"Chris Styles" wrote in message
...
They are called DustBubbles. We manufacture them here in Hertfordshire
(UK), and they are available in B&Q, and soon to be in Focus and Homebase.
They were in Lowes and Home Depot for a while (but as a 2-man start-up we
didn't have the resources to service the likes of those guys!)

They come in 3 varieties [etc...] would be interested to hear your
feedback...

Thanks

Chris


Chris,

I've tried quite a few and I'm afraid they really don't work very well,
considering the high cost. That is, they sort of work, a bit, most of the
time. Far better to get someone to hold a vac nozzle just under the drilling
site or - if working alone - to use one of the envelope/bag methods
suggested earlier in this thread.

In message , David Peters
writes
On 03 Mar 2006, Andy Dingley wrote:


Unfortunately I can't remember what it's called.

Envelope. With a bit of masking tape attached. Works better if
you poke the corners inside out first, so as to make it bulge
outwards.



Do you make a hole in the envelope so that the masking tape sticks
itself and the envelope to the wall?

Or should the masking tape be double sided to stick to the wall and
the envemope.

But I'm still not clear quite how you use the arrangement. Could you
or someone else give a bit more detail please.

Why, are you so clueless ?


--
geoff

In message , Chris
Styles writes


"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Chris Styles wrote:
They are called DustBubbles. We manufacture them here in Hertfordshire
(UK),
snip spam which I'd have forgiven you for as it was on topic but fir the
fact that you posted it 17 times

Sorry about the multiple posting... I've been having some Outlook Express
problems... it want intentional I can assure you.

So how do you explain what, 17 posts ?

2 I can understand


For more details visit www.dustbubble.com

...or alternatively, visit www.oldenvelope-and-a-bit-of-masking-tape.com

That method is fine, just not very effective.

Works just fine for me, and I have them around when I want them

I bought a dozen dust bubbles for a quid once - I'm buggered if I can
remember what happened to them

--
geoff

Brian Sharrock wrote:

With practise one can use the masking tape cum envelope for several
holes. Discard - straight into the bin. The technique was
demonstrated on one of the D-I-Y TV programmes.

Tommy Walsh if I'm not mistaken?

--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

David Peters wrote:

On 04 Mar 2006, Pete C. wrote:

It's a water pre filter for a shop vac. Intended for drywall
dust which also clogs vacuums pretty readily. You should be able
to make one from a 5gal bucket and a few fittings if you can't
find the commercial one. Basically you have the intake come in
under the water level and the exhaust to the vacuum just at the
top of the bucket.

Pete C.

Is this it?

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS...roduct.jsp?pn=
162029

Um, no, unless that link lost a digit or two. The unit I referenced is
basically a bucket that goes in line between your shop vac and it's
nozzle. The air and dust is brought through water in the bucket so most
of the dust gets trapped in the water instead of clogging the shop vac
filter.

Pete C.

Ah so you are Mr DustBubble! :-)

I have been called much worse in my time :-)

In the UK DustBubble sells for about £2 for 12.
http://www.aces.uk.com/18/DustBubble/DIYDustBubble/

This is about 16p (or approx 25 US cents) each. Not so economical
really.

Then again, a 100ml paint sampler is ~£1 and the 5 litre pot is £12, so in
terms of cost/volume it is no different from any other product.

If you take the 500 trade tube, they are about 4.5p each because we can sell
them direct, but going through the chain stores means N00% mark-up which
unfortunately we can not dictate.

The other thing to consider is the convenience that you can drill to put
fittings up and a freshly decorated room without getting red brick dust
stains on your new carpet (as someone here posted they had). In that case,
the cost of the new carpet that might get stained makes £1.99 of DustBubbles
seem insignificant. Other applications were hear a lot about is putting up
shelves near sensitive equipment. £1.99 a small price to pay to not have to
move it all, so often it comes down to convenience.... Also, you don't need
someone to hold the dustpan/vacuum, so it is saves on having to have a
helper around...

Event he most staunch sceptics often soften when they use them, so go ahead,
give me your address and I'll send you some.

Cheers

Chris

Actually the truth of the matter is that I was sinking an electrical
socket into a wall using an SDS chisel/drill, so the envelope trick (and I
suspect, even the wonderful DustBubble) would not really have cut the
mustard there!

We are prototyping a version that is good for much larger holes (50mm+) at
the request of an industrial client we have, so making a version that is
good for sinking a backbox into a wall isnt that far fetched, as the same
basic principle applies.

Cheers

Chris

So how do you explain what, 17 posts ?

2 I can understand

Each time I tried to post, OE told me there had been an error.

After 5 (more than desired, but less than 17) attempts I gave up and decided
to use google groups instead, at which point I noticed that posted had
started to appear.

As well as replying to the groups, I was also CC'ing an email address and as
OE isnt my mail client (I only use it for NGs) the SMTP part isnt properly
configured, so the error was relating to the CCd email address, but the NG
part of the post had succeeded (though it didnt appear in "sent items" as
the email bit had failed.

I bought a dozen dust bubbles for a quid once - I'm buggered if I can
remember what happened to them

Maybe you used them all, they are very good afterall ...

Immediately after moving (when I needed to do a few jobs) I could find my
stash, and ended up buying some form my local B&Q - that was an odd feeling
:-)

In article
Pete C. wrote:
David Peters wrote:

On 04 Mar 2006, Pete C. wrote:

It's a water pre filter for a shop vac. Intended for drywall
dust which also clogs vacuums pretty readily. You should be able
to make one from a 5gal bucket and a few fittings if you can't
find the commercial one. Basically you have the intake come in
under the water level and the exhaust to the vacuum just at the
top of the bucket.

Pete C.

Is this it?

http://www.homedepot.com/prel80/HDUS...roduct.jsp?pn=
162029

Um, no, unless that link lost a digit or two. The unit I referenced

The link you posted contained a session id, which is a pretty sure sign
that it won't work for anyone who visits the site atfer your session has
expired. You need to post the keywords so we can do a new search.

On 04 Mar 2006, raden wrote:

Do you make a hole in the envelope so that the masking tape
sticks itself and the envelope to the wall?

Or should the masking tape be double sided to stick to the wall
and the envemope.

But I'm still not clear quite how you use the arrangement.
Could you or someone else give a bit more detail please.

Why, are you so clueless ?

Heh!

Maybe because I do not see myself as an expert DIYer who knows
everything.

I think I saw the suggestion as clever than it really was. If it
really is as over-simple as it perhaps seems then it's obviously
not going to work for me as I find masonsry dust spreads. Catch
it falling into an envelope? It's not made of large granules, you
know.

Imagine drilling a hole above the skirting board for a phone
socket with this approach. How is this envelope trick going to
work in such a smal space? Please explain.

On 04 Mar 2006, John Rumm wrote:

To be fair, I think we are dealing with two different problems
he

At the simplest level of just catching the heavy dirty dust
generated when drilling brick or blockwork, then the envelope
will deal with most of the *visible* dust that would otherwise
fall on your carpet, and hence can in many cases be declared
adequate.

However when you start trying to catch *all* of the dust
produced, including the very fine particulate dust that is
emitted into the *air* from the drilling site (and later settles
out all over the place), then you are into a whole new ball
game.


John, I think you're one of the few people in this thread to
appreciate that this ultra fine dust is exactly what I, as OP, am
having problems with.


Even with vacuum collection some of this sub micron stuff
will be sucked straight through any filters and returned to the
air again. In these cases, containing the dust at the production
site is going to be more effective. This is obviously important
where the fine dust can not be tolerated either due to its
harmful nature, or its ability to contaminate.


From all the suggestions I find that the best way (and it's not
great) is where I use a small square of filter-bag material in
between the hose and attachment of a domestic vaccuum cleaner.

All the dust gets drawn in including the fine stuff. The really and
truly fine stuff passes thru the filter material (as a second square
will show) but *hopefully* it gets trapped by the actual dust in the
main vaccuum cleaner bag or by walls of the main bag.

What's left topass thru the bag and then thru the vaccuum's exhaust
filter isn't worth worrying about. The main issue here may be how
fast the main bag gets clogged to the point of being useless.

I guess a Dyson-style vaccuum centrifugal cleaner + HEPA filters
would be better at trapping the dust. (Is this correct?) ANd I was
asking in another group if an el-cheapo £30 Bush DD2227B bagless
Cylinder Bagless from Tesco is any good as I could devote it to this
task. See http://snipurl.com/n6h1

"The Bush DD2227B Cylinder Bagless is a 1200W
cyclonic cylinder cleaner. High level of
filtration. 1.5 litre dust capacity."

David Peters wrote:

John, I think you're one of the few people in this thread to
appreciate that this ultra fine dust is exactly what I, as OP, am
having problems with.

As often seems to be the case when you have people arguing that black is
white and vice versa, it usually means they are looking at the problem
from different viewpoints (or one of them just likes arguing!)

What's left topass thru the bag and then thru the vaccuum's exhaust
filter isn't worth worrying about. The main issue here may be how
fast the main bag gets clogged to the point of being useless.

I guess a Dyson-style vaccuum centrifugal cleaner + HEPA filters
would be better at trapping the dust. (Is this correct?) ANd I was

HEPA filters certainly trap fine dust (probably better than anything
else you are likely to find), but they are also expensive if you clog
them too fast!

My experience with Dysons is that if you collect fine plaster dust with
a DC01 Absolute for example then you can clog its filters quite quickly
(in fact you may do better without any filters in it). You get least
clogging if you can ensure that you maintain fast airflow through it
(i.e. by not momentarily blanking off the suction pipe as you clean -
something that is easy to do with a crevice tool etc). Something like
the DC14 would be a better bet since has far more suction power and
hence will maintain airflow speed better (it also has much bigger filter
areas). Given the price however I would be reluctant to buy one of these
just for this purpose!

asking in another group if an el-cheapo ï½£30 Bush DD2227B bagless
Cylinder Bagless from Tesco is any good as I could devote it to this
task. See http://snipurl.com/n6h1

Might be worth a try - you are probably not going to make anything
better at the price!

You could build a pre filter for the task... various folks have posted
details of building small cyclones in the past, including me[1].
Although my one was not really designed for ultra fine dust collection
however, and talcum powder sized stuff will still go through it into the
vac. You would need one with a proper conical section and lots of air
speed to accelerate the finest particles out of the airflow.

[1] http://www.internode.ltd.uk/cyclone/

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

In message , David Peters
writes
On 04 Mar 2006, raden wrote:

Do you make a hole in the envelope so that the masking tape
sticks itself and the envelope to the wall?

Or should the masking tape be double sided to stick to the wall
and the envemope.

But I'm still not clear quite how you use the arrangement.
Could you or someone else give a bit more detail please.

Why, are you so clueless ?

Heh!

Maybe because I do not see myself as an expert DIYer who knows
everything.

But it's hardly rocket science, is it?

If someone points you in the right direction, work out the detail, or,
can't you think for yourself ?



I think I saw the suggestion as clever than it really was. If it
really is as over-simple as it perhaps seems then it's obviously
not going to work for me as I find masonsry dust spreads. Catch
it falling into an envelope? It's not made of large granules, you
know.

Imagine drilling a hole above the skirting board for a phone
socket with this approach. How is this envelope trick going to
work in such a smal space? Please explain.

Well, it's worked for me, and I invented the technique along with
thousands of others who saw a problem and an obvious solution


--
geoff

In message , Chris
Styles writes

So how do you explain what, 17 posts ?

2 I can understand

Each time I tried to post, OE told me there had been an error.

After 5 (more than desired, but less than 17) attempts I gave up and decided
to use google groups instead, at which point I noticed that posted had
started to appear.

As well as replying to the groups, I was also CC'ing an email address and as
OE isnt my mail client (I only use it for NGs) the SMTP part isnt properly
configured, so the error was relating to the CCd email address, but the NG
part of the post had succeeded (though it didnt appear in "sent items" as
the email bit had failed.

I bought a dozen dust bubbles for a quid once - I'm buggered if I can
remember what happened to them

Maybe you used them all, they are very good afterall ...

Immediately after moving (when I needed to do a few jobs) I could find my
stash, and ended up buying some form my local B&Q - that was an odd feeling
:-)
No, I've never actually used one

Wasn't it you who came here a few years ago wanting people to try them
out ?

(... or is senility gently settling in ?)
--
geoff

In article ,
Chris Styles wrote:
Each time I tried to post, OE told me there had been an error.

There had. You were using OE.

--
John Cartmell john@ followed by finnybank.com 0845 006 8822
Qercus magazine FAX +44 (0)8700-519-527 www.finnybank.com
Qercus - the best guide to RISC OS computing

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 18:25:12 GMT, David Peters
wrote:

Envelope. With a bit of masking tape attached. Works better if
you poke the corners inside out first, so as to make it bulge
outwards.


Do you make a hole in the envelope so that the masking tape sticks
itself and the envelope to the wall?

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.

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

"Andy Dingley" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 18:25:12 GMT, David Peters
wrote:

Envelope. With a bit of masking tape attached. Works better if
you poke the corners inside out first, so as to make it bulge
outwards.


Do you make a hole in the envelope so that the masking tape sticks
itself and the envelope to the wall?

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.

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 .


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.

On Sat, 4 Mar 2006 18:17:05 +0000 (UTC), "Chris Styles"
wrote:


"Lobster" wrote in message
...
The3rd Earl Of Derby wrote:
Guy King wrote:

I want to catch the brick & plaster dust when I drill a hole in
the wall at home.

I just let it drop too the floor and hoover it up after jobs finished.
Never heard so much crap in me life. Tsk!

Managed to stain a new beige carpet with brick dust recently, when I
didn't haven envelope handy. Didn't intend to drop it on the carpet, it
bypassed the dustsheet. However, it left an obvious orangey tinge at the
edge of the carpet, even after Henry had done his best. Dust wasn't
ground in or anything.

I know you say envelopes are just as good, but if you;d had a 12 pack in
your toolbox (£1.99 at B&Q) they would have been to hand when you needed
them. It wouldnt matter about dustsheets etc, because the red brick dust
would have been captured as soon as it left the wall.

I suspect from your other post that you think DustBubbles are a waste of
time, but really, compare the cost of DustBubble (they are about 4.5p each
when bought in a trade pack) to your cost of your beige carpet that now has
a stain...

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 19:44:47 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:

Lobster wrote:

Actually the truth of the matter is that I was sinking an electrical
socket into a wall using an SDS chisel/drill, so the envelope trick (and
I suspect, even the wonderful DustBubble) would not really have cut the
mustard there!

That is in a slightly different league!

Using a bin bag as in place of the envelope can help here, tape it round
the hole and hanging under it like a hammock (as best you can, and
still get at it with the drill). You can catch all the stuff that falls
out, but the airborne dust is almost impossible to catch in these cases.


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

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-)


"John Cartmell" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Chris Styles wrote:
Each time I tried to post, OE told me there had been an error.

There had. You were using OE.

--
John Cartmell john@ followed by finnybank.com 0845 006 8822
Qercus magazine FAX +44 (0)8700-519-527 www.finnybank.com
Qercus - the best guide to RISC OS computing

On 05 Mar 2006, raden wrote:

I think I saw the suggestion as clever than it really was. If it
really is as over-simple as it perhaps seems then it's obviously
not going to work for me as I find masonsry dust spreads. Catch
it falling into an envelope? It's not made of large granules, you
know.

Imagine drilling a hole above the skirting board for a phone
socket with this approach. How is this envelope trick going to
work in such a smal space? Please explain.

Well, it's worked for me, and I invented the technique along with
thousands of others who saw a problem and an obvious solution


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.

On 05 Mar 2006, John Rumm wrote:

You could build a pre filter for the task... various folks have
posted details of building small cyclones in the past, including
me[1]. Although my one was not really designed for ultra fine
dust collection however, and talcum powder sized stuff will
still go through it into the vac. You would need one with a
proper conical section and lots of air speed to accelerate the
finest particles out of the airflow.

[1] http://www.internode.ltd.uk/cyclone/


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.

In article ,
Chris Styles wrote:
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)

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

--
John Cartmell john@ followed by finnybank.com 0845 006 8822
Qercus magazine FAX +44 (0)8700-519-527 www.finnybank.com
Qercus - the best guide to RISC OS computing

David Peters wrote:

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.

Yup, now you are getting it!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!)

It needs to be fairly dinky stuff to stay airbourne.

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.

Quite agree, was not suggesting it might.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

David Peters wrote:

[1] http://www.internode.ltd.uk/cyclone/

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.

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.

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.

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.

Now I did see a nifty little kit for only ï½£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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/powertools/drillfaq.htm

--
Cheers,

John.

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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

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

In message , David Peters
writes
On 05 Mar 2006, raden wrote:

I think I saw the suggestion as clever than it really was. If it
really is as over-simple as it perhaps seems then it's obviously
not going to work for me as I find masonsry dust spreads. Catch
it falling into an envelope? It's not made of large granules, you
know.

Imagine drilling a hole above the skirting board for a phone
socket with this approach. How is this envelope trick going to
work in such a smal space? Please explain.

Well, it's worked for me, and I invented the technique along with
thousands of others who saw a problem and an obvious solution


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?


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

Maybe you need a bit of ability along with the technique

--
geoff

David Peters wrote:

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.

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

--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257

David Peters wrote:

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.

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.

--
Dave
The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk
01634 717930
07850 597257