Sep 27, 2015 | By Benedict
Be honest: how often do you end up eating messy snacks at your desk? Whether its a busy work day or a hardcore gaming session, we’ve all been guilty of dropping crumbs all over our keyboards and mouse-pads. One frustrated maker, confronted with endless sawdust and plastic shavings on his desk, set himself the task of making a 3D-printed mini USB vacuum cleaner to clean up the mess. The designer of the 3D-printed vacuum cleaner, a French student going by handle ‘loboat’, loves making things by himself and sharing his projects with others.
Most vacuum cleaners work in the following way: air, along with dust and dirt, is sucked into a dust bag by a fan driven by an electric motor. The dust and dirty remain in the bag, whilst the air passes back out of the vacuum cleaner. In loboat’s 3D-printed vacuum cleaner, the air and dust travel straight to the filter, while the fan sucks the cleaned air up and out of the device.
To 3D print your own mini USB vacuum cleaner using loboat’s instructions, you’ll need the following items:
- super glue
- a screwdriver
- 6x Pozidriv screws (I found them into an old CD driver)
- a scalpel / cutter
- flat pliers
- cutting pliers
- sandpaper
- heatshrink (4 mm diameter)
- a soldering iron
- solder
- a calliper
- 1x DC motor RE-140
- an old USB Apple cable (from IPhone 5 or more recent)
- a switch (6*12 mm)
- a LEGO technique fixation
- a flexible pipe (I used an old flexible pipe from a LEGO kit)
- a tea bag (for the filter)
- a 3D printer
Loboat designed the 3D printed parts of his vacuum using Solidworks. There are a total of seven 3D printed parts: the top cover, the motor holder, the turbine (in two parts), the turbine cover, the filter holder, and the dust tank.
The designer of the 3D-printed vacuum recommends carefully configuring your 3D printer before printing the parts of the vacuum. The amount of PLA or ABS should be sufficient to print the part, and the heating plate must be active and clean.
Loboat has one particular tip for 3D printers: he recommends that if you need to print a fragile and thin part, like the turbine of his vacuum, it is important that the piece adheres to the plate. ABS and PLA plastics are very adherent to each other, so when printing with PLA, a thin melted layer of ABS on the heating plate will ensure that the part adheres to the plate. To make this liquid ABS solution, loboat recommends mixing small pieces of ABS with acetone in a glass container, before spreading the solution on a glass plate that will be placed on the heating plate.
Full instructions for assembly are detailed on the Instructables page for the 3D printed mini USB vacuum cleaner. A video of the 3D-printed device in action can be seen below.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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