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I'm surprised there's no DIY thread given yet given how long this site's been around, so I thought I'd make one starting with a recent project I've done.
Up until recently, I had been using an old Miele Cat & Dog Turbo 5000 vacuum cleaner that I got from my parents:
This is a top-quality hoover that had faithfully served my family for close to two decades, but unfortunately the lid of the bag chamber stopped sealing properly causing it to pull air in through the lid rather than through the hose.
I took this as a sign that I should probably upgrade to a Dyson like the rest of the developed world, but the thought of such a great machine rotting away in a landfill seemed like a shame to me, and also, I couldn't be bothered to take it to the tip.
So I decided to look for a way to re-use the components.
I've also been setting up a home workshop for electronics work, but the only place I have for it is in a spare room of my house, which raises the issue of solder fumes which at best will make my house stink, and in the case of leaded solder pose a health risk.
The best way to manage solder fumes is to use a portable fume extractor system like this:
Which usually cost a few hundred up to a thousand pounds.
Since I figured that both of these machines are designed to take air from one place and put it in another place, I thought it would be fun to try to turn my hover into a fume extractor.
With that aim, I dismantled the hoover an identified the components that I would need in the new machine.
The circuitry was all very conveniently packaged on a simple PCB fitted to some moulded plastic which could be unplugged from the hoover and lifted straight out.
I assume this design was chosen to make repairs easier and so that Miele could sell replacement circuits, but either way it makes my project a lot easier, since I don't need to rebuild the circuit myself.
The motor was sat underneath the circuit in a housing made of moulded plastic which was made from the two halves of the hoover case.
I wanted to keep this plastic housing to reduce vibration from the motor and provide a good seal between the intake and output of the impeller.
The hoover also had this really cool power cable on a spool which wound up when the button was pressed:
Unfortunately this is way too much for the extractor, but way too cool to throw away, so I'll have to save it for a future project.
I went at the components with a hacksaw to remove anything that wasn't needed and ended up with two neat pieces:
All I had to do from this point was put them in a package that's more suitable for it's new purpose.
I decided that I needed three separate chambers, one for air intake, one for the output, and one for the circuit. Since I wanted these chambers to be reasonably airtight but also be able to take them apart, without any 3D printing or machining I thought the best option would be to use Tupperware-style plastic boxes.
I shopped around to find boxes with the right dimensions and laid them out in a rough plan for the final product.
I also wanted to use one of the old hoover bags to protect the motor from any solids that might get accidentally sucked up.
To connect the intake chamber to the impeller intake while sealing it from the output, I used some pipe fittings that were lying around at work and stuck it to the motor using silicone adhesive.
And I drilled some holes in the side of the boxes to put the pipe through. Sealing them with silicone as well.
For the circuit I used an old laptop power cable and added an overtemperature switch to the live side set at 90° to protect the plastic containers.
Since the neutral line to the control circuit and motor are joined at the plug, I had to splice the new neutral wire into the old one with a small terminal block. Which I did a little sloppily, but when the lid is on the plastic frame keeps it well away from the rest of the circuit, so there's no chance of a short. The plug sticks through the top of the output box so that the motor can plug straight in.
The control dial on the top works by directly turning a potentiometer on the PCB using the white stick you can see in the picture above, so the position of the panel above the circuit had to be precise.
So I cut the bottom off the circuit box and a hole in the lid for the panel. Since I don't have a Dremel, or any other generic-brand rotary tool, and I didn't want to spend days with a Stanley knife and a file to make it just right, I used more of the silicone sealant to stick the panel in, and put the power button in the lid as well.
The original hose connection on the hoover could be detached with some buttons on it, so to keep that functionality, I put that port on the lid of the intake box and used the old hoover hose as the hose for the extractor.
The output blows through a hole in the lid straight out the window.
I gutted one of the hoover heads to use as an intake nozzle, and but It on a microphone stand so that I could move it over my work station and out of the way when I need to.
When I did the first test it didn't pull very well, so I had to take it all apart and re-seal everything, but after I did, it worked great.
On the lowest setting it can pull fumes from about 6 inches an doesn't seem to get too warm from running.
Overall, I spend £20 on boxes, £30 on the mic stand and £3 on the overtemp switch which is a pretty huge saving compared to buying a real fume extractor.
I have a few upgrades planned for the future, like a hose on the output and a second head attached to a chamber, but as it is now, it does everything I need it to.
I hope you enjoyed this weirdly detailed report of my DIY project. If anyone else likes to do stuff like this, I'd love to hear about it.
Up until recently, I had been using an old Miele Cat & Dog Turbo 5000 vacuum cleaner that I got from my parents:
I took this as a sign that I should probably upgrade to a Dyson like the rest of the developed world, but the thought of such a great machine rotting away in a landfill seemed like a shame to me, and also, I couldn't be bothered to take it to the tip.
So I decided to look for a way to re-use the components.
I've also been setting up a home workshop for electronics work, but the only place I have for it is in a spare room of my house, which raises the issue of solder fumes which at best will make my house stink, and in the case of leaded solder pose a health risk.
The best way to manage solder fumes is to use a portable fume extractor system like this:
Since I figured that both of these machines are designed to take air from one place and put it in another place, I thought it would be fun to try to turn my hover into a fume extractor.
With that aim, I dismantled the hoover an identified the components that I would need in the new machine.
The circuitry was all very conveniently packaged on a simple PCB fitted to some moulded plastic which could be unplugged from the hoover and lifted straight out.
I assume this design was chosen to make repairs easier and so that Miele could sell replacement circuits, but either way it makes my project a lot easier, since I don't need to rebuild the circuit myself.
The motor was sat underneath the circuit in a housing made of moulded plastic which was made from the two halves of the hoover case.
I wanted to keep this plastic housing to reduce vibration from the motor and provide a good seal between the intake and output of the impeller.
The hoover also had this really cool power cable on a spool which wound up when the button was pressed:
I went at the components with a hacksaw to remove anything that wasn't needed and ended up with two neat pieces:
All I had to do from this point was put them in a package that's more suitable for it's new purpose.
I decided that I needed three separate chambers, one for air intake, one for the output, and one for the circuit. Since I wanted these chambers to be reasonably airtight but also be able to take them apart, without any 3D printing or machining I thought the best option would be to use Tupperware-style plastic boxes.
I shopped around to find boxes with the right dimensions and laid them out in a rough plan for the final product.
I also wanted to use one of the old hoover bags to protect the motor from any solids that might get accidentally sucked up.
To connect the intake chamber to the impeller intake while sealing it from the output, I used some pipe fittings that were lying around at work and stuck it to the motor using silicone adhesive.
And I drilled some holes in the side of the boxes to put the pipe through. Sealing them with silicone as well.
For the circuit I used an old laptop power cable and added an overtemperature switch to the live side set at 90° to protect the plastic containers.
Since the neutral line to the control circuit and motor are joined at the plug, I had to splice the new neutral wire into the old one with a small terminal block. Which I did a little sloppily, but when the lid is on the plastic frame keeps it well away from the rest of the circuit, so there's no chance of a short. The plug sticks through the top of the output box so that the motor can plug straight in.
The control dial on the top works by directly turning a potentiometer on the PCB using the white stick you can see in the picture above, so the position of the panel above the circuit had to be precise.
So I cut the bottom off the circuit box and a hole in the lid for the panel. Since I don't have a Dremel, or any other generic-brand rotary tool, and I didn't want to spend days with a Stanley knife and a file to make it just right, I used more of the silicone sealant to stick the panel in, and put the power button in the lid as well.
The original hose connection on the hoover could be detached with some buttons on it, so to keep that functionality, I put that port on the lid of the intake box and used the old hoover hose as the hose for the extractor.
The output blows through a hole in the lid straight out the window.
I gutted one of the hoover heads to use as an intake nozzle, and but It on a microphone stand so that I could move it over my work station and out of the way when I need to.
Overall, I spend £20 on boxes, £30 on the mic stand and £3 on the overtemp switch which is a pretty huge saving compared to buying a real fume extractor.
I have a few upgrades planned for the future, like a hose on the output and a second head attached to a chamber, but as it is now, it does everything I need it to.
I hope you enjoyed this weirdly detailed report of my DIY project. If anyone else likes to do stuff like this, I'd love to hear about it.
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