Stuffing the goose

**tight-wad** · 12-12-2007, 23:00

Just transferred 3 oz of down to my new quilt.

Surely there's a better way!

Have 12 more oz to go. How do you do it?

fascinating stuff, so fluffy, so light, so compressable...

**angrysparrow** · 12-12-2007, 23:03

Originally Posted by tight-wad

Just transferred 3 oz of down to my new quilt.

Surely there's a better way!

Have 12 more oz to go. How do you do it?

fascinating stuff, so fluffy, so light, so compressable...

How are you trying it? The Shop-Vac method, perhaps?

**tight-wad** · 12-12-2007, 23:21

I tried a variation of this using the cardboard tube from a roll of paper towels. Seems it did not suck up much before the plastic bag just shrunk up and nothing more was happening.

Will try again tomorrow using the plastic tube attachment on the machine.

.25 oz per shift... hmm ... that's about what I got with the cardboard... hmmm.... maybe I was just too impatient.

Definitely did use the tube and vacuum to catch all the loose clusters.

Also, it takes 4 hands; 1- power on/off, 2 - hold the vacuum attachment, 3- hold the bag of down, 4- 2nd hand to close the down bag when the tube is full.

**Just Jeff** · 12-12-2007, 23:40

Naw - you can see in the video it only takes two hands! Still, it's time-consuming if you don't want to make a mess.

**Nest** · 12-13-2007, 00:20

Can't you just fill a vacuum cleaner with the down, then turn it on reverse? Now that I think about it I've never seen a vacuum cleaner with reverse mode. Is that only in cartoons?

**pure_mahem** · 12-13-2007, 04:20

Using a shopvac fill the hose with the desired amount of down put the end of the hose in your quilt, place the other end on the exhaust and turn on vac prestofiller. If you have trouble getting the down in the hose put a nylon stocking over the end that attaches to the vac and suck up down presto loaded vac hose.

If you don't want to use your old dirty shop vac go buy a new one and save the reciept take it back when your done, Walmart takes back anything as long as you have the reciept.

**Just Jeff** · 12-13-2007, 06:33

You can still only suck up ~.25 oz of down into the hose. The down compacts in the nylon stocking (I use a mesh tube) and blocks the airflow. So you empty it and start over. Takes a little while, but it's clean and easy...just tedious.

**BIG-E** · 12-13-2007, 08:26

Much to my childrens' amazement and my wife's anger, I tried to make a down quilt another way. I bought an old army surplus down sleeping bag for $15. I then sewed a rip stop nylon shell. SO FAR SO GOOD.

Then I made the incredibly bright move of attempting to harvest the down in the dining room. I used good old fashioned hand power. This wasn't the most effective or neat way of doing it.

I was banished to the back porch.

It was a windy fall day, which may have lead to may have lead to my indoor decision. I then proceeded to stuff the down in BY HAND. I have used this quilt with a hammock sock and a 20 degree bag during the winter months in upstate new york and been toasty. The lowest temp I have been out in was single digits last February on a boy scout training course.

Erin
SM Troop 325

**tight-wad** · 12-13-2007, 18:41

Originally Posted by Just Jeff

You can still only suck up ~.25 oz of down into the hose. The down compacts in the nylon stocking (I use a mesh tube) and blocks the airflow. So you empty it and start over. Takes a little while, but it's clean and easy...just tedious.

Thanks for all the replies and ideas. The key word is "shop" as in shop vac. My "home" vac just doesn't have the oomph to suck up .25 oz. I'm getting maybe .1 oz. With 1.5 oz per baffle, that's 15 trips. With 10 baffles, that's 150 trips!!!

But, with time off for the holidays, I'll have time to do it little by little.

However, the vacuum definitely keeps the mess down (terrible pun).

I'm now thinking about having someone nearby with the vacuum and "filter wand" going while I grab it and stuff by the handful. That should speed it up and the someone can catch all the strays as I go.