instructables

Shop Vac Squid Brush

by stevemoseley

used and thought I would sacrifice a couple in order

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZgNW7ZaNlWY
to make a new fitting to help me with these situations.
One of the problems with a regular shop vac is that it
Sometimes you need something you can’t find
has too much suction and can't reach into narrow
anywhere else and you don’t care if it looks great as
crevices. You end up sucking up all of the parts you
long as it works. It’s just an added bonus if it only
are trying to get the dust out of and then digging
costs a couple dollars to make yourself.
through the shop vac bin to find them again.

I was looking for a way to get into hard to reach

I ran across some small diameter water line tubing at
places with my shop vacuum and also trying to find a
my local home store and thought I could use it to add
fast way to clean sawdust and other debris out of
a bunch of smaller lines to the end of an existing shop
parts bins without dumping everything out of the
vac tool and make a bunch of very small suction
containers.
hoses to the end of the large main hose.

I realized I had some shop vac tools I never really

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1. Top view of the brush 1. The final version of the squid brush. Those little tubes are ready for
2. Extra hole in top to allow for the reduced air flow to the shop vac. some cleaning.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 1

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1. Smaller version of the squid brush.

Step 1: Tools and Materials Needed

This is a very simple project and should only take you Tools
an hour or so once you have all of the materials. An - Hot glue gun
added bonus is that you really only need a few tools. - Utility Knife
- Drill
Materials - Band Saw (a hand saw could be used if you don't
- Existing shop vac hose tool you will be modifying have a band saw)
- Flexible small diameter plastic tubing - Tubing I use - Rotary Tool (optional)
d
- Hot glue

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 2

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1. Label on the tubing I used. 1. UPC code on the tubing I used.

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1. A couple of the shop vac attachments I wasn't using that I will be

modifying in this Instructable.
2. One roll of the tubing used to modify the brush.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 3

Step 2: Measure Tubing
Most of what I wanted to use this brush for was for
was for reaching recessed areas that were a few
inches out of reach with the regular shop vac hose
end. I figured the flexibility of the small tubing that I
was using would be rigid enough if it was a couple
inches long, but anything longer and the tubing would
be flexing all over the place.
I decided to go with a length of 3.5 inches outside of
the hose attachment. I really didn’t think I would need
to get into deeper areas than that.
1. Pieces of tubing that are already cut to length.
Step 3: Prepare the Attachment
Since I am going to be cutting down the area of the
opening in the end of the hose attachment by quite a
bit I decided I had better cut a hole in the back of the
attachment to allow for more airflow. I didn’t want to
overwork the motor in the shop vac every time I used
this brush.
I assumed this hole would be easy enough to cover
with your hand while using the attachment to get
more suction, but wasn't positive.
I decided to cut the hole in the part of the attachment
that is most like a cylinder and used a matching part
from a nearly identical handle to make a cover that
Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 4
I cut the tubing into equal length pieces 4.25 inches
long so 0.75 inches would be inside the vac
attachment.
You will be cutting the tubing off at an even length
after gluing them all in place so don't worry about
cutting them off to a perfectly exact length at this
point.
could be used to control the amount of suction to the
attachment. I cut the cylinder part out of the matching
piece and cut a potion out of one side of the cylinder.
See the pictures for more detail. This allows the cover
to slide over the attachment and cover as much of the
new hole as you want.
I did forget to take into consideration the part of the
shop vac hose that extends inside the attachment, so
some of the hole I cut into the attachment is covered
(from the inside) with the end of the hose. You may
want to adjust where you cut the additional hole in
your attachment due to this.
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1. Cutting the end off of an attachment that will cover the additional 1. Cutting a section out of the opening cover.
opening in the other brush.

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1. Using a circle template to draw a circle for cutting out the additional air 1. Using a rotary tool to cut an additional opening in the attachment to
flow hole. I used a silver marker since it would be hard to see the circle allow more airflow.
with a black marker.

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1. Working on the smaller brush by cutting off the cover for the extra air 1. Cutting a section out of the air opening cover.
opening.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 5

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1. Cutting the end of the original attachment off so the end is square. 1. Test fitting the outer piece that will cover the extra air opening in the
attachment.

1. The hole I will cut for additional air flow will go here. 1. Drilling the starting hole for the extra opening in the attachment.

1. Using a rotary tool to cut the remainder of the extra opening. 1. Extra hole completed.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 6

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1. Testing the hole over the additional opening for air flow. 1. I had to expand the hole for the extra air opening since I didn't properly
account for the shop vac hose extending as far as it does into the
attachment.

1. Testing the air opening cover on the newly enlarged hole.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 7

Step 4: Glue the Tubing in Place
The next step is where you glue the tubing into the
hose attachment. I used a hot glue gun to make this a
fast process. I wasn't really sure what to use, but
decided to try hot glue as a way to try out the
concept. I decided if the hot glue didn't hold well or
started coming apart then I could remake the squid
brush with some other type of adhesive. Maybe
epoxy would be a better long term adhesive, but
would take longer to use.
Before I started gluing the tubes inside the
attachment I thought it would be good to rough up the
inside of the attachment opening using a Dremel with
a grinder disc on a rotary tool. I thought that might
help the hot glue stick to the surface better by making
a rougher surface. This is really up to you.
1. First two tubes glued in place.
Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 8
I took some of the tubing pieces I pre-cut and held
them inside the opening to see how well they fit and
what pattern of the tubing layouts would work best.
I decided the best thing to do was to start on the
bottom at one side with the first piece and move
across from there.
The next row of tubing I placed in between the tubing
in the first row. Then I just kept filling in row by row.
The last couple pieces of tubing were a little more
difficult to install since I wanted to be careful not to
plug the end of the tubing with hot glue as I inserted
them.
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1. First row of tubes glued in place. 1. First row of tubes glued in place.

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1. First row of tubes glued in place. 1. Second row of tubes in place.

1. Second row of tubes glued in place. 1. Gluing the top row in place.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 9

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1. Looking inside the brush so you can see the alignment of 1. All three rows glued in place.
the holes.

1. Adding some glue around the outside of the brush where the tubes enter
the opening.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 10

Step 5: Cut the Extra Tubing Off

One I had all of the tubing in place I needed to cut the ends at the same length.

I marked each row of tubing with a permanent marker using a straight edge.

I then used a new razor blade to cut each tube at the marker line. Be sure to have something under the row of
tubing to support it as you cut.

1. Checking the rows of tubing for uniform length. 1. Cutting the extra tubing off.

1. The three rows of tubing spread out nicely on a flat surface, but can follow
irregular surfaces.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 11

Step 6: Testing

I tested the completed brush in a variety of situations.
One of the main reasons I wanted this brush for was
for cleaning out sawdust from containers of parts. The
other reason was for cleaning deeper recesses such
as some of the areas under my table saw that always
hold sawdust and the full size shop vac hose will not
reach into. The 2-1/2 inch diameter shop vac hose
was just too large to get into those tight areas.
since it makes it easier to see the results. Do I spill
coffee in my work area? No, but you might want to
use this for spilled coffee in a kitchen drawer full of
utensils.
One thing I realized is that you can suck the dust out
of very small holes by inserting just one of the tubes
into the hole.

You can see that the squid brush does a great job of I set up a couple deep slot layouts using two pieces
cleaning in grooves and holes of various sizes. The of clear acrylic with sawdust poured between them.
tubing is flexible enough to conform to the shape of Watch the video to see how well it pulled the sawdust
the area, but rigid enough to hold it’s shape. from the slots.

In some of the video testing I used coffee grounds

1. Sucking the dust out of the bolts, nuts, and washers. 1. Sucking the dust out of the bolts, nuts, and washers.

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1. Container with bolts, nuts, and washers filled with coffee grounds to see 1. Sucking the coffee grounds out of the nuts and bolts and doing a great
how well it pulls out the smaller bits. job.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 12

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1. Testing the brush with decking screws and sawdust. It works great!!! 1. Testing how much sawdust can be removed from deep slots
that the shop vac hose can't fit into. This is just a setup using
some clear acrylic.

1. Testing how much sawdust can be removed from deep slots that the shop
vac hose can't fit into. This is a thinner slot than the previous test setup.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 13

Step 7: Final Thoughts

opening on the back of the brush when you want to

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZgNW7ZaNlWY
increase the suction temporarily.

This isn't really a squid or a brush, but it looks a little

One thing I didn't think about was the situation where
like a brush shaped like a squid. At least I thought so
a larger item that is too large to be sucked through
and named it for that. Please post any other names
the tubing is encountered. If it is sucked up against
you can think of in the comments below.
the end of the tubing it is easy to pull the piece off the
end and then just drop it in the new airflow opening
I really like the way it turned out. In fact, I made one
you cut in the back of the attachment.
for my smaller shop vac so I could use it more easily
when cleaning out our cars. It has been really useful
My intent in making this brush wasn't to create
for cleaning out the cup holders and center consoles.
something that would vacuum up a large volume of
material, but rather to vacuum up a relatively small
Is it pretty? Absolutely not, but it is incredibly useful
amount of dust or saw dust from hard to reach places.
and it was very cheap for such a functional new tool
to add to the shop. I already had the shop vac
If you think you could benefit from making this brush I
attachments that I made the squid brush out of and
highly recommend it. I have used both of my squid
the tubing was the only material needed. The 25 foot
brushes many times since I made them.
long roll of tubing cost $3.50 at a local home store.
Since I made two squid brushes with the tubing I
As you can see, the squid brush is great for cleaning
made each one for under $2.00 if you don't take into
the dust out of containers with items like nuts, bolts,
account my time to put them together.
and screws. I can’t tell you how many times I wish I
would have had this when I sorted through a
I think it worked out well to have the opening cut on
container of nuts and bolts and blowing the dust out
the back side of the brush to allow for additional air
of the pieces with good old lung power. I'm sure I'll be
flow since the tubing drastically cuts down on the
using this more and more.
amount of open area that goes into the shop vac
hose. Being able to adjust the suction by changing
I hope this is something you find useful or saves you
the opening size really gives the brush some
time when cleaning in your shop or around your
flexibility.
home.

It's also very easy to use your hand to cover the

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1. Larger version of the squid brush. 1. Top view of the larger version of the squid brush.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 14

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1. Smaller version of the squid brush. 1. Top view of the smaller version of the squid brush.

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 15

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1. Like 17 little shop vacs!!! 1. A new weapon in the battle against dust!

Shop Vac Squid Brush: Page 16