Tenok - the Adaptive Vacuum Cleaner

More than half of all vacuum cleaners are trashed while they still work. This project turns that trash into a resource: Tenok is a DIY-vacuum-cleaner that can be equipped with any used vacuum cleaner motor and hose!
You are the manufacturer, so you can use, repair and maintain tenok your whole life!

Making the wooden enclosure does not require elaborate wood-working skills and all other structural parts can be 3D-printed using a standard FDM-printer like a Prusa. All printed parts went through several iterations and are optimized for easy printing.

Though this instructable might look a bit intimidating because it has so many steps, give it a second glance: Yes it is long, but that is because there are no skipped steps and every task is explained in detail. There is nothing worse than starting to build something, just to realize that the instructions are insufficient – that doesn't happen here

For this project you will need the tools in the picture that are listed below. I assume you get your wood cut to size where you buy it, so I did not add a table circular saw. It would also have been too big for the photo.

• ballpoint-pen
• pencil
• triangle-ruler
• metal ruler (preferably 40 cm or longer)
• utility knife
• scissors
• paper punch
• pliers
• cross screwdriver
• big clamp (For objects ≥ 25cm)
• 4x small clamps
• wood file
• bucksaw
• small chisel (8mm straight blade or smaller)
• jigsaw
• drillpress (a proper one works better than that in the picture)
• drills: Ømm = 2; 5; 8; 11; 20; 30; 40 (If you have no 40mm-drill, you can do that one with the jigsaw)
• soldering-iron + solder
• 3D-printer (preferably assembled, and not still boxed like in the picture)
• sewing machine
• strong hand sewing needle
• pins
• sand paper
• wood glue
• linseed oil (or your preferred wood-finish / wax / paint...)

The material you need can be divided into seven groups:

1.) Used vacuum cleaner parts

Hose, pipe, floor-nozzle, motor, cables power-cord, power-switch and circuit-board (though we just want to keep the attached cables & cable shoes).

I will provide some additional information about suitable motors and switches in the coming steps

2.) Various used things

4x office chair castors, 2x obsolete bicycle tubes and a synthetic scarf or other polyester- or nylon-fabric (min 50x25cm)

Tip: Bicycle shops are a great source for old bicycle tube

3.) Household items

Aluminum-foil, 2.6m of rope (up to Ø6mm) or old shoelaces, strong thread and generic vacuum cleaner filter fabric

4.) Wood

You need 18mm-thick boards that are big enough, so you can cut out the rectangular pieces you need (see coming steps for sizes). I bought two 80x25cm boards and one 100x20cm board and cut them further in a maker-space. If you have no possibility to cut the wood yourself, buy it cut to size according to the technical drawing I provide later

5.) ABS- and PETG-3D-printer-filament

You need about 500g of each filament. It is possible to print the PETG-parts from PLA instead, but they become less flexible / break more easily

I printed the PETG parts in two different colours, but that is not necessary.

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6.) Screws, nuts, washers

The wood screws must have a head that meets the shank in a 90°-angle (=the transition from head to shank may not be tapered). The given length does not include the head. The wood-screws should be dimensioned to be driven in Ø2mm-holes. If you are unsure which ones to buy, ask at the hardware store.

(82x) 16mm-wood-screws

(16x) 35mm-wood-screws (a bit shorter or longer is ok)

(98x) M4 washers for the wood screws. Make sure the screw-threads fit through them

The Hex-bolts should all be threaded across the whole shank:

(1x) M5 hex-bolts, 15mm long

(4x) M5 hex-bolts, 40mm long

(4x) M5 hex-bolts, 50mm long

(4x) M8 hex-bolts, 60 mm long; It can be difficult to find fully threaded M8 bolts in that size. However 50mm long ones will also work with most motors. I'll provide more info about which length is necessary for your motor in the coming steps

(13x) M5 Nuts

(4x) M8 Nuts

(12x) M5 washers, flat style

(8x) M5 washers, fender style (larger outside diameter)

(4x) M8 washers, flat style

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7.) New electric components

There are two electric components you need to buy. One is a power regulator, that controls the motor speed and the other is a heat-sensor-switch (80°C-rated, NC) that turns the vacuum cleaner off when it gets too warm. I will provide further information about those two components in the next step.

Power regulator

The power regulator controls the speed at wich the motor spins. It works like a lamp dimmer, but is suitable for higher current. The two versions in the first picture, both fit into tenok's 3d-printed electronics-compartment, but you need to print different files, depending on which regulator you want to use (more info in the next step). If you find the smaller 2000W-version, buy that one. It is absolutely sufficient.

To find such a module online, try keywords like 2000W, dimmer, power / voltage regulator, speed control, PWM, ... as in the picture

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Motor

Tenok is called an "adaptive vacuum cleaner" because the design does not rely on manufacturer-specific parts. You can use any motor from a disposed vacuum cleaner that looks similar to those in the second picture, is 97 to 131mm long and 97 to 150mm wide.

As tenok is not battery powered, but directly connected to the power grid, you can of course not use a small motor from a battery-powered device

I have seen vacuum cleaner motors online where the backside (the side facing up in the picture) looks different. Those would require a special adaptor, but they seem to be not so common and I did not find one yet. If you happen to find one, feel free to go ahead and design an adaptor – I'll add that version to the 3D-printer-files then

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Hose

The hose is another part that tenoks design can adapt to. You can use found vacuum-cleaner hoses with an outside diameter up to 50mm.

A used hose – is that hygienic to use? Sure! – Cleaning hose, pipe and nozzle is easy: Just fill them with hot soapwater and shake them

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Heat-sensor-switch

Heat-sensor-switches can be bought with different temperature-ratings and for tenok we need one that activates at 80°C (or in more precisely between 72 and 88 °C because of tolerance).

As we are running quite high current through the circuit, the switch should withstand at least 10A (ampere).

There are two types of those switches: One is normally open (NO) and the other is normally closed (NC). We need the NC-version because the switch shall let electricity through (=be closed) until it gets too warm and opens the circuit to stop the flow of electricity. Some vendors prefer to call the NC-version "opener", because it opens (opposed to a shutter) the circuit.

Switches like that are often labeled 80C NC 10A (80°C, normally closed, 10 ampere) or KSD80

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Power-switch

The most common power-switch inside vacuum cleaners looks like the black and white models in the last three pictures. If you scavenge a switch that looks different, you will need to go on searching, because only this one fits at the moment.

The black power-switch in the picture fits right away whereas you would need to cut off the cap of the white one as in the last picture. It does not matter if the electric terminals come out of the bottom or the front – both will fit.

All print-parts for tenok can be printed on simple filament-printers like the Prusa i3 MK3S that has been used throughout the development of tenok. For the ABS parts you should put an enclosure around the printer / print-chamber to avoid warping.

The parts are designed for easy printing and only two of them require you to print a small amount of support material. Refer to the attached list to see which settings are necessary for which part.

All files you need to print can be downloaded from Thingiverse via this link:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3710521

There are two parts where you need to choose a size, depending on which components you have scavenged / bought, namely print-parts PP02 (hose-adaptor) and PP14 (electronics compartment, upper part).

PP14: The 2000W-power-regulator (see previous step) works with PP14-s07 and the 4000W-version withPP14-s10. Essentially the two parts are identical, except for the hole where the power regulator is mounted because the bigger one also uses a bigger potentiometer with a bigger shaft.

PP02: You need to choose the version of PP02 that fits the hose you scavenged. I included adaptors for single spiral (PP02-sXX) and double spiral (PP02-dXX) hoses. Maybe helix is the correct word, but let's stay with spiral for simplicity. At first sight, single and double spiral hoses look pretty much the same, but you can easily distinguish them: You might have noticed that vacuum cleaner hoses have a thread that runs all around them. Follow it with your finger or a sharpie marker around the hose to see if it is a single thread or a double thread. Double thread means that two threads are running in parallel around the hose and if you follow one of the threads with your finger around the hose, you will notice with each turn that it looks as if you have skipped a thread, but that "skipped" thread is in fact the second thread that runs in next to the one you are tracing.
Hoses do not only come as single and double spiral versions, but also in different diameters, so I made 11 adaptors each for single (PP02-s30 through PP02-s50) and double (PP02-d30 through PP02-d50) helix. The two digits in the end stand for the hose diameter. Here are some examples:
PP02-s38 fits a single spiral (s) hose with a 38mm-diameter.
PP02-d42 fits a double spiral (d) hose with a 42mm-diameter.
Please also note: I modeled the adaptors in 2mm-steps because a 38mm-adaptor will also work for a 37mm-hose, so if you measure an odd number on your hose, just print the version that is next in size. To make it even clearer, I added the hose-size-range to each file-name like this: PP02-d38-PETG_2020-02-02_tenok_Hose-adapter_double-spiral_37-38mm

Cut your 18mm thick wood to the sizes given in the technical drawing.

If you do not buy the wood pre-cut, but cut it yourself think about a smart order, so you do not need to change the length-stop too often – many of the dimensions are identical.

Later you will need another small piece of wood (at least 130x20mm) to make the handle and while the grain direction is not important for the pieces we make in the current step, the handle needs to be grained in length, so try to save a 130mm long piece that is grained length-wise

Put the boards on the table in front of you as in the picture. For the next steps we do not need the two slender pieces so you can put them aside

Decide which sides of the wooden boards shall be on the outside of the vacuum cleaner. The ones that you put up now, will be the outside surfaces.

Now mark the boards in the lower left corners with a pencil as shown in the pictures.

No worries, we will just sand the marks off in the end and they will not be visible on the finished vacuum cleaner.

In later steps I will refer to the workpieces by the NAMES you write on them now

Now flip the boards sideways like they were pages of a book so that you see the other, unmarked side of them. Do not flip them lengthwise or you will run into problems

The unmarked backside of the boards should now be up

Now mark the backside of the boards in the lower right corners as you shown in the pictures.

REAR INSIDE / FRONT INSIDE / MOTOR:

Use a pencil to connect the corners of the square pieces with a line. The result are marks that form diagonal crosses through the center of the boards

REAR INSIDE / FRONT INSIDE / MOTOR:

Draw horizontal and vertical lines through the center of the square boards. The result are perpendicular crosses

BOTTOM INSIDE / TOP INSIDE:

Draw horizontal lines positioned as in the drawing

BOTTOM INSIDE / TOP INSIDE:

Draw vertical lines and marks positioned as in the drawing

BOTTOM INSIDE:

Add a vertical mark

BOTTOM INSIDE:
Add a horizontal mark

BOTTOM INSIDE:
Make a mark to drill a Ø8mm-hole

ALL BOARDS:

Flip the boards upside down, so that they lie in front of you as in the picture

REAR OUTSIDE / FRONT OUTSIDE / INLET:
Use a pencil to connect the corners of the square pieces with a line like on the other side of the boards

REAR OUTSIDE / FRONT OUTSIDE / INLET:

Draw horizontal and vertical lines through the center of the square boards.

REAR OUTSIDE:

Use a compass do draw a Ø143mm-circle in the center of this board

FRONT OUTSIDE / INLET:

Use a compass or make a mark to drill (or cut) Ø40mm-holes in the center of those boards

INLET:

Make a vertical mark

INLET:

Make a mark to drill a Ø8mm-hole

TOP OUTSIDE:

Make a vertical mark

TOP OUTSIDE:
Make 3 horizontal marks

TOP OUTSIDE:

Make marks to drill a Ø20mm-hole and two Ø30mm-marks

Ø5mm: BOTTOM INSIDE / TOP INSIDE:

Drill (16x) Ø5mm-holes where the lines cross. In the first picture I circled all positions where you need to drill a 5mm-hole.

Ø8mm: BOTTOM INSIDE / INLET:

Drill (2x) Ø8mm-holes where you made a Ø8mm-mark before

Ø20mm: TOP OUTSIDE:

Drill a Ø20mm-hole where you made a Ø20mm-mark before

Ø30mm: TOP OUTSIDE:
Drill (2x) Ø30mm-holes where you made a Ø30mm-mark before

Ø40mm: FRONT OUTSIDE / INLET:

Drill (2x) Ø40mm-holes where you made a Ø40mm-mark before. If you do not have a Ø40mm-drill, you can carefully cut those holes out with a jigsaw instead (like in the next step).

REAR OUTSIDE:

If you happen to have a 143-mm drill that's very impressive and you can use it here.

Us normal mortals drill a hole (~Ø8mm) and cut out the circular Ø143mm-hole from there with a jigsaw.

By now the boards should look like this

For the next step, make sure that the boards are arranged in a way that all the INSIDE-marks and the MOTOR-mark are visible in the lower right corner like in the drawing

LEFT INSIDE / RIGHT INSIDE:

Add a horizontal line per board

BOTTOM INSIDE / TOP INSIDE / LEFT INSIDE / RIGHT INSIDE:

Add a vertical line per board

For this step you need the 3D-printed part "PP1007_Motorholder-Rear_wood-mounted-part". You can use the line-drawing in the beginning of the instructable to identify the correct part.

BOTTOM INSIDE / TOP INSIDE / LEFT INSIDE / RIGHT INSIDE:

Align the 4 printed parts "PP1007" with the marks on the boards:

the edge of PP1007 needs to be aligned with the horizontal mark.

PP1007 has built-in guides to mark the part's center that you need to align with the vertical mark.

Now trace the 8 screw holes (two per print-part) with a pencil

BOTTOM INSIDE:

Align the printed part "PP08_Cable-Holder-bottom_Outer-Part" with the marks on the boards. The screw holes lie on the vertical mark. The guides on the outside of PP08 need to be aligned with the horizontal mark.

Now trace the two screw holes with a pencil

TOP INSIDE:

Add two horizontal marks

Next we want to trace the screw-holes of the electronics compartment. To do so, we need to assemble it partly first.

Gather the following 3D-printed parts:

• PP14_Electronics-Compartment_Upper-Part
• PP15_Speed-knob
• PP16_Electronics-air-inlet_Lid
• PP17_Electronics-air-inlet_Grid
• PP18_Powerbutton_Upper-Part
• PP19_Power-switch-Lock
• PP20_Powerbutton_Lower-Part

and also the scavenged power-switch and the power regulator module. Prepare the power regulator module by removing the plastic-knob that comes with it and unscrew the small nut from the shaft under the knob.

(If you do not have the electric components yet, you can do without the switch and use a simple potentiometer instead of the whole power regulator.)

Assembly:

1. Slide PP20 into PP14, so that it sticks out on the other side. You need to slide it in sideways first and when it sits in place, pull it through the circular hole. PP20 only fits one way: When you look closely at the picture you can see that it has a small recess on one side. Slide it in with this side first and it will work.
2. Screw PP18 into PP20
3. Slide the power-switch into PP14 so that it sits under PP20
4. Lock the power-switch in place by sliding in PP19
5. Insert PP17 with the tapering side first into PP14
6. Screw PP16 into PP14
7. Stick the shaft of the power regulator module's potentiometer through PP14 and screw the nut back on the shaft.
8. Put PP15 on the power regulator

TOP INSIDE:

Put the partly assembled electronics compartment on the board, and check the other side to align the interface carefully with the holes we drilled for it. When you deem the part properly aligned, trace the 4 screw-holes.

Please note: The more careful you align this part now, the nicer it will look assembled

MOTOR:

Align the 4 printed parts "PP1005_Motorholder-Front_outer-part" one by one with the corners of the board and trace the screw holes (two each). To do so, use two small boards as guides to simulate the walls that will surround the MOTOR-board in the motor-chamber later

MOTOR:

Align the printed part "PP1001_Turbine-Gasket-Holder" with the marks on the board. The screw holes lie on the horizontal and vertical marks. The guides on the outside of PP1001 need to be aligned with the diagonal marks.

Now trace the four screw holes with a pencil

FRONT INSIDE / REAR INSIDE:

Align the printed parts "PP11_Front-Hatch-Gasket-Holder" and "PP1009_Rear-Hatch-Gasket-Holder" with the marks on the boards. The screw holes in the parts' corners lie on the diagonal marks. Small built-in square holes in the parts serve as guides and need to be aligned with the horizontal and vertical marks.

Now trace the 16 screw holes (8 per part)

You might have noticed that this part has indicated additional screw holes. Initially I thought this part might be removed now and then to put new gaskets under them, so I wanted to provide an option to drill new screw holes ones the first holes are worn out. By now I am quite confident that the gaskets can last very long, but the indicated screw holes do no harm so I kept them

FRONT INSIDE:

Align the printed part "PP12_Bag-coupling" with the marks on the board. The screw holes lie on the horizontal and vertical marks. The guides on the outside of PP12 need to be aligned with the diagonal marks.

Now trace the four screw holes with a pencil

ALL BOARDS:

Flip the boards around so that all the OUTSIDE-marks and the INLET-mark are in the lower left corners

FRONT OUTSIDE:

Align the printed part "PP01_Hose-Coupling_Base" with the marks on the
board. The screw holes lie on the diagonal marks.

Now trace the four screw holes with a pencil

REAR OUTSIDE:
Align the printed part "PP1011_Outlet-Filter-Holder_outer-part" with the mark on the board. Two of the screw holes lie on the vertical mark.

Now trace the six screw holes with a pencil

INLET:

Align the printed part "PP23_Central-Filter-Holder_Base" with the marks on the
board. The screw holes lie on the diagonal marks. The guides on the outside of PP23 need to be aligned with the horizontal and vertical marks.

Now trace the four screw holes with a pencil

INLET:
Align the printed part "PP06_Cable-Holder-central-wall_Outer-Part" with the marks on the boards. The screw holes lie on the vertical mark. The guides on the outside of PP06 need to be aligned with the horizontal mark. Now trace the two screw holes with a pencil

REAR OUTSIDE / FRONT OUTSIDE:

Add a horizontal line per board

REAR OUTSIDE / FRONT OUTSIDE:

Add two vertical marks per board

TOP OUTSIDE:

Add two vertical marks on the center of the board

TOP OUTSIDE:
Add two horizontal marks (one of them is the extension of a mark you made earlier)

LEFT OUTSIDE / RIGHT OUTSIDE / INLET:

Flip the LEFT and RIGHT boards sideways and put the INLET-board in between so that they form the letter "H". Refer to the drawing for how to arrange the boards correctly

Later the TOP-board will be screwed and glued on top of the "H" we just build. That is why we will need small screwholes in this "H" that align with the bigger Ø5mm-screw-holes of the TOP-board.

In the next steps we will mark the positions for those small screw-holes.

LEFT-side-surface / RIGHT-side-surface:

Add three horizontal marks per board

INLET-side-surface:

Add two vertical marks

LEFT-side-surface / RIGHT-side-surface:
Add a vertical line per board

INLET-side-surface:

Add a horizontal line

LEFT / RIGHT / INLET

Flip the boards upside down sideways. Refer to the picture to make sure you arranged them correctly.

Now you should again see the boards form a wooden "H", but with the unmarked side surfaces facing up.

LEFT-side-surface2 / RIGHT-side-surface2 / INLET-side-surface2

Now add the same marks and lines on those side-surfaces as you did on the other side.

Now we need to drill Ø2mm-holes into those boards.

Drill each hole about 13 mm deep. DO NOT DRILL THROUGH THE WOOD!

On the first two pictures I marked where to drill with green circles (and green arrows for holes you need to drill into the side surfaces of the boards).

For drilling into the side surfaces it's helpful to put up some sort of guide, to align the board to it like I did in the photo

After drilling the boards are ready for assembly

In the following steps we will glue and screw the box together. When doing so, you can refer to the picture above for how to arrange the boards.

Tip:

Read through the next seven steps and put the box together without glue and screws and start putting it together for real when you have an idea how it needs to be assembled.

Glueing the box together should happen in one go, so the glue can dry out evenly afterwards. You do not have to rush through the assembly, but it's good practice to put the box together without interruptions – while not glueing it together the wrong way round.

Again form the letter "H" in front of you from the LEFT-, RIGHT- and INLET-board. Refer to the picture for correct postioning.

Put glue on those surfaces of the INLET board that will be glued to the LEFT and RIGHT boards

Place the INLET-board on the table with the gluey sides pointing towards the LEFT and RIGHT boards.

Before glueing the "H" together, also put glue on the surfaces of the three boards that point upwards

Put the wooden "H" together and then put the TOP-board ... well, on top.

Naturally TOP-OUTSIDE should be on the outside of the box we are building.

Screw the TOP-board tight to the "H" with eight of the 35mm-wood-screws and 8 washers

Remove all the glue that has been squeezed out with a damp cloth

Turn the half-built box upside down and apply glue to the surfaces of the "H" that point upwards now

Glue and screw the BOTTOM-board to the "H".

Again BOTTOM-OUTSIDE should be on the OUTSIDE of the box we are building

Remove all the glue that has been squeezed out with a damp cloth

Apply some force to the bond between the LEFT and RIGHT board and the INLET board by attaching a clamp to the box.

Putting some scrap-wood between the clamp and the box avoids clamp marks

Now you need to let the box rest, so the glue can dry – ideally for 24 hours, if you are patient enough, but over night is also OK. However you can already make feet for the box and glue them on (see next steps)

While the box dries you can already make it some "feet".

For that we will use the two slender wooden pieces we put aside earlier and remove some areas from them so we can run rope and the power-cord through.

Start by making some marks on the wood and then flip the pieces, so that their side surfaces point upwards like in the third picture

Draw a line on each of the wooden pieces. The 8mm in the drawing are measured from the edge of the surface we have marked before.

Flip the boards upside down and also draw lines on this side. Again the 8mm are measured from the surface we marked initially.

Now you sort of extend the marks we made initially around the corner until they meet the long lines.

Again we flip the boards upside down and apply the same treatment to the other side

Add some more marks near the edges

And we also put marks on the smallest surfaces of the pieces and connect them with the marks we made in the previous step

Now we hatch all the areas we want to remove (see pictures).

Remove the wood from the inner hatched areas with the help of a saw and a small chisel.

Do not touch the hatched areas around the edges yet

Now file of fthe edges until you are left with nice chamfers and the feet are done!

If the glue of the box has already dried for some time (check the description on the glue you are using), you can remove the clamp and the four screws in the corners of the bottom

Now apply glue on the surfaces of the feet that feature the longish cut-outs.

Do not put glue into the cut-outs

Align the feet with the edges of the bottom and clamp them to the box.

The foot with three cut-outs attaches to the rear and the one with two cut-outs attaches to the front (see drawing)

Next we want to drill holes into the feet, so you should let the glue dry for sveral hours.

After letting the glue dry, we can remove the clamps and make some marks in the corners of the feet.

The marks show where to drill 30mm deep Ø11mm holes for the office chair castors that we will use as wheels.

Do NOT drill through the wood – only drill 30mm deep into the wood.

PLEASE NOTE: Most office chair castors have Ø11mm-shafts, but some have Ø10mm-shafts. For those smaller shafts you should also just drill a Ø10mm-hole (otherwise you have to wind some tape around them, when attaching them)

Now we prepare the box for sanding and remove all the remaining screws. Put them somewhere safe, as we will screw them back in later.

Sand of all marks and eventual glue residue

The front and rear ends should be as planar as possible, so the hatches will close air-tight in the end. You can check if the ends are planar by putting something flat and rigid on them: If you see gaps you should grab a file and make work the ends planar.

The last wood working we have to do is making a handle for the vacuum cleaner. For that cut out a 130x20mm piece of wood. The piece needs to be grained in length, so it won't break under the weight of the vacuum cleaner.

(If you wonder why the piece in the picture looks broader than 20mm, that's because it is in fact broader. However I adjusted the dimensions for the final design that you are building)

Draw a line in the middle of the piece

Make two marks

Drill two Ø8mm holes where the line and the marks meet.

Afterwards sand the edges. The rounder you make them, the more comfortable the handle will be in your hand later on.

This step is especially important when you used coniferous wood like me as it can leak resin when it gets warm and you do not want resin to ooze into your motor, when the vacuum cleaner gets a little warmer.

That's why we make some aluminum foil shielding for the motor chamber that gets attached to it's top, bottom, walls and hatch.

Cut out pieces of aluminum foil in the sizes you find in the drawing, add the indicated cut-outs and also pre-fold the foil as indicated. After folding the pieces should fit well into the motor compartment. If they don't fit , tweak them a bit

Apply heat resistant glue (see below) evenly to the rear hatch's INSIDE-surface.

How to tell which side is the inside, now that the marks are sanded off? Easy: It has the screw holes for the rear-hatch-gasket-holder (PP1009).

PLEASE NOTE – Which glue to use:

I made some oven-tests with glue I already had to see if I need to buy special heat-resistant glue to attach the aluminum-foil to the wood and it turned out that my Titebond III Ultimate Wood Glue does the trick perfectly. If you can get this glue – great, use it! If not: Find some heat-resistant (at least 90°C) glue for this step

Attach the foil and press it flat with your palm or the bottom of the glue container.

Do not fold the foil to glue it around the edges – you will later cut off the excess foil

Cut the circle into strips, glue them to the side-walls of the circular hole and cut the tips of

Cut the foil at least 5mm (better 10mm) from the edge to avoid having a conductive bridge from the motor chamber to the outside later

Take the bigger piece of aluminum foil and fold its 20mm wide pre-folded areas flat on the piece. If you are unsure what I mean, compare this picture with the previous one

Apply glue evenly to the wall that separates the motor chamber from the bag chamber.

Now pick up the piece we prepared in the previous step, carefully place it in the motor chamber and press it flat to the wall we just put glue on

Now apply glue to one of the walls and press the foil against it

repeat the previous step with the opposing wall

Now finish attaching this piece by glueing the 20mm wide folded strips to the walls

Now we start to attach the last Aluminum foil piece.

Again, start by putting some glue on the wall that seperates the chambers (or more precisely on the foil that covers it now)

This piece needs to cover the walls that have no foil on them yet, so make sure to place it right.

Again we press the foil to the glue we have just applied

Again apply glue to one of the yet uncovered walls and press the foil against it

And again repeat the previous step with the last uncovered wall

Now trim off the portion of the 20mm-wide strips that exceed the wooden walls

Apply glue to the rear end surfaces of the box and press the foil on them

Like with the hatch, cut the foil at least 5mm (better 10mm) from the edge to avoid having a
conductive bridge from the motor chamber to the outside later.

Rub some extra glue on the areas where the foil ends to seal them

The title says it

Now you need to find the hidden screw-holes under the foil and poke them with a screwdriver.

You can cheat by using PP1001, PP1005 and PP1007 as templates again. Also the holes in the hatch are easier to find with the help of PP1009 (not in the picture).

There are two holes in the TOP-board that you cannot find with the help ob the printed parts. If you do not remeber their location just go back and check where they are supposd to be.

When the glue has dried properly, you can apply a finish to the wooden parts. I used linseed oil to keep the natural look of the wood, but you can of course use something else, if you like

PLEASE NOTE: If you plan to use some sort of delicate paint finish, you might want to quickly perform step 202-204 and drill the holes for the handle-holders (PP10) before you apply the finish. That way you avoid the risk of messing up the finished surface

There are three things you might wonder about when you look at the pictures:

1. Where did the printed handle holder (PP10) go?
2. Why does the wooden handle suddenly look strange?
3. What is that thing in the upper right corner?

The reason for those irregularities is that when I shot the photos for the tutorial, the vacuum cleaner had a differently shaped handle that did not require printed parts, but an old belt.

You can just ignore those details in the photos – In the end they will disappear and we mount the updated handle

When you made it this far, I guess you are already excited to put the whole thing together. Preserve that feeling a little longer because we still need to make some parts before the final assembly and we start by making rubber shock absorbers and gaskets from bicycle tube.

For making the rubber parts you will need the following tools:

• steel ruler & angular ruler
• ballpoint-pen
• paper punch
• pins
• sewing-needle & strong thread
• utility knife
• scissors
• pliers

Moreover you will need the 3D-printed turbine-gasket-holder (PP1001) and a small piece of cardboard

There are five different rubber parts: Some are made from pieces of tube, others are cut out of the tube. In the next steps we will make the pieces one by one.

It does not matter how wide your tube is, but you can make your life easier by trying to find wide tube instead of very slender types like that used in racing bikes

We start by making shock absorbers for the frontal motor holders.

First cut a 75mm long piece off the tube

Use a paper punch to make a hole on each side.

Tip: Often tubes have seam-lines that you can use as a guide so your holes end up on the same height.

Tip 2: When you remove the bottom of the hole punch you can see more easily where you are punching

Repeat the last two steps 7 times, so you have 8 shock absorbers in total

Cut a 57mm long piece off the tube and punch a hole on each side

Repeat the previous step 5 times, so you have six rear shock aborbers in total

First measure how wide your tube is when you press it flat on the table.

The length of the pieces you want to make is 230 minus the width of the tube, so if you measured for example 40mm, then you need to cut off 190mm long strips (because 230-40 = 190)

Now calculate how long your pieces need to be and cut one off

Now that you know how long to cut your rubber pieces, make three more of them and place them on the front hatch like I did in the picture

If you are happy with the pieces you made in the last step, make four more for the rear hatch

To make the motor gasket, we need to cut the tube open.

Bicycle tubes are usually curved because wheels are unfortunately round. This makes it a bit tricky to make flat, even rubber sheets out of them. For that reason I found that it works best to cut it open at its peak.

If the tube has seamlines, cut along one of those. They serve well as guides for the cut

Lay the cut-open bicycle tube flat on the table.

Now take some cardboard and cut a 78x78mm square piece from it.

Use the cardboard as a template and trace its shape on the rubber.

(If your rubber piece is not wide enough, you can still use it. The pieces you make will just not have the exact length in one direction)

Cut out the rubber-square

Put the rubber square in the printed turbine-gasket-holder (PP1001) and trace the hole in the middle on it

Use scissors to cut out the hole you traced in the previous step

Make seven more of those rubber pieces so you have eight in total.

Stack the pieces on top of each other, make sure that the holes are aligned and pin the stack together

(If your rubber sheet was to short to cut proper squares, rotate every second piece, so that the stack becomes squareish)

Take your sewing needle and stitch the corners of the stack with strong thread. It requires some force to pull the needle through, so I used pliers to grab it.

The knots of the thread can later rest in the small pockets of the printed turbine-gasket-holder (PP1001)

Like the motor-gasket, this part is also made from a sheet of rubber, so we cut a bit more tube open along a seamline.

From the small rubber sheet we cut out a 20x50mm piece and use the scissors to cut out a small hole (~Ø3mm) in the center

Now the rubber parts are finished and we can move on to the next step

Get your generic vacuum cleaner filter fabric, a compass, scissors and a ruler

In the package you find two sorts of filters: micro-filter and motor filter, which is more coarse.

We start with the micro-filter-fabric: Get out the compass a draw a Ø132mm-circle on it

Now cut out the circular filter you traced on the micro-filter-fabric.

From the coarser motor-filter-fabric we make two more circular filters: One is Ø125mm and the last filter is quite tiny with just Ø24mm

To sum it up:

Micro filter fabric – Ø132mm

Motor filter fabric – Ø125mm; Ø24mm

The filters are finished, so we can move on to the next step

Now we will prepare the electrical components. I know that this topic often feels alien and intimidating in tutorials, but don't worry, I made it quite easy to follow

In the end we will have this circuit in the vacuum cleaner:

An on/off-switch, which is connected to the power regulator that controls how fast the motor is running and a heat-sensor-switch to turn everything off when it gets too warm – that's it.

On the first picture you can see how the components were connected in the vacuum cleaner I took them from. In your case it might look a bit different, but that's fine.

First we separate all the parts.

We do not need the circuit board, but we are interested in the cables that are attached to it. Cut off the longest cable (incl. cable-shoe) and keep it. Remove three cable-shoes from the remaining cables and keep them

Now we add our power-regulator and heat-sensor-switch. As we see in the diagram, the functional components are already complete, but the connection between them is not.

We'll fix that in the next steps

Cut off 50cm from your power-cord.

This small piece of cord will connect the power-regulator with motor & heat-sensor-switch

Remove about 50mm of the power cords's outer sheathing and from each end of the piece you cut off, so that the inner cables are revealed. Now remove about 3mm of cable-sheathing from each cable end.

Solder one cable shoe to one of the cables in the power-cord. It does not matter to which of the two cables you solder it.

Solder the remaining two cable shoes to the two cables in the 50cm-piece we cut from the power-cord.

Now the electronics are ready to go into tenok. On the third picture I connected them to give you an idea how the circuit looks.

Remember that I wrote that I changed the handle design after I made the photos for this tutorial?

Well, in the original version you would now have to cut the old belt to size and punch holes into it, but as our final handle will look different, we skip this step. I just included it, so you do not get confused by that ominous brown strip that appears on the next photos

I am by no means a professional at sewing, but making a drawstring-bag is luckily one of the easisest things you can make and is often recommended for absolute beginners. That's why there are also a lot of instructions online about making such a bag, so I decided to just link one of them here. The linked tutorial does not use an old scarf, but a towel instead, but close enough I would say. You can of course also look for another drawstring-bag-tutorial and follow that one – I just did a quick search and there might be better ones.

I might make a separate tutorial about sewing a small drawstring-bag in the future, but for now using another one is just fine

Now it's finally time for assembly!

As a first step the 35mm-wood-screws that we removed for sanding are screwed back into the box.

Attach (4x) "PP1005_Motorholder-Front_outer-part" in the corners of the motor compartment witch two screws and washerseach

Now that the outer parts of the frontal-motor-holder are mounted, we can prepare the inner parts. For that we need:

• (4x) PP1006_Motorholder-Front_inner-part

• (4x) M5 hex-bolts, 40mm long
• (4x) M5 hex-bolts, 50mm long
• (8x) M5 washers, fender style (larger outside diameter)
• (12x) M5 Nuts

• (8x) frontal shock absorbers (rubber part)

Put two nuts into one of the four "PP1006_Motorholder-Front_inner-part". One goes in from the side and one from the back (first picture).

Loosely screw a 50mm-M5-hex-bolt into the nuts in the printed part (second picture).

Wrap two off the rubber-shock-absorbers around the printed part (third picture).

Put a fender washer on one of the 40mm-M5-hex-bolts, put it through the rubber and the printed part, put a fender washer on the end of the bolt and screw the whole package tight with an M5-nut (fourth picture)

Repeat the previous steps with the remaining three inner parts of the motor holder and once all four inner parts are finished, slide them into the outer parts that are already screwed into the box

Use two screws and washers to attach the heat-sensor-switch to the TOP-board of the motor chamber

Attach "PP1001_Turbine-Gasket-Holder" with 4 screws and washers

PLEASE NOTE: Before you mount this part, mage sure that the M8-hex-bolts fit into them. If you cannot slide them in completely, work the parts with a utility knife or similar

Mount (4x) "PP1007_Motorholder-Rear_wood-mounted-part" to the four side walls with two screws and washers each

Turn the box around, so you see the bag chamber

Attach "PP14_Electronics-Compartment_Upper-Part" with 4 screws and washers

Attach "PP08_Cable-Holder-bottom_Outer-Part" on the bottom inside the box with two screws and washers

Attach "PP06_Cable-Holder-central-wall_Outer-Part" with two screws and washers

Attach "PP23_Central-Filter-Holder_Base" with 4 screws and washers

Slide "PP22_Central-Filter-Holder_Grid" into the central-filter-holder-base we installed in the previous step.

Take a close look at the two parts to see how you need to orient the grid so it fits into the base

Turn the box so you see its top surface

PLEASE NOTE: Before you attach the cord-pins you might want to skip to steps 202-204 and drill the holes for the handle-holders (PP10) first. Like that the Cord pins are not in the way when you measure where to mark the screw holes, but you can also do it later when you arrive at this step.

Attach (2x) "PP04_Cord-Pin" with a screw and washer each

Attach "PP11_Front-Hatch-Gasket-Holder" and (4x) rubber hatch-gasket-pieces to the front hatch with 8 screws and washers. Make sure to lay the rubber pieces on the front hatch the way I did, so each piece is fixed with a screw on both sides later. In the first picture you can see how they need to be arranged.

When you screw the screws in, push the printed part down firmly on the rubber so that it does not move around when you drive the screw through it.

Like in the previous step, attach "PP1009_Rear-Hatch-Gasket-Holder" and (4x) rubber hatch-gasket-pieces to the rear hatch with 8 screws and washers.

Pull the power cord through the central square hole of the box's rear foot and then through the Ø8mm-hole in the bottom.

As you can see in the diagram, our electronics start to come together: The heat-sensor-switch and the power-cord are already in!

Put one of the cable tighteners (PP09) on the power cord. The threaded part of the tightener needs to point towards the cable holder that is mounted on the bottom of the chamber.

For all the cables I found the central hole of the cable tighteners was big enough, but if your cable does not fit through, get out a drill and show that 3D-printed thing who's boss

Place the rubber cable-gasket in the already mounted outer part of the Cable-Holder (PP06) on the central wall that seperates the motor chamber from the bag chamber. It will stick out on both sides but that is fine.

Now pull the rubber a bit apart and slide "PP07_Cable-Holder-central-wall_Inner-Part" into PP06.

Now take the 50cm-cable that we cut off the power cord earlier. Push and pull the cable through the Ø8mm-hole in the central wall between the chambers. Make sure that the side with the cable shoes is in the motor chamber in the end.

You need to get the cable through the cable holder and in there through the little hole in the rubber piece that we installed in the previous step. This requires some effort.

If you can't make it happen, cut the hole in the rubber part a bit bigger, but make sure it still sits tight around the cable

Now that the big cables are in, we can soon install the funtional electric components

Attach one more cable-tightener (PP09) per cable. The threaded part of the tightener needs to point towards the end of the cable.

Screw the two cable tighteners loosely into the lower part of the electronics compartment (PP13).

It does not matter, which cable goes where, but mounting is easier when the power cable that comes from the bottom is attached closer to the end of the part

Get the power swich and attach the scavanged cable with the single cable-shoe to one of its terminals (it does not matter which) and connect the other terminal to the power-cord's cable that also features a cable shoe.

The power regulator has 4 terminals: two of them are labelled "IN" and two of them are labelled "OUT". The designations might be slightly different, but as long as it is clear where the power goes in and where it goes out that's fine.

Attach the two cables from the power cord and switch to the "IN"-terminals by unscrewing the terminal a bit and fastening the revealed cable-end with the terminal screw.

Attach the other two cables that go to the motor chamber to the "OUT"- terminals

Now that all functional parts in the electronics compartment are connected, we can put everything together.

When you do not remember what goes where just go back to the step where we assembled the electronics compartment for the first time

Again we

1. Slide the lower part of the power-button (PP20) into the upper part of the electronics compartment (PP14)
2. Screw the upper part of the power-button (PP18) into PP20
3. Slide the power-switch into PP14 so that it sits under PP20
4. Lock the power-switch in place by sliding in the power-switch-lock (PP19)

Again we mount the power regulator as we did earlier. You can use pliers to tighten the nut on the shaft

Now it's time to close the electronics compartment: Hook the back of the lower part into the upper part and screw the front of the two parts together with the 15mm-M5-hex-bolt, two washers and a M5-Nut.

You can also tighten the cable-tighteners now. While you tighten them, grab the cable, so that it does not turn so much together with the tighteners

Now attach the power cord under the box with (2x) "PP05_Cable-Clamp" and two screws & washers each.

You can put them where you like.

You can pre-drill screw holes or if you used soft wood just rambo them in without

In the motor chamber, grab the cord that comes out of the central wall and attach one of it's two wires to the heat-sensor-switch that we mounted earlier

Place the rubber turbine-gasket on the turbine-gasket-holder (PP1001)

Find the scavenged wire with a cable-shoe on each side and connect one of them to the terminal of the heat sensor switch that is still free.

As you can see in the diagram, only the motor is missing now to have a closed circuit

Slide the (4x) M8-hex-bolts from behind into the four parts of the rear motor holder (PP1007) that we mounted to the wooden walls earlier. Screw a M8-nut and washer loosely on each screw

The motor should sit tight between the four rubber-damped frontal motor holders. You can adjust the position of the motor holders when the motor is not mounted. You do so by screwing the screw that goes through the inner part of the motor-holder in and out.

Test fit the motor and when it is to loose screw the afforementioned screw a bit out and test fit the motor again. Repeat this until the motor sits tight. You should still be able to slide the motor in and out comfortably with your hands. If you have to get a rubber hammer, it's definitely too tight.

Make sure that all the motor-holders are screwed to about the same position, so the motor sits in the middle of the box

Now all the functional parts and cable connections are in the box. In the next step we will finally connect the motor and close the circuit.

Tip:

If the turbine of your motor has a very inconvenient shape (for example a protruding metal collar exactly at the height where the motor holders end) that prevents you from mounting it properly, try to slide some extra rubber-bits under the rubber-padding of the motor holders. That way you should be able to create a shape that works with your motor

Connect the remaining wire that comes from the box's central wall to one terminal of the motor (it does not matter to which).

The other terminal connects to the single wire that is already attached to the heat-sensor-switch.

Congratulations, the circuit is closed!

Now we collect the parts to put the central piece of the rear motor holder together. For that we will need:

• (2x) PP1002_Motorholder-Rear_Motor-Adaptor_Slider
• PP1003_Motorholder-Rear_Motor-Adaptor_Base
• PP1008_Motorholder-Rear_Celtic-Cross
• (6x) rear-motor-holder-shock-absorber (rubber part)
• Strong thread

You can already slide the sliders (PP1002) into the base (PP1003), just like in the second picture

Make two stacks of three rubber parts each, place them on the "celtic cross" (PP1008) and put the motor-adaptor (PP1003) on top. The holes in the corners of the adaptor should approximately align with the holes in the rubber parts and holes in the celtic cross

Before we fix the motor-adaptor to the celtic-cross, check if it will align well with the mounting-holes in the back of the motor. If it doesn't, you can rotate the motor adaptor on the celtic cross. There are multiple positions in which it can be mounted

As soon as you are happy with the position of the adaptor, thread a strong thread through each of its corners, the underlying rubber parts, and the nearest hole in the celtic cross beneath it.

Tighten the threads with a bow. Do not make knots yet because we want to tighten the threads further later on.

Attach the contraption we just built to the motor

Remove the nuts and washers from the M8-hex-bolts

Put the bolts through the celtic cross

Attach nuts and washers again and tighten the nuts by hand so that the motor is held in place well. We do not want to tighten them too much though. I recommend to use no tools to tighten the nuts – what you can achieve with the strength of your fingers should be good enough

Now that everything is pressed together nicely you can open the bows, tighten the four threads that hold the rear-motor-holder together and make knots instead

slide (4x) "PP1004_Clip-for-M8-screws" on the M8 nuts. To do so you need to place the clip on a bar of the celtic cross and push it towards the nut so that it slides onto the guide rails (on the sides of the bar) and around the nut

Attach "PP12_Bag-coupling" to the inside of the front hatch with 4 screws and washers

Attach "PP01_Hose-Coupling_Base" to the outside of the front hatch with 4 screws and washers

Attach (2x) "PP04_Cord-Pin" to the front hatch with a screw and washer each

Attach "PP1011_Outlet-Filter-Holder_outer-part" to the outside of the rear hatch with 6 screws and washers

Attach (2x) "PP04_Cord-Pin" to the rear hatch with a screw and washer each

Put the biggest of the filters we made earlier into outlet-filter-holder we attached in the previous step

Screw the inner part of the outlet-filter-holder (PP1010) into the outer part that holds the filter

From above, put "PP17_Electronics-air-inlet_Grid" into it's place in the electronics compartment

Now put the small filter we made earlier on top of the grid

Finally screw "PP16_Electronics-air-inlet_Lid" on top of the filter. You can use a coin as screwdriver.

And again we attach "PP15_Speed-knob" to the axle of the power regulator

Put the last filter into "PP21_Central-Filter-Holder_Lid".

Screw the lid together with the filter onto the filter-holder-base (PP23)

Cut off two pieces of rope, each 120cm long

Thread the rope through the square holes in the frontal foot and knot them together.

Put the front hatch on the box.

Wind the rope around the cord-pin (PP04) on top of the box.

Pull the cord arount the two cord-pins (PP04) on the front hatch

Repeat the previous step with the rear hatch on the other side of the box

Attach the castors by pressing their rods into the holes we drilled in the feet of the box

The next step is to attach the handle and because the design changed after I took the photos for the tutorial, I decided to redo and take photos of the remaining steps with the new handle. So say Goodbye to the piece of belt and say hello to the new handle design.

For the handle you will need to cut a 37cm long piece of rope

The title says it.

Apply marks to the top surface according to the drawing

Apply further marks to the top surface

As we did earlier, drill some Ø2mm-holes into the wood where the lines meet.

Drill about 13mm deep into the wood. Do not drill through the wood!

Sand the marks off and apply some linseed oil (or other finish, if you used something else)

Attach (2x) "PP10_Handle_Holder" with four screws and washers each

Make a knot in the end of the 37cm-long rope.

Thread the rope from below through one of the handle-holders (PP10) and twice through the handle like in the picture.

Thread the rope from above through the other handle-holder and make a knot in the other end

Tie the bag to the bag-coupling (PP12) on the front hatch with a bow

Close the hatches again

Put the hose through the lid of the hose-coupling (PP03) like in the second picture

Screw the Hose-adaptor onto the hose like in the third picture (screws tight counter-clockwise)

Great, you made it!

Reward yourself by vacuuming the room! Doesn't sound like a fun reward? In general that might be true, but you just made a full-blown vacuum cleaner on your own, how cool is that? You won't want to stop vacuuming!