I was sitting on the “thinking chair” when I came up with a “good” idea.
But I need some feedback from the well of knowledge that is Breaktime.
?: Do those Cyclone lids for trash barrels work?
Here is my idea: take a Large trash can and line with a contractors garbage bag.
To keep bag from collapseing take a 1-size-smaller plastic can, cut out the bottom and put inside the contractor bag which is inside te bigger can.
Then put a cyclone lid on top and hook up to a shop vac.
Insulation gets deposited in the can, and when it is time to empty you can pull the bottomless can out and have a bag full of insulation ready for disposal!!
If the cyclone lids wont separate the insul. well enough how about a real cyclone seperator on top??
Ok guys let’er rip, let me know what you think.
Any pointers or political advice [;)]is welcome!!
Mr T
Do not try this at home!
I am an Experienced Professional!
Replies
I think your idea would work. Although the insulation is light i suspect its heavy enough that most would fall in the bag. Although I havent used the cyclone lid you speak of I think they seperate all but the finest dust. BTW get some of those extra large zip ties and secure the bags to the trash can that way.
I tried your idea once. Bought a plastic can with lid, cut two holes in lid, fed one hose from vac to can, one hose from can to insulation. Oddly it worked great for one can full. Then the vac sucked in the sides of the plastic can (should have used metal can). Next it seemed to work but I found the insulation didn't settle into the can and blew right through to the vac. I think it's a good idea. I just wasn't doing enough removal to justify tweaking my set up. I like your double can with trash bag idea.
Smile. It could be worse. You could be me working for you.
The cyclone lids that Mr T talks abought are specificly engeneered to create a vortex inside the can that will seperate out the heaveir debris. Your home grown version didnt have that benifit(no offense)
If the job is large enough this would actually be feasible. Have you ever seen one of those vactron units? These are oversized vacuums which are truck or trailer mounted. They use a oversized supercharger to produce a pretty strong vacuum. You can use that crummy corrugated black plastic drain pipe to extend the hose. I'd still use a flexible hose at the end so it's more user friendly. This thing will suck blown insulation all day. Then you can take the full tank over to the local landfill and tip it. It couldn't be any easier!
Should work. I have used mikeys' idea using a 55 gallon drum and a vac truck to lift sludge out of the bottom of hydrolic lifts pits. I have also used a 5 gal. bucket and shop vac to clean out commercial gease traps. Both times it kept the nasties out of the vacums.
To refine your idea. Us a small can with a slide in bottom mounted on top of a large can with an appropriate size donut ring for the botton of the small can. But the trash bag in the large can. Suction into the unlined small can and harvest into the bag by sliding out the bottom of the small can. You don't have to wrestle with the can in a can and insulation.
If you patent this, do I get a cut?
Dave
Too little, too late.
There was a thread about 1-2 years ago where someone did exactly that if I remember the details.
On Hometime last year they did an atic with the HO doing a lot of the work. He used a leaf blower/vac which had a "bonnit" that fit over the garage can. The advantage to that is the can is always positive pressure so there is no problem with having a bad in it.
The big disadvantage is the that the exhaust air was still in the attic so you had to deal with the fine dust.
Amazing. Just reading this topic made my back hurt again. I removed around 1000 lbs of loose rockwool and roofing debris (think 30-40 of those 42 gallon contractor bags) from my attic using a jet DC650 connected by a 10ft piece of 4" pipe to a 32 gallon trash lid seperator that in turn was fed by another 10 ft section of 4" and one or two 7 ft sections of shop vac hose and various wands. After awhile I replaced the lower bag with a contractor bag, and had to change it about every 5 trash cans of debris. The nails and large stuff were collected in the can. For the fine dust I ran an AFS 1000 and wore a Wilson HEPA mask. When water is dripping from the exhale port on the mask, you've been in the attic too long. Afterwards I steam vac'd the carpets to get the remainder. I'd estimate that at most 4-8 oz of that 1000 lbs wasn't collected by either system. The outer filter of the AFS was particularly nasty. That was one job I was glad I did and equally glad I'll never have to do again, at least in this house.
there is a guy on ebay that sells a deal thats a 3" stainless steal pipe with an air fitting (big compressor jackhammer size) that uses the compressed air to create the vac... you can attach a hose to this and let it flow to whatever... he says you can clean footings (water & mud) ect with this deal... I've seen a like unit used to remove balast rock from a flat roof... it removed it to a pile and replaced it back on the roof...
if this deal would work... i'd build a wire or plywood cage on a 16' trailer and filler er up... the commerical insulation removers (blowers)i've seen look like parking lot blowers with a hose on em... i know you can put a hose on the front of my billygoat
pony
I have used a 5 gallon pail with water in it. Got the idea from those kits sold for drywall sanding, but I set it up for bigger hoses. Pipes go through cover. Intake pipe goes underwater near bottom, outlet feeds from top. Heavier than dry removal, but it works to keep the shop-vac filter clear, and the dust to a minimum. You can line up a row of pails, and just move the cover when they are full.
I pour the waste water through a mesh bag, like the kind lawnseed comes in, then dispose of the solids.
For smaller dusty projects, I use a Rainbow Vacuum, which can be had for cheap on the used market. Rainbow uses the same 'water filter' concept.
Another way to remove it is to have a company that blows it in suck it out. I saw this done on a fire restoration job 20 years ago.
Smile. It could be worse. You could be me working for you.
I bought a 1200cfm Delta dust collector. It worked great! I used heavy duty plastic bags on the bottom left the factory bag on the top. When I was finished I took it to my woodshop.
Tim Kiser
I've used a leaf blower/vac (Toro) and replaced the vac bag with a length of flex dryer vent ductaped on instead. This works well if you just want to relocate it in the same attic. Very dusty but effective.
P.S. Always make sure to wear a mask.
This would of course be the "conservative " thing to do. ;-)
Edited 1/21/2004 10:38:11 PM ET by splinter
I just spent a few hours this past week cleaning out the floor-stripping sludge sucked up in the shop vac. The double-bucket idea is brilliantly simple. Why didn't I think of that? Next time... ;o)