Frequently Asked Questions

Tool ports and vacuum hoses were never built to one standard. Each tool brand picks its own port size and each vacuum brand picks its own hose end. The label on a part is a trade name, not a measured size, so two parts marked the same often miss by a few millimeters.

We currently have adapters for Milwaukee, DeWalt, Makita, Festool, Ryobi, Bosch, and more. New tool models are added regularly. Use our configurator to search for your specific tool.

Hose and duct sizes are the ones that repeat. Most US shop vacs use a 1-7/8 inch (47.6mm) hose. Large shop vacs and jobsite table saws use 2-1/2 inch (63.5mm). Small cordless vacs use 1-1/4 inch (31.75mm). Festool extractors run a 27mm hose. Central dust collection duct runs 4 inch. Tool ports are the wild side, because every brand picks its own. Use our configurator, pick your tool, and it gives you the part that fits it.

Our adapters are made for a friction fit. Snug enough to hold without tape, but you can still pull one off by hand. Every adapter is built for the port on your tool, so it seats and stays put. If a part shows up damaged or with a print defect, email info@gulpdust.com within 30 days with your order number and a photo. We reprint it or refund you, your pick, and you keep the part you have.

Yes. We have adapters for Festool CT Mini, CT Midi, CT 26, CT 36, and CT 48 extractors. Festool uses a 27mm hose system. Our configurator matches Festool ports correctly.

Yes. Most standard US shop vacs use 1-7/8 inch (47.6mm) hoses. Large shop vacs (16 gallon and up) often use 2-1/2 inch hoses. Our adapters step up from your tool's port size to whatever hose size your vac uses. The configurator asks about your vac, not just your tool, so the adapter covers both ends.

We make an adapter that fits the dust port on the Milwaukee M18 FUEL circular saws (2731-20, 2732-20). It steps that port up to a standard 1-7/8 in. shop vac hose. The Milwaukee M18 FUEL compact shop vac (0882-20) uses a 1-7/8 in. hose too, so the same adapter covers it. Use our configurator, pick your M18 FUEL saw and your vac, and it shows you the part that joins them.

We make an adapter that fits the dust port on DeWalt 20V MAX circular saws. For a standard shop vac with a 1-7/8 in. hose, that adapter steps the saw port up to the hose. The DeWalt DCV517B compact cordless vac uses a 1-1/4 in. hose, so pick the version built for that hose end. The DeWalt DCV586B uses a 1-7/8 in. hose, so the standard one applies.

Makita LXT 18V and XGT 40V tools use a bigger dust port than Milwaukee and DeWalt tools, so they take their own adapter. It fits the Makita port and steps up to a standard 1-7/8 inch shop vac hose. If you run a Makita XCV04Z or XCV10Z cordless vac, those use a 1-7/8 inch hose too, so the same adapter applies.

Because no two brands settled on the same port. A part built for one brand sits loose on another, or will not slide on at all. That is the whole reason this catalog exists. Pick your tool in the configurator and we give you the part built for it, so you never have to work out which brand matches which.

The easiest way is to use our tool database. Search by brand and model number and we show you the adapter built for it, so you never need the number at all. If your tool is not in the database, the configurator builds one from your own two sizes and walks you through taking them.

Contact info@gulpdust.com with a photo of your tool's dust port and your order number. If we sized the part wrong, we reprint it to the right size or refund you, your pick, and you keep the part you have. If your port reads different from the one the part was built for, we tell you which size to order instead.

No. It is the most common shop vac size in the US, and it is also the size people most often report failing to fit across brands. Some pairs are snug, some need a clamp, and some will not go together at all. The size is standard. The fit is not.

No. One shop builder measured nominal 4 in. thin wall pipe at about 4.2 in. across the outside, and nominal 6 in. at about 6.25 in. The number on the label is a trade name, not a measurement. That gap is why a fitting labeled the same size as your pipe often will not seat on it. Measure your own pipe.

Tape holds a loose part on, and it is the most common fix in any shop. It is not a seal. Fine dust works into the seam under the tape and the bond lets go. Use tape to prove a size will work, then build or buy the part that does not need it.

All GulpDust adapters are printed in PETG (Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol). PETG handles heat up to 80°C, resists workshop solvents, and is much tougher than PLA. It will not warp in a hot car or crack from drops. We do not offer PLA versions, PETG is the right material for this job.

We print every adapter to order in PETG, then ship it from the USA. Ships in 3 to 5 business days. We email you tracking when the package goes out, and delivery time after that is up to the carrier.

Shipping is a flat $7.95 anywhere in the US, no matter how many adapters you order. You pay it once per order, not once per part. We ship to US addresses only right now.

You never ship a part back to us. We do not send return labels and we do not take returns at any address. If a part is damaged, defective, or the wrong item, email info@gulpdust.com within 30 days with your order number and a photo, and you pick a reprint or a refund. If you simply changed your mind, ask within 30 days and we refund the item price and you keep the item. Shipping is refunded when the mistake is ours.

No. We sell the finished part. Every adapter is printed to order in PETG and shipped from the USA. The compatibility work and the shapes stay ours, and the part in the box is what you are buying.

Yes. When you use the configurator and no adapter exists for your tool and vacuum combination, you will see a request form. Enter your email and we add it to the request list for that adapter. We do not give a date. A new size has to be drawn, printed, and checked first.

PETG filament at a 0.2mm layer height, 3 to 4 perimeter walls, and 20 to 25 percent infill. The part prints standing up with the tapered end down, so it needs no supports and the walls stay smooth where the hose grips. PETG is the choice because PLA softens in a hot shop or a hot truck.

Yes. We make adapters that step up from your tool's small port to standard 2-1/2 in. or 4 in. central duct sizes. Check our duct reducers category. For a wall-mounted 4-inch port, you need a tool-port-to-2.5-inch adapter and a 2.5-inch-to-4-inch reducer. The configurator handles this automatically if you select your duct size as the output.

People do it and it works. Two limits. Plumbing tees and elbows turn sharply, because water does not care about a corner and dust does, so they cost airflow and give material a place to stack up. General HVAC duct is built for air blowing away from a fan, not for a system pulling a vacuum, so its seams leak. A rubber flexible plumbing coupling is genuinely the right answer when the mismatch is a shape problem rather than a size problem.

Use a wye when you have the room. A wye merges the branch at a gentle angle, so the air keeps most of its speed. A tee turns it a hard 90 degrees, which costs more airflow and gives material a corner to stack up in.

There is no fixed number, and anyone quoting one is guessing. What shop builders actually do is replace one tight 90 with two 45 degree elbows and a short straight piece between them. The straight piece is what makes it a wider turn instead of a 90 with an extra seam.

CFM means cubic feet per minute. It is how much air a machine moves. Big stationary tools like table saws and planers need a lot of it. Small handheld tools need pressure more than volume. Published CFM is usually measured with nothing attached, so treat it as a ceiling rather than the number you will get at the tool.

Yes, more than most people expect. The air a duct carries scales with the square of its diameter, not the diameter itself. Going from 2 in. to 4 in. roughly quadruples carrying capacity. Keep the main line as large as you can for as long as you can, and only step down at the tool.

No. We make no static claim of any kind about any part we sell. Our parts join a tool port to a hose and that is the whole job. Whether to ground PVC duct is a separate question, and it has no settled answer. Builders who ground their pipe often report the shocks stopping. An electrician who tested PVC with a meter says outside wire drains almost nothing. Our guide lays out every side of it.

A blast gate is a shutoff valve in a dust duct. It opens or closes the air to one branch. You need gates once your collector feeds more than one machine, because otherwise the air splits between every open branch and the tool you are using gets less of it.

Most closed-gate leaks come from the slot the blade slides in. The blade needs room to move, and that room is an open air path. Packed dust under the blade holds it a little open too. Some gates leak because they were mounted backward.

Fine dust falls into the track under the blade. Pushing the blade closed packs that dust into a hard plug, so the blade stops before it seals. Our self-cleaning gate holds the blade in an open gap so the dust falls out instead of packing in.

A cyclone separator sits between your tool and your shop vac. It spins debris in a circle so most of the dust falls into a bucket before it ever reaches your shop vac filter. This keeps filters from clogging and suction strong. If your filter clogs quickly, a separator is worth adding. See our guide on cyclone separators for sizing and setup.

Because it is catching everything at once. With no bag or separator in front of it, the filter takes the bulk chips and the fine dust together, and the bulk packs the media quickly. Add a stage in front and the filter goes back to being the last line instead of the first.

HEPA is a defined filter standard, set at a particle size of 0.3 micron. That size is the hardest for any filter to trap. Not every product using the word publishes test data behind it, so look for independent testing. GulpDust makes no filters and makes no filtration claim about any part we sell.

A lower micron number means finer filtration. Stock bags sit around 5 micron and catch chips well but fine dust poorly. Pleated canisters go finer with less airflow penalty, because they pack more surface area into the same space. Whatever rating you pick, a stage in front of it is what keeps it working.

No. Our parts connect a tool to a vacuum or collector without leaking at the joint. That is the whole job. We do not make air cleaners, filters, or masks, and we make no claim about the air in your shop.

A floor sweep is a low slot mounted at floor level and wired into your dust duct. You push a pile at it with a broom and the suction takes it. Put it where the mess already lands, usually the wall behind a saw station or the end of the walkway you sweep toward anyway.

Square inside corners trap debris. Material stops in the corner, more piles on top of it, and the slot chokes. Angling the inside faces so everything points at the duct opening fixes it.

A miter saw throws dust in a wide arc out the back, and the stock port only sees a small slice of it. Swapping the bag that came with the saw for a hose is the first fix. Adding a hood behind the saw catches the rest of the arc. No hood catches all of it, so expect some escape on partial cuts and edge work.

Household vacuums like Dyson and Miele are not ideal for workshop dust collection. Their ports are typically 25mm to 35mm, they lack the airflow volume needed for sawdust, and their filters clog quickly with heavy chips. We do list adapter sizes across that 25mm to 35mm range. Pick your vacuum in the configurator and we size the part to it.

For most home workshop use, a regular shop vac works well. A 5 to 9 gallon shop vac with a HEPA filter handles circular saws, jigsaws, and sanders fine. A dedicated dust extractor (like Festool CT or Bosch GAS) filters more finely, has better auto-start, and is quieter. If you sand exotic woods, cut MDF, or work indoors without good ventilation, a dust extractor is worth the upgrade. For framing, rough cuts, and garage workshops, a shop vac is enough.

A shop vac is a general wet and dry vacuum that moves a small amount of air very hard. A dust extractor is the same idea built for tool dust, with fine filtration, suction you can dial down, and an outlet that starts the machine when your tool runs. A dust collector moves a huge amount of air gently, for big stationary machines.