Small Parts Pickup

[Buzz]

There has been a discussion about losing small parts, be they from a scroll saw or, in my case, also from plastic models. I finally got tired of brushing through saw dust on the floor, etc. and made this from a spare water nozzle attachment for my shop vac. I removed the squeegee and attached a piece of window screen. Unfortunately the one view didn't come out well, but the other side is attached in the same manner. It works for me. I do a little vacuuming of the area I lost the piece in, and most of the fine dust goes in my vac. What ever remains on the screen is pretty much visible to the naked eye. I then gently brush it off the screen, it seems to adhere slightly, and Viola! there's the part I'm looking for.

[Daryl185]

wow Buzz that is ingenious I will have to make one of those, as a fellow modeler I have lost lots of small parts and looking through the carpet on hands and knees can drive ya mad, thanks for sharing this tip

[CanadianScroller]

I wish I had seen this earlier. Last year I was sanding some fine pieces for a segmentation project and I had the vacuum nozzle on the drill press with the drum sander.
You know how frustrating it is to have to tear open a vacuum bag and rummage through the contents to find one small piece that was sucked in.

I since put a screen on the vac too.

[Gill]

Some people put a large airtight drum between the pipe and the shop vac, working on the principle that large pieces will fall into the drum and only fine dust will be sucked into the vac, meaning the bags don't fill up so quickly.

Gill

[Marcel in Longueuil]

Gill,

In a two stage vacuum (with a separator) the sawdust ends up, with the bigger parts, in the canister too so you don't have to tear a vacuum bag apart, but you still have to dust dive for the parts.

The screen is a good 1st line separator for the use as described above.

Just my unrequested .02 ;-)
Marcel