Tabletop/Desktop Miniature Vacuum Cleaner

thingiverse

I've picked up a few 80's tabletop vacuum cleaners in thrift shops, and after the initial "Neat!" and "This is probably worth a bit more online," my reaction was "This is pretty simple, I could build one of these!" So I did. And it kind of works! You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk5leLENccE Print Settings Printer Brand: MakerBot Printer: MakerBot Replicator Rafts: No Supports: Yes Resolution: .2 Infill: 5% Notes: Print one of each part except for the clip (you'll need two). Only the clamp, vent and filter rings, and the plate really need support. I printed mine entirely in ABS but you can probably get away with printing this one in PLA. Post-Printing Parts You will need a few non 3D-printed parts to get this to work. -"130" size hobby motor 3V or 6V. If you get better quality ones than I did and they don't have a whole millimeter of axial shaft play, you can add another mm or two to the impeller and gain some more suction. -Battery holders for at least 2 AA batteries -Switch, the clamp is sized for one of these little ones https://www.radioshack.com/collections/maker-parts-kits/products/mini-spst-momentary-switch-4-p -Bristles, I used the heads of 4 toothbrushes from a dollar-store 4-pack. The heads are about 31mm long and 14mm wide and friction-fit into the holes in the base, if you find smaller brushes you can make the holes smaller. The bristles also have to be cut straight and shorter (6mm should be the goal), it helps to do this while they're still attached to the handle. -Some sort of filter material. I used tissue paper until I got my hands on some nice thin foam. You can actually still buy a new tabletop vacuum for $10, so keep that in mind when deciding how much to spend on parts http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/437531/Starfrit-Mini-Table-Vacuum-Cleaner/ Assembly Print the plate, clamp, vent ring, impeller and drill guide first, so you can test the function before you get too deep into this. A 5/64 drill bit makes a hole that's a good fit for the motor shaft, and the drill guide is helpful in making sure that hole is as vertical as possible. The vent ring is a pretty good friction fit to the plate, but you may want to glue it later. For now, it gives you enough height to keep the impeller off the desk while you test it. Pop the motor and clamp into the top side, push the impeller on from the other, run some power to the motor straight from the batteries and figure out which way you need to hook it up to get it spinning the right way (counterclockwise, when looking at the face of the motor). Then you can print the filter ring, glue on your filter material, and fit that inside the vent ring. You should be able to feel some suction through the center hole. Print the base and clips, which attach to the base with 1.75mm filament pins or glue, then install the brushes on the bottom, snap the base to the rest of the vacuum, and see if it actually picks anything up! If it's all good, then you can install the switch in the clamp, glue the clamp down to the plate over the motor, solder the wiring, and then go ahead and print the dome. How I Designed This The design of this thing is derivative of the Hoan CrumbVac and another later vacuum that was just called The Crumbster. The Crumbster was the one I had on hand while making this, so I used it to take key measurements but also ended up using the same basic shape. The construction of my vacuum is closer to the CrumbVac, and the impeller blade profile is traced from a reference image I had from my CrumbVac, though I had to add a few degrees of twist to get it to actually produce a decent amount of suction. The size of my vacuum was determined by the size of the toothbrush bristles as well as the battery holder configuration I chose, it ended up being significantly larger than the Crumbster.