boelkers Posted May 11, 2016 Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 Been a while since I've been on here, but I wanted to share my experience with a new tool. Right now I'm in the middle of a huge home renovation where we are pretty much gutting the whole house while still living there. Walls were crumbling plaster with blown cellulose insulation behind. Last weekend I finally completed the removal of all the lath and plaster from our main floor, but was then left with all the cellulose insulation that needed to be removed. I tried scooping it into buckets, shoveling it into a big garbage bin but it was very dusty, time consuming, and so itchy. Time for plan B. Searching the internet, I found various ways people removed the stuff but generally most would say to either scoop it up into a bin, or pay someone else to do it. I knew this was a job that I wasn't going to pay someone to do so my solution had to be on the cheap end. Well, I found a better way. Cellulose is light, fluffy, and can be compacted...just like saw dust. Quick first time trip to Harbor Freight and I got me a new 2HP Dust Collector. At checkout they asked if I wanted to purchase the extended warranty, I laugh and say, "trust me, in a few hours I'll be voiding whatever warranty this thing has." I don't know why the cashier didn't share my enthusiasm for my new All in One Insulation Sucker and Bagger unit that also collects saw dust. I've heard the horror stories of purchasing Harbor Freight tools and only hoped that mine wouldn't be a dud. Got it home and started my unboxing and found screws, bolts, washers everywhere in the box. Styrofoam pieces broken as well. How do you break all the Styrofoam, but leave the cardboard box completely intact? Looking at the small baggies of the remaining screws, I found there was no holes in them! Again, how do you do that? I collect all the pieces and open the instructions to try and put this thing together....wow...what a useless instruction manual. Parts list non existent, diagram somehow just not right, and only 3 steps total in the manual. Well I guess I can just make it up as I go. In the end I got it put together just fine without the instructions and surprisingly I used all the screws and washers that had been rolling around in the box. Before attaching the 25' flexible drainage line I purchased for this project, I used my metal snips and removed the protective screen that sits right before the blower. I don't want my insulation getting stuck there you know. I attached the drain line and placed a large heavy duty garbage bag on the unit. I fired it up and it worked like a charm. Picks up the insulation easily and deposits it into the bag with no dust getting kicked up in the air although I still did wear my dust mask. No itching either. Every now and then it will pick up a small piece of plaster or small nail that was in the insulation and that makes a heck of a noise going through the blades. Got almost all the insulation out of the wall cavities last night and only a couple more to do after work today. When I'm all done with using it for this project, I'll have a decent dust collector to use in my shop so it s a win win. Sorry for the potato quality image. It was getting dark by the time I decided to take a picture of it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted May 11, 2016 Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 From the many stories posted here, that's one of HFs diamonds in the rough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted May 11, 2016 Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 Interesting re purpose. I dig it. You would proabably be interested to hear that the employees I have spoken to at HF try their hardest to warranty anything for you. They say short of bringingthe ashes back in a baggie, they can usually find a way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boelkers Posted May 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 4 minutes ago, Brendon_t said: Interesting re purpose. I dig it. You would proabably be interested to hear that the employees I have spoken to at HF try their hardest to warranty anything for you. They say short of bringingthe ashes back in a baggie, they can usually find a way. Hmm, interesting. I'm interested to see what the blades look like once I'm done. Maybe I can get them to replace that part. Shhh don't tell them how I broke that big chunk off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted May 11, 2016 Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 Did you break one of the vanes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boelkers Posted May 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 4 minutes ago, Brendon_t said: Did you break one of the vanes? No not yet, but I imagine when I open up the unit after this is all done that I may have a few dents in them. I was saying it as a joke....doesn't always come out that way in text. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brendon_t Posted May 11, 2016 Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 Got it. It's a bit crazy how much abuse those impellers can take. I've got a blower motor I have used for some non standard stuff also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chestnut Posted May 11, 2016 Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 Interesting use I just gutted a bedroom in my house. I've been doing every room just 1 at a time. For my old cellulose insulation i just used a shovel and a garbage can. Are you wearing a respirator while you do this? I just bought an HF DC as well and they offered me the extended warranty. I looked at the guy and said " the motor is the only moving part I'll take my chances." Some pictures of my job because they are kind of fun. Worked really well to separate the materials into phases that way i wouldn't have to worry about a ton of plaster mixed with insulation. Each room totaled about 3,500 lbs of material removed from my house. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boelkers Posted May 11, 2016 Author Report Share Posted May 11, 2016 7 minutes ago, Chestnut said: Are you wearing a respirator while you do this? I just bought an HF DC as well and they offered me the extended warranty. I looked at the guy and said " the motor is the only moving part I'll take my chances." Yeah, I wear a respirator the whole time. Thats also what I had been thinking. They also told me if I got the extended warranty and they came out with a new model that I could upgrade to the new model free of charge provided I bring my old one in. I looked at the guy and was like, "Seriously? They've been making this model for years. I doubt the upgrade will be coming anytime soon." Also I did my job in a similar fashion. I would scrape the plaster off the walls using a flat spade shovel. Scoop it up into 5 gal buckets and carry it out to the dumpster. When all the plaster was gone I would remove the lath. Then I just had the cellulose to deal with. I had to remove the lath and insulation because I'm rewiring the house, new windows here and there, new plumbing, and we are getting AC. I really don't want to imagine how heavy the dumpster is going to be when they take it away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Firehawk Posted July 16, 2016 Report Share Posted July 16, 2016 Luckily I purchased the warranty for my HF dust collector. The first one lasted 6 months! I'm on 4 years plus on the second one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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