Down Harvesting Question

[gmcpcs]

Hello,

I am back after a rather lengthy hiatus, and real life has finally caught up again to my DIY project list

I am looking for the method of harvesting down from recycled items, like jackets and pillows, specifically, using the "under the sink" drain parts like a venturi effect, and the blower outlet of a vacuum...Youtube is sort of helpful, and google somewhat, but I thought I saw that method here somewhere...

And, if others can point me to better methods to get that sweet stuff out of pillows and jackets and into my DIYunderquilts.com shell, that would be great!

Thank you,

Take it easy,
gmcpcs

[Wolle]

...but I thought I saw that method here somewhere...

Working Down

Filling my Down Quilt

Just Jeff's Homemade Gear - Stuffing Down with a Shop Vac

[G-Rat]

I've got all the parts, but haven't had the chance to actually do this.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-...hread_id=33573

http://www.wvi.com/~ulmyog/DownEductor_4BPL.wmv

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5U0C85gv1Q

[Mouseskowitz]

It works well as long as the thing you're blowing into doesn't cause much back pressure. For example, it worked well on a quilt but not the single tube draft collars.

[genixia]

I had unimpressive results with the down eductor that I built:

1. Too slow in transferring down. My scales would turn off mid-fill, leaving a little guesswork.
2. Back pressure in an Argon cs90 quilt is too high. I don't know whether 1.1 ripstop would be better. This got worse with each filled baffle as escape routes for the air increased.
3. The last baffle was literally impossible to do with it because of backpressure.
4. Draft tubes impossible.
5. Blockage. Combined with a surge in backpressure just as I went to blow it through. Hilarity ensues.
6. Static Electricity. Dry friction and plastic leads to static build up. I got some nice shocks off of it.

In the end I think I made as much mess as I did when hand-filling a TQ. The idea has some merit, but needs work to make it reliable.

[lmoseley7]

I never understood how blowing air/down into a closed container (quilt) would work because the air has to have somewhere to go and down proof material doesn't seem to breathe that well to me. I used plastic bags to grab down out of a pillow by turning the bag inside out like a glove and then after filing it with about an ounce of down turned it the other way. Inevitably some down would remain stuck to the inside of the bag but when you look at how much an ounce of down is the losses were negligible. If you could get a static free bag that would work better. For me I was always able to grab about an ounce of down in my hand and all my quilts needed about that much per baffle. As long as the weight was over what was needed I went with it. I wasn't trying to be scientific with it.

[e_2]

The eductor system worked great for 1.1 ripstop quilts.

I tried to fill a karo-step-ish baffle hood I made, but there just wasn't enough air flow, so I had to duct tape some ripstop to the end of a plastic vacuum hose extension wand, suck down into the extension wand, inserted the wand into hood (ok, starting to sound dirty), took a deep breath and blew all the fluffy stuff as far into (be right back, need to take a cold shower) the ripstop hood as I could. I probably had to do this ten times or more for an ounce of down.

[Mouseskowitz]

When you tried filling the quilt did you "cap" the filled baffles with mesh so the air could escape but not the down? I'm guessing that's the key to the operation.

[XTrekker]

If I was gonna try an move down around and I needed to get it from container to container, I would just use the dog poop method with the grocery bag to move handfuls of it around. Fill gallon size bags until I got the correct weights and use the method I posted recently on hoe I stuff down, to fill the baffles.

[gmcpcs]

Thanks for all the great replies and links! I think the dog poop method will work for me. No complicated blower contraptions!

I love this forum and the great people here who are so helpful 😃!
Gmcpcs