The vacuum is only a 2" house system, mounted on the workshop wall. The hose goes in the hole in the top of the hood. Because I work in the shop without heating - the climate here is temperate year-round - I have vented the vacuum system outside. The sander was unusable until I did that! Loads of submicron dust in the air that you can't see, only smell, makes you cough for days after breathing it even only for five minutes - dangerous stuff, extraordinarily unhealthy. Don't even consider using a sander like this unless you have good dust extraction.