HELP! How catch dust in vaccuum when drilling wall?

There had. You were using OE.

Reply to
John Cartmell
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Get an envelope. Ideally DL size, with the flap on the top not the end (typical "A4 folded in 3" commercial envelope - recycle your junkmail for one).

Poke the two bottom corners in, so the the envelope bulges outwards and is an inch or two "thick" at the top edge.

Use a few inches masking tape to tape the envelope flap to the wall, just below the drill hole. Single sided tape, half on the envelope, half on the wall. Don't press the tape down too hard, or it may lift paint from the wall.

Drill. Catch the dust in the open and gaping envelope.

Blow or brush gently to knock the dust off the tape's top edge.

Remove envelope, taking care not to rip the wall off with the tape.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

me too some people make more work being clean than the entire job involves:(

Reply to
hallerb

Concur with all of above: just want to mention that the dust 'cascades' over the masking tape and down into the envelope. The 'few inches' of masking tape is to catch the dust as it exits the hole in a fan-shape .

Reply to
Brian Sharrock

Reply to
Goedjn

Clearly you need a short length of dryer-hose, a bread-bag, and a roll of tape.

Reply to
Goedjn

Before we start the "which browser / NG reader" Holy War, I think we should first agree on an Operating System to run the Chosen One in...

Windows XP or Linux ? (or Maybe MacOS X, now that it will be available for x86)

8-)

Reply to
Chris Styles

I had thought the envelope trick was smarter than it seems and I thought it aimed to emulate a DustBubble buy formeing a sealed pocket of air inside the envelope with the drill bill poking through some part which was reinforced by masking tape. But it seems the envelope trick is effectively nothing more than an ashtray stuck on the wall under the drill bit.

I'm sorry to tell you that your technique (and seemingly that of thousands of others) to, er, catch the falling debris is just, well, it's not a technique really is it?

I might as well have someone hold a dustpan below the hole. At least the dustpan has a slightly wider catchment span than a typical envelope and the dustpan should be able to use your technique to even greater effect.

But of course you would realise that even a child of 14 would have considered catching the falling debris as the first option to try and so when I ask in my OP on how to trap the dust I'm not really talking about the dust which immediately falls to earth but the dust which can float on air currents and thermals. In this thread last Saturday John Rumm pointed out that we seems to be referring to two types of debris here. And I'm referring to what John calls the "sub-micron" dust. (Now don't get a microscope out and tell me it is actually five microns in diameter because I'm sure you know what that is saying!)

I once had plaster dust (as it happens, from a large part of a downstairs ceiling thanks to some workmen) travel up a flight of stairs and across a room and deposit itself quite noticeably. That's the sort of stuff I want to catch. And your open envelope ashtray trick just won't cut the mustard for this one.

Reply to
David Peters

Hmm. that's a nice little project. But the drum (a.k.a. dustbin) is large. Maybe it needs to be so large for the centrifugal effect to work.

I'm starting to favour using a pre-filter. The only problem is that the motor seems to feel it is working against a blockage with very little air being drawn up the hose. And that may lead to too much load on the motor itself.

Now I did see a nifty little kit for only £1 for attaching to a domestic vaccuum cleaner which could then be used to clean a PC. It had a vented coupling attachment to limit the vacuum suction ann lower the load on the motor. Something like that might work well. In fact all that's really needed is to cut some air intake holes in the vaccuum cleaner extension or hose or whatever part is most appropriate.

Then maybe the trick is to work out the best filter material. Glass wool would be nice but particles are likely to pass into the vaccuum cleaner and out through its filter and into the exhaust air. But maybe a thick enough was of cotton wool or a section of a vaccuum cleaner filter bag (assuming they are made of a carefully chosen material to llow air flow but trap dust). Oddly enough I found that something as simple and unexpected as a few layers of a J-cloth did a respectable job. Dense fabric like Egyptian cotton or upholstery fabric might also work well enough. It would seem that most of these wouls let the sub-micorn stuff through but in practise they seems to trap quite a lot.

And this method is good for evacuating the drilled hole of debris while drilling so that a faster cut is achieved and it also prevents possible clogging when putting in a wallplug.

Reply to
David Peters

Which NG reader is obvious - Pluto. There is no choice about the OS. ;-)

Reply to
John Cartmell

Yup, now you are getting it!

Depends on how much you like heavy (and possibly staining) masonry dust in your carpet. If that is the problem you are trying to solve, it is a very effective technique.

If you have three hands, it will work almost as well. Tape it to the wall and it would be almost as good (except SWMBO may get miffed when you fold up the dustpan and lob it in the bin!) The "envelope" does have the advantage that you can fashion one from any bit of paper to hand in most situations.

Might help if you were a little more specific with the first question then ;-)

It needs to be fairly dinky stuff to stay airbourne.

Quite agree, was not suggesting it might.

Reply to
John Rumm

Smaller cyclones (and ones with more taper) will give more air acceleration and hence better fine dust removal. The one I built was more of a chip and sawdust separater - its purpose was to collect all the granulr stuff and stop the vac getting full in five mins. So in its current form would not suit what you want.

To get very effective collection of the finest stuff with a cyclone requires a fair bit of suction and air flow to overcome the resistance of the cyclone.

It is more of a cooling issue it you eliminate too much airflow. Again you need to design the prefilter to trade off collection ability against air resistance.

It does not solve the fine dust clogging the vac problem though does it?

along with the dust. Beware that blow fibre glass shards into the air is going to do you far more serious harm than the dust!

To catch fine stuff with filters you need a large surface area and a fairly dense material. Big dust extractors usualy use pleated canister filters (like lorry / truck air filters), or large felted polyester bags.

Drilling technique can solve those problems usually, see the masonry drilling section here:

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Reply to
John Rumm

Why don't you just duct the dust out a nearby window, instead of trying to trap it?

Reply to
Goedjn

Well, all I can say is that it works when I do it

Maybe you need a bit of ability along with the technique

Reply to
raden

In our house no one would notice - SWIMBO doesn't dust much!

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

Most vacuum cleaners design for dry use have a direct cooled motor. Any restriction in the airflow results in less cooling air for the motor and rapid burnout. A partially blocked filter or hose can 86 a motor in 20 minutes.

Reply to
The Medway Handyman

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