After our company had painted and decorated the interior of an ornate 19th-century church, we had to install a new sound system. This meant drilling through a 20-in. thick plaster and brick wall located directly over a gilded ornamental plaster arch. To prevent a disastrous mess of fine brick powder filtering down upon the arch, I devised the vacuum fitting shown in the drawing to contain and collect the dust.
The fitting consisted of a 3-in. diameter cardboard mailing tube about 8 in. long, and a thin gasket of foam rubber to seal the space between the wall and the end of the tube. I cut a hole into the side of the tube to receive a vacuum hose, which I taped to the fitting for an airtight seal. As we drilled into the wall with a heavy-duty hammer drill and a 30-in. masonry bit, the dust was contained within the cardboard tube and immediately sucked up by the vacuum. The hole was drilled without a trace of dust reaching the arch.
Jeff Kerbeykian, Rego Park, NY
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #28
View Comments
Cool
That's pretty darn cool.
If you paint it green, you could sell it for $200. :-)
Why did you not use PVC? Very nice idea though.
Nice