[Shop-talk] The one tool we have never discussed here!

[John Miller]

On 1/31/2016 6:44 PM, Doug Braun wrote:
> Regarding built-in systems:
> My brother has a built-in vacuum system, and he says it is more trouble
> than it is worth:  the hose is really long, and it is more hassle to
> drag from room to room than a regular vacuum cleaner.

Glad you brought that up.

It depends.  For full-house vacuuming jobs it's far preferable.  You 
haul the hose out, in our house you have to move the hose about four 
times to do the house.  The thing sucks very well, the capacity is far 
greater than a single bag or filter in an upright, it's lighter and more 
maneuverable with the power brush and FAR FAR better than a hand-held 
wand tool attached to an upright (on which the hose is never quite long 
enough to do what you need to do without knocking the thing over three 
times.)

But, yeah, for little jobs, for cleaning up the spilled morning coffee 
beans or something the kid knocked over, a smallish portable is 
definitely easier than dragging the hose out and plugging it in.

Ah, but next we'll be talking about Steam-Vacs and the like.  Perhaps I 
should have been asking around here about sources for sponge cord before 
I started rebuilding our Hoover, the mechanical bits were all perfectly 
fine but the seals between various pieces that eventually start leaking 
- mostly suction air - are all cut from lengths of sponge cord of a 
diameter not readily found at McMaster-Carr.

John.