don’t know how it works, but it does! And, it springs right back into shape. There isn’t even very much tension in the hose when it get’s extended, so you don’t feel like you are fighting the hose all of the time. Also, it’s made of soft rubber, so it doesn’t scrape across a surface the way an old plastic dust hose will.
I’m not the only fella out there that has fallen in love with this dust collector kit. Wood Magazine bestowed its 2015 Innov8 Award on this modest little fella. Wood writes:
“For years, we’ve asked tool-makers to standardize dust-port sizes on portable power tools. Currently, you have a slim chance of hooking up a tool to a shop-vacuum hose of a different brand without using an adapter (or duct tape). Rockler’s new swiveling rubber dust-port nozzles come in three sizes-1″, 1 1/2″, and 2 1/4″-and flex to fit on almost any tool. They thread into the included flexible dust hose, which has a standard 2 1/4″ opening that fits most shop vacuums and dust extractors and stretches up to 15′.”
See? DUCT TAPE! I’m not alone!!! You can pick up The Dust Right kit for just under $40 from Rockler.
Duct Tape! I thought this was the universal adapter! Looks like I am wrong again. Please don’t tell my kids. I have them convinced I am never wrong. Darn guess I am wrong again.
I will have to ask the boss (lady) if I can spend money on this item. Maybe if I win this months Bosch Barrel-Grip Jig Saw give away and let her use it she will let me spend the savings on this adapter set.
No wonder it won an award, this is a smart product.