This tip courtesy of Rad Davis, who mentioned he let his go too far... If you wait until you can see stuff in the little window there is no way you're going to be able to lift the bag to empty it! While pipe making we make mostly very fine sanding dust, which is really dense once it collects for a while. This is much different than saw dust or planer shavings, which these things are designed for. So, I finally got around to emptying my dust collector this morning. It only had about a foot of accumulation in the bottom of the bag, but I was barley able to lift it! Must have weighed close to 100 lbs!
On a related note, I finally got around to buying a fire extinguisher for the shop, also due to a cautionary tale from Rad. Turns out he's not only a fantastic pipe maker, but he also learns from a few mistakes made along the way, and is willing to pass that hard earned knowledge along to the rest of us. Thanks, Rad, I owe you a beer, if not something older and stronger
