Building a Gas Powered Vacuum pg.3

6. Insert the bucket/hose adapter in the hole orienting the adapter to match up with the curvature of the bucket side wall and so that the exit hole of the adapter points mostly downward (for some reason ShopVac chose not to have the hole point absolutely straight downward).

7. You will need to estimate where the three small holes will go which will be used to affix the adapter to the bucket -- mark the three holes and drill holes through the bucket. Now use the three sheet metal screws to affix the adapter to the bucket.

8. Snap the lid and blower onto the bucket.

9. DONE, DONE, DONE.

TIPS

1. The hose can be coiled up for storage in the inside bottom of bucket. All of the other items can be stored inside the bucket. The small trowel or the weed picker can be fitted inside the nozzle to save space.

2. Wear the ear protectors -- you will be working over bedrock so you will be hit with the sound twice -- once directly from the blower, and again with the echo from the rocks.

3. Point the exhaust away from you and heading downwind. Rock dust is not good for your lungs. In extremely dusty conditions, wear a dust mask.

4. Don’t let the bucket get more than half full or you may find heavier materials blowing out.

5. Feed material steadily into the vacuum, or you may find the hose clogging. If the hose does clog, run the throttle at high and bang on the hose with the, handle of weeder. It also helps if you can put the vacuum lower than the area you are cleaning.

6. With several passes of scraping and vacuuming you should find that you are leaving the rocks and crevices quite clean -- but it does take more than one round of scraping and vacuuming. Don't be bashful about going into crevices that others have worked before you -- without a suction device, particularly one as powerful as the one you have just built, previous miners could not possibly have cleaned the crevice out.

7. This gadget makes an excellent outside vacuum cleaner around the home.

8. You can vacuum up water and wet materials with the unit, but the corrugations in the hose will fill up, blocking the hose and making it very heavy. Banging on the hose and running dry materials through it should solve the problem -- or if you don't care about losing the materials, you can wash the hose out in a river (use a wash tub if you want to keep the material).

9. If you find the unit tipping over when empty (it is top heavy) on uneven ground, put a heavy rock in the bottom of the bucket for stability. The rock will reduce capacity but won't interfere with its efficiency.