Uses For An Old Vacuum Cleaner 

Wasn't aware of the universal motor bit. I learned something today. Thank you very much.

We'd been using an old vacuum like this for decades. An extra long hose let us connect it to routers and sanders etc, and when we are done we disconnect the machine and connect a circular brush to the hose to pick up any dust that escaped. We finally ran rain-water pipes around the workshop so we had convenient connection points for the hoses. It saved us a fortune instead of buying a purpose built extractor system.

You're a lifesaver! Every time I was supposed to take our old vacuum to the tip, I just threw it in the shed. I now have 4. One has become a potters wheel, but I'm just looking for other ideas. Which you have just given me! Thanks!

Good morning Robert, I have had this video in the back of my mind for some time now. I have a Dremel tool on a work stand which I use for light sanding and grinding. Of course it throws grit and dust everywhere. Just today I picked up an almost new cyclone vacuum cleaner from out local buy-nothing recycling group. Tear down and re-purpose begins shortly. Cheers!

I used an old shop vac and heat gun to build a vacuum forming box. Works great.

I get so many of these and they usually work, I am sure some people are so wealthy they just buy a new one when they become full.

The number of vacuum cleaners that are tossed is just unbelievable. I have half a dozen that I fixed and am using regularly. My house is just spotless. Was going to make a central vacuum system but for now I will just keep using the corded versions. Nice video fella. V

Old vacuum cleaners are always handy around woodworking tools. So many uses.

Great uses to give these discarded older vaccum cleaners another very useful lease on Life! Bravo!

You’re the McGaver of uses for everything!

I quite often get free hoovers thrown out on the scrap pile. I got a lovely Dyson that only needed a hose

Par excellence! My power outage volcano dust filtration system! Making sure I use a Hepa filter of course. I've been doing it the hard way all this time.

Great to see equipment getting reused instead of dumped.

If you have one that works with a blower connection you could make hover crafts or should I say Hoover crafts that could be kept under heavy things such as a refrigerator as the average Hoover would have enough power to lift a fridge this way and it can be a convenient way to move things sometimes. Keep up the good work.

Most commercial vacuums can also draw down hard enough to be used in thermoplastic vacuum molding, so that's another potential use for them that requires essentially no modification to the vacuum cleaner itself.

Brilliant! I had no idea that could work! Great stuff Robert!

Excellent work! Such a good idea, my chop saws are such a mess to run. I didn't know the universal motor trick with dc, always learn something new on your channel. Cheers from 🇨🇦

Robert "the womble" Murray-Smith LOL, love how you re-purpose old stuff, we could all learn from this. great video as always.

If the hose fits so neatly you should also show how you can disconnect it when your finished and use it to clean up what the saw has thrown out that the dust collector had originally missed. If I'm not mistaken, by the looks of it, you can unplug the hose and vacuum up the table around the saw.

I was told vacuum cleaners "get weak with age". I suspect that's why there are so many working vacuums in the bin. Now if we could only figure out how to make them quiet.

I bought a new vacuum. It really sucks! Great video please keep em commin.

Great ideas! I really enjoy repurposing bits and pieces.

Good one, Rob. If rigged as a jet pump blower, the gassifier could use a mostly plastic ex-vacuum cleaner with a short metal extension nozzle, and be resistant to heat. Salvaged metal tubing is easily used for a nozzle, and even a simple butterfly valve could throttle the airflow -- perhaps from a discarded carburetor or throttle body.

Another potential use. I made a pretty decent leaf blower from a PVC pipe and reducer, along with a motor, switch, and chord from the vacuum cleaner.

Well that defiantly did not suck 😉🧐 I enjoyed this video, there is an awful lot of vacuum`s thrown away, so next time I see one, I shall will be thinking about what I can use it for. Thanks Robert. Happy holidays to all.🎄✨🎄🎁🎄🎀🎄

cleaners are definitely one of the most reusable things. I hate it when I see them in the garbage because I can only scrap so many of them myself.

love it when you delight yourself with something. it really is a bright spot in the day.

I collect old discarded vacuum cleaners every time I see one. I have about a dozen, some of them still even work.

Great idea!! Got an old Dyson that I'm going to repurpose as a welding fume extractor, Merry Christmas Robert

I salvaged the auto-retracting powercord thingy from one for a battery-box project. Still to be made of course.

Similar thing already done, any bits on the work bench, just disconnect the hose from the saw and hoover up the bits. 👍

I built an arduino based cylinder head flow bench from a couple of old dysons and a MAF sensor from an Alfa.

Pretty good idea, thanks Robert!

Instead of attaching the tube to the saw make a funnel shape or scoop out of card board or a large plastic bottle with the end cut off placed to fit at the back of the saw to catch all the debris that flies out, should work a treat, !!

I had pet mice as a teen an used a hoover with a little window on an used it as a cage,I reckon they loved running round all those tube's an stuff

I really enjoy all of your videos they are full of great and useful information....thank you for posting so much free content... but to what i intended to say , i did a similar build with an old vacuum but the only difference is i wired the power from the vac to my switch on my chop saw that way its only on when im using the saw and no need for separate power source .... i fixed the cord from the vac to the hose of the collector to keep it out of the way ...works great for me....

Excellent Rob thanks.

Henry hoover is the one to look out for. All spares are available on Ebay.

Damn it ROB! Why do you have to be across the big pond? Come state side and we can repurpose industrial materials and tools till we're blue in the face! Lol

Great bit of information for my dusty wood cutting situation.

brilliant! generally a dodgy plastic bit breaks and most people bin the machine. if you put something like gassifier cyclone in the vac line you won't clog up the cleaner filters so quickly. Merry Christmas.

Turn it into a dog chaser for hours of laughs

ah I have a 1 foot square ultra small particle air filter I had planned for slowing air flow so dust would be trapped from my CNC unit since I have had experience with so much MDF dust, even nearly destroyed a 30 year old dremel that I was using for the head originally, (which sadly they designed to pull air in from the bottom and blow the air out the back near the AC cord, ie sucks up the dust and pulls it through all the bearing areas and such lol) luckily I saved that thing by pouring 3-in-1 machine oil on top of the bearings while rotating the shaft so it would soak in and flush out most of the grime, :) and yes it still works though once of these days I need to make wedges to push the bearings off and put some new ones on that tool as it is quite the useful tool. anyway on the dust collection I have seen it seems the trick is to use high suction over small tubing to grab it but dump this through a large container before it exits out the small hole on the other side so it moves more slowly across the larger diameter chamber where it gets stuck no long having the energy to keep it aloft, and they are built to disassemble and dump what has collected in there each day with the exception of a really large place that made 1000s of MDF based structures for stores and theirs it seemed was weight based so when it got enough weight of dust in the container it caused the bottom to drop down emptying and when empty and lighter the bottom was pushed or pulled back up with a spring sealing it up so t he air flow finished sucking it up to the bottom keeping it closed while continuing to pull that dust from their industrial routers LOL

It's very interesting to put the 230 V Universal Motor to 12 V DC because I thought 12 Volt too low. Another idea came up: Why not run those motor as a generator? My idea was to disconnect stator and rotor, put DC on the rotor and pic up AC on the stator. (I never tried, but should work)

Reckon I'll bring the broken Dirt Devil back inside now.. Thank you!

Excellent!

RMS, you can pull off the hose from your dust collector and clean the table of the saw. It will pick up the bits the saw leaves behind.

Morning Rob, vacuum cleaner fun.

I’ve found a lot of vacuum cleaners but I don’t think I’ve ever found a vacuum cleaner that was actually broken.

Great idea

Hey I have a chop saw that does the same thing.. stupid machine.. I have had it long enough that you would think it knew what to do by now! Another cool thing is carpet cleaners.. they have great little pumps in them for running cooling 🛢 oil or water over a work item you are drilling or machining.. Or even to use to pump out small areas that have become full of liquid.. Take car Rob.. this is always fun..

Here comes a cautionary message... A.c. switches don't hold up long to DC due to high arc. You probably are aware Of this.

Great idea boss :)

I think all you need with the original setup is a Tee fitting to have an air bleed to mix fresh air with the gasses to run the engine. Make a valve on the open air leg to adjust gas to fresh air and plumb to manifold.

Perfect I have 2 older style dysons where the foot plate has problems. I know what I’m doing with them now 😁😁😁👍🏼👍🏼

I wish I had a workshop the size of yours Bob. Mine is 10ft x5'6". It gets a bit crowded at times with all the kit I have!

How do you identify a universal motor? What details are you looking for? How do you determine the steps to convert it to DC?

you will get more gas if you use wood chips. charcoal is whats left after burning, most of the gas has gone already

I had a totally burned out Dyson that i left in my van with the backdoor unlocked over night, Some idiot stole it :o) Saved me skipping it, and made my day

Thanks

That's great, you can't beat the price. Hey, how is that new lazer working out for you?

Nice when you can be satisfied with someones throw a ways and help solve the landfill problems

Amazing video, does the motor work at the same speed and torque even when connected to 12v DC?

I looked in to gasifiers and isn't the part where you want to use the cyclone, normally clears the gas from the tars and other stuff? It would be hard to clean out the cyclone... Ones I have seen use a super course steel pads stuffed in a pipe that drains to a glass jar... And using vacs for woodworking... Make a Thein baffle... Holds more sawdust and chips, less cleaning out and you have more suction from the vacuum throughout the whole use until the baffle gets full... My shop vac, I never have to clean the filter and I'm using it a lot on a CNC, cutting grooves in MDF which is a lot of superfine dust... Before I built the baffle, I would get half way through a board and have to clean the shop vac filter... It would cover the filter like vacuuming up sheetrock dust.

Many folks don't realize that many things us Universal motors. AC/DC.

Fuxk .. that is just fantastic for the cut of saw : by the way have you any idea how much power the hoover motors can provide if turned simply by hand ? Thanks .

I hit me (a lot hits me when Im studying. Typical procrastinator :D ) That I could remodel the old vacuum cleaner and use it as a kitchen fan for my caravan. Thats how I found you channel :) So, now I´m wondering. I should have some kind of regulation (excuse my english, it´s my second languge) for the speed. Do you have any suggestions?

Do those kind of motors have centrifugal switches to change the way field coils and winding coils are wired, once it upto speed? Changes the torque v rpm curves etc. NB Such switches are often the cause of failure... And why "percussive maintance" can occasionally help.

A Blower is not essential for a gasifier. They can produce usable gas without. I've done it and ran an small 5HP engine.

How do you know how many volts and amps dc the motor can handle?

I see you keep your table quite clean... xD

How about running hover automatically from to the saws switch :)

From what I've seen from people fitting turbos to motorbikes having forced induction can be a problem regarding the carburettors function,can't remember exactly what complications are caused but it's mostly to do with running above ambient pressure,not that the vacuum cleaner is going to be anywhere as powerful! Thinking would an exhaust drawing system work? Ps there's a planetary alignment tonight!

I thought I had a crack in my screen. Lol.

Good idea I need away to clean magnets

I'm new to the membership thing here and don't know the best way to ask a question, so please let me know if this is the best way or if there's a way to get it in a more "on topic" way. Anyways I was curious about using HDPE as the thermosetting plastic to insert my graphene into, since I care more about the mechanical properties of the plastic than it's conductive properties. I was wondering if you could point me in the right direction to a solvent for HDPE and if it's miscible or rather miscible enough with water to not change the process a considerable amount. Again thank you for the wonderful knowledge and experience, I may be nee around here but it seems like a very caring and considerate community you've built here.

PS what's the current draw at 12V?

going to build a vacuum former? XD

Seriously dude, if your not busy making videos for us, you’re rummaging around bins! What time have you for yourself?

and even if some chunks escape you have a vacuum cleaner on the desk to suck the rest!

If the gas goes through the vacuum could the sparks from the commutator ignite it

how would you wire it so the vacuum will start when the saw does ty

I have a shop vac that I adapted to run through a cyclone dust separator ........ made from an old bucket! I have to be honest .... I got the cyclone section from the web for £7 but I simply made a flat plate to screw it onto. This fits snugly into the top of a plastic bucket. The vacuum was a tad strong so I ended up screwing a couple of pieces of wood to the inside of the bucket to stop it bellowing in and to keep the top plate flat (the vacuum holds it tight and sucks any small air leaks shut)! No more cleaning out those faffy little filters! This gives me a whole bucket full of sawdust and chippings that is easy to empty out and the filter in the vac needs emptying once a season (if I feel like it) ;0) I find in my "shop" it works best to have this stationary with a hose that will stretch to the tools .... but if you have a bigger shop and a spare pallet you cn easily construct a "cart" to drag it round! There is a problem though ..... watching those chips spiraling down the clear cyclone section can be a bit addictive!

Problem is my definition of an old vacuum cleaner is when the motor packs up. What you have is vacuum cleaners, that just need cleaning and selling on.

Kooool

now build an ebike😂

I did something like this a month ago with plans from Woodglut.