Home-Made Vacuum Assembly


Greg@mnrr

Greg@mnrr

Section Hand
The points and frogs on my railroad often get dirty and I need a way to clean the turnouts and other areas on the layout without using a larger nozzle on a typical vacuum hose. I plan on using a PVC pipe fitting, end cap, that I can fit on the end of my vacuum hose. I'll drill out the center of the PVC fitting so I can install a tube connector and use a larger plastic tube attached to the connector as a smaller nozzle. The small size of the tube should increase the suction power of the vacuum.

The long tube will allow me to leave the nozzle on the floor and just use the plastic tube to suck out the dirt and debris without damaging any parts of the layout.

What do you think of my idea?

Greg
 
Not sure how true it is cuz I never fact checked, but was told by an old farm hand who was a maintenance supervisor at work that reducing a vacuum hose intake diameter does nothing to produce more suction, just decreases the area of suction…. Now I got to look it up to know for sure
 
Greg@mnrr said:
The points and frogs on my railroad often get dirty and I need a way to clean the turnouts and other areas on the layout without using a larger nozzle on a typical vacuum hose. I plan on using a PVC pipe fitting, end cap, that I can fit on the end of my vacuum hose. I'll drill out the center of the PVC fitting so I can install a tube connector and use a larger plastic tube attached to the connector as a smaller nozzle. The small size of the tube should increase the suction power of the vacuum.

The long tube will allow me to leave the nozzle on the floor and just use the plastic tube to suck out the dirt and debris without damaging any parts of the layout.

What do you think of my idea?

Greg
Click to expand...
A hand held would probably be easier to use as you won't have cables and hoses to get in your way, a smaller nozzle would make getting into the smaller nooks and crannies a lot easier too, I use this one, quite cheap $35, available in the US.

 
wvg_ca said:
it's kind of okay, but you still have the hose cluttering up the floor ... a more effective solution would be a small hand held vacuum with rechargeable batteries , pretty cheap too, 15 - 30 dollars
Click to expand...
I have a smaller hand held battery vac, but the nozzle is too large to get into my yard areas without doing any damaged. So I though about the smaller diameter hose as a solution.

Greg
 
T.C. said:
So.........what happens when ya put your finger over the end of a water hose?
Does the water come out with more pressure?
Points to ponder..............................
T.C.
Click to expand...
Clever! From physics I remember p=t/v

Pressure = temperature/ volume. If the volume is decreased and temp stays the same, the pressure is increased.

However, the best way to find out, in my opinion, is an actual experiment.

Dave
 
Greg@mnrr said:
The points and frogs on my railroad often get dirty and I need a way to clean the turnouts and other areas on the layout without using a larger nozzle on a typical vacuum hose. I plan on using a PVC pipe fitting, end cap, that I can fit on the end of my vacuum hose. I'll drill out the center of the PVC fitting so I can install a tube connector and use a larger plastic tube attached to the connector as a smaller nozzle. The small size of the tube should increase the suction power of the vacuum.
Click to expand...
I have a fitting that goes on the end of my shop vac similar to these
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077SDD6Z6'.
https://www.amazon.com/EZ-SPARES-Attachment-Keyboard-Cleaning/

The issue was that it doesn't let enough air through so the motor whines meaning it can't cool the motor. A great way to burn up the shop vac. Needs a diverter vent to let more air to the motor but retaining same suction at the end point. It looks like the second listing above has such a vent included.
 
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Hmmm, had no idea it would do that. Note to self don't cut and paste links while, 'logged in'. Try again. And looking at the pictures now, it looks like they both have the pressure relief valve thing. My set did not have that.

https://www.amazon.com/ANBOO-Attachments-Universal-Attachment-Kenmore/dp/B077SDD6Z6
61TXi0rkPML._AC_SL1080_.jpg


https://www.amazon.com/EZ-SPARES-Attachment-Keyboard-Cleaning/dp/B077T88SP1
51tsBDLmhyL._AC_SL1001_.jpg
 
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