J. Phil Thien's Projects

Hello!

I've had this running for a while and I'm very pleased with it so far. Using a ordinary vacuum cleaner  found in a dumpster as a blower. I may build a "real" blower in the future but I'm in no hurry...

I've used a trash can bin in stainless steel for the walls. I made a prototype with clear plastic but it cracked more and more. It is a rather small radius...Now its clear plastic in the top and the baffle instead. Good to see if any shavings get stuck on the baffle. Happened a few times when doing hand planing.

Bell mouth outlet made by a water spray bottle (!)

Extremely fine dust makes it to the walls of the bag in the vacuum cleaner but it is very small amounts, I've emtied the dust bin at least 10 times and it is still just on the wall. The bag and the HEPA filter in the cleaner hopefully makes the dust stay there and not entering the room again.

Thanks Phil and everybody contributing to this forum!

I love this build particularly the bell mouth. I think it is great to use material gleaned from trash (rubbish) bins etc. and use it so creatively. My daughter has banned me from extracting any more material from same. Still do though.

The plastic probably cracked because it was acrylic (Perspex, Plexiglass etc. ) most other plastic will not crack and polycarbonate is particularly good for curved surfaces.

Thanks Bernard!

Yes it is fascinating what people throw away. This vacuum cleaner had cracked in the plastic in the nozzle, but other than that I can't find anything wrong with it. It's 2200 W Bosch that's quiet and has a lot of suction power, even better than my nilfisk shopvac it seems! And the combo with the separator gets much smaller..

But it would be fun to build a blower like the one Matthias Wandel published not so long ago.

You're right about the plastic. I found out the hard way to avoid bending acrylic (even though it wasn't the same thickness as the top and baffle is now obviously).