For reasons I cannot understand, or prefer not to understand, people
discard perfectly useful items because of minor or imaginary
defects. Where I live, (Victoria, BC) they often assuage the guilt
they may feel over their wastefulness by placing these out on the
street where other folks, presumably less fortunate or more
desperate, might take them for further use. There is an
ever-changing display of once-valued items lining the curbsides. At
the moment the most common offerings seem to be large “box” TV
sets, displaced by the newer flat screen types. In recent times
there were many desktop computers, having been supplanted by
laptops or ipads. There are always old sofas, easy chairs, and
mattresses. Old windows, doors, and kitchen sinks are also common.
Now to the problem at hand, dust collectors. We are building a new
house and are at the finishing stage where the house is nearly
habitable
but various bits of dust-producing work continue in various rooms. A
vacuum cleaner must be handy to keep the detritus from spreading to
finished surfaces. Mirabile dictu, there has been a fine crop of
discarded and perfectly functional vacuum cleaners out on the street
of late, ready to be harvested. I now have 4 at the construction
site, my original store-bought model and three freebies. One is
always handy almost anywhere in the house. The big bonus is that
one of the freebies came along with 23 unused filter bags - retail
value close to $100. Why do people discard them? In one case just
one of the little attachments was cracked where it slipped onto the
"wand" - all other parts in fine shape. One swift turn of duct tape
repaired the damage. In another case the people had apparently used
their machine to vacuum outdoors and had clogged the flexible hose
with pine needles and grass clippings. This problem exceeded their
competence and so out it went - a $700 machine in near-new
condition, complete with accessories!
Handy hint department - if your vacuum hose is clogged just hold the
hose vertically and drop an item like a big bolt or 6" piece of
rebar, anything heavy and cylindrical - down the tube. Best to do
this from the end of the hose which attaches to the vacuum. If
there is a bent segment of tube which cannot be detached from the
hose, make sure the weighty object is not so long that it might get
stuck at a bend. You may have to shake the tube up and down for a
moment or two to loosen the
obstruction but I don’t believe I’ve ever spent more than ten
seconds at this most strenuous part of the process. The bolt will
emerge at the bottom end, pushing the obstructing wad ahead of it.
So it seems that vacuum cleaners are thick on the ground if you keep
your eyes open. Some of them are a bit noisy, but since we put up
with them in our ordinary housecleaning routines, why not in our
studios? Unless you are into mass-production, requiring the machine
to run all day, the exposure to noise will be brief and sporadic.
So why not find a free vacuum, hook the hose up to the enclosure of
your buffer, and there you go - dust collector, with built-in
filter to collect dust for refining if you’re working with precious
materials worth salvaging.
Another possibility I’'d consider, if you’re handy - Get ahold of an
old stainless steel kitchen sink and mount it in the bench in your
"polishing centre". Use some kind of sturdy screen or grill to cover
the sink. It may need to be supported by some openwork structure
below so as to support the weight of your buffer. Mount the buffer
on top of the screen with openings in the back or bottom of its
enclosure so that air can be drawn down and away from you. Remove
the sink drain and attach by whatever ingenious means you can
devise a 3" or 4" diameter hose such as is used to vent clothing
dryers. Run that to a largish box fitted at the top with a bathroom
exhaust fan which vents to the outside. Now you have a downdraft
table, Dropped items will land on the screen and not be lost. Dust
particles will settle at the bottom of the sink or in the box where
the air will slow down upon entering before
being drawn up to the fan at the top.
Some “sweat equity” involved in these approaches - but if the cost
of a purpose-made buffer exhaust system is an obstacle, these ideas
can help to overcome. The bits and pieces can all be found for free
or at trivial cost.
Cheers,
Marty