Reversing a Vacuum Cleaner?

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10-03-2008, 07:31 PM
Lewis

Reversing a Vacuum Cleaner?

So a friend and i are building an Air hockey table.
It'll have an airtight box on the underside, with all the holes drilled in the top.
The biggest hurdle is, how to we get a good enough airflow?

We thought about using 2 desk fans mounted on the underside of the table, but we thought this would be impractical because to get the best power from a fan that size, the intake hole has to be as big as the fan, which is a lot of space to lose pressure.

Next we thought about using a Vacuum Cleaner on reverse, and wondered if it was possible.
Does anyone know if a regular household vacuum would use a universal motor? Something I could just switch the polarity on? I'm aware you can buy vacuums with a reverse function, but this thing is budget, I'm talking about a very old shitty vacuum that I can get from a charity shop.

Does anyone have any better ideas?
10-03-2008, 08:36 PM
Atomic

Use a shop vac. Make it so you plug it in to the side of the table when you're using it then when you need to clean up your car just unplug and vac away.
10-03-2008, 11:01 PM
gorefinger

You could get a more than adequate air compressor for less than $100. I understand you said "budget", but it's not completely unreasonable.

You're going to need to be quite the tinker to reverse a vacuum cleaner motor with budget parts.
10-05-2008, 12:04 AM
wanabedriver

There are many shop vacs that also have 'blower' functions.
10-05-2008, 09:06 AM
Atomic

An electric leaf blower could also be used in the same way. You won't loose the tool, but you will have the table. Use PVC to make the baffles grid then 2 inch to the vac hose.
10-05-2008, 12:47 PM
Default User

A nice sized shop vac works pretty good.

In high school 2 of my buddies and I built one fo,r one of our classes and we used a small shop vac and it worked ok. There was a couple of "dead" spots were there wasn't a lot of air coming out, so we got a bigger one and it worked perfectly fine.
10-05-2008, 08:14 PM
farva

Also, if you use a shop vac, you should probably invest in a few sets of heavy duty earmuffs so that you don't go crazy from all of the noise that a shop vac would make.
10-05-2008, 09:42 PM
Atomic

Quote:

Originally Posted by farva

Also, if you use a shop vac, you should probably invest in a few sets of heavy duty earmuffs so that you don't go crazy from all of the noise that a shop vac would make.

Or make the bottom a cabinet and sound proof it.