This isn't exactly a woodworking project although it does include some wood components. But it also involves plastics, sheet metal work, ducting and heck, three different plant pots. This is largely a repackaging of a standard electric leaf blower/vacuum to make it more convenient to use. It operates in vacuum mode only and permits separation between the operator and the heavy, noisy and dusty leaf-blower and bag.
There doesn't seem to exist any good method for cleaning gravel. If you look into it, most suggestions involve variations on "shovel it out, clean it and put it back" which can certainly be effective but is also a huge amount of work. I can say that because I have done it on a 20+ year-old gravel bed after we moved in to the house; It was effective, but a huge amount of work.
The vacuuming technique is rather easier - a couple hours of boring work vs. a dozen or more hours of backbreaking work. I had originally tried a shop vac but it didn't work very well and tended to suck up the 1" gravel (despite my innovative peanut-jar rock trap - go figure). Eventually I bought a leaf blower/vacuum and used the vacuum function. This worked decently but of course I was lugging a heavy and noisy piece of equipment around that emits clouds of fine dust. After a few years of this I decided to try to improve the situation.
The eventual
solution consists of the vacuum and bag mounted in a portable wooden case with a 10' flexible hose stretching to the operator, providing some noise/dust separation. The lightweight pickup nozzle includes protruding rods for stirring the gravel and is controlled with a long screw-in broom handle. The system has evolved a bit over the years, gaining a smaller nozzle, a rotary joint at the nozzle and a better hose attachment method. I also made a few different attachments such as a brush and a short nozzle into which leaves could be directly raked.
It does a pretty good job at cleaning dry debris from the gravel but I'm glad that a single yearly gravel cleaning in the spring is usually sufficient to keep the areas looking decent. The biggest issue is maintenance of the vacuum - the hose wears out pretty much yearly and needs to be replaced and various other parts such as the gravel-stirring rods eventually get abraded down and also need to be replaced. But that still beats "shovel it out, clean it and put it back".
| Materials: | Toro 51599 Leaf Blower/Vacuum, 6" Flexible Vinyl pipe, 5" HVAC elbow, 3/4" MDF, et al. |
| Done: | Circa June 2016 |
