Santa Clause brought me a dust collector from Harbor Freight last Xmas.
So far, the only dust that it has collected, is by gathering it in the corner of my shop.
I'm sure that St. Nick meant well, so I have been trying to re-purpose it.
I'm trying to make it usefull for blowing fiber into pillows.
Here's what I got so far (I used a clear vinyl insert for video clarity):
(https://forum.upholster.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi775.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fyy33%2Fsofadoc%2Fth_MOV00270-1.jpg&hash=b182dcd5f00e8d7de77e9bb21aeaa4a6) (http://s775.photobucket.com/albums/yy33/sofadoc/?action=view¤t=MOV00270-1.mp4)
I wish that it had some type of auger, like those "Build-a-Bear" machines to push the fiber along. As it is now, I still have to finish stuffing the pillow by hand once the fiber starts to "back up".
But I really like the way that the blower "gins" the fiber as it passes through. If you're using the customer's old pillows, it does a nice job of rejuvenating the fiber.
What I want, is to be able to manuever the pillow around while the fiber is blowing in. But I can't feed the fiber and manuever at the same time. You can't feed big clumps of fiber, or it will clog. And I don't always have a helper to feed while I manuever the pillow cover.
Any ideas?
I think what you need is some kind of mill hopper.
http://www.google.com/search?q=mill+hopper&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=feh&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=JX5FT_PsFY7gsQLuiPzCDw&ved=0CIMBELAE&biw=1280&bih=576
That will feed the fibers automatically while you maneuver the pillow.
You can google for plans that show a big wooden box that uses that blower and 1 or 2 or 3 furnace filters. They usually hang from the ceiling and it blows air through the box and filters.
If I should ever get one for Christmas that is what I would do.
I do like the idea of rejuvenating old pillow fibers.
While we're talking about blowers, here's a link that everyone should watch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XWIJNaA-JNA#!
gene