Tiny Vacuum Cleaner Sucks (In a Good Way)

Sometimes something is remarkable not for its content, but for its size. A ball of yarn isn’t exciting for example, unless it’s a giant ball of yarn. At the other end of the scale writing your name is a quotidian event, but put it on a grain of rice and that’s ten bucks at the mall. [Toby Bateson] has been making vacuum cleaners since he was 8 years old — and he looks considerably older than that now. In of itself that’s not a big deal, but his machines are tiny. In fact, he has the Guinness Book of World Records entry for the smallest vacuum cleaner. His latest exploit? A vacuum in an Altoid’s tin!

Electronically, this is just a switch, a battery, and a motor. But if you are looking for a Dremel tool project, you are in luck. Check out the video of the diminutive device, below. Besides the Altoids tin, there is a metal pipe and some bits of a cut-up soda can.

If you are in the United States, you might be unsure about one of the items in the bill of materials. A punnet is one of those little plastic baskets that things like strawberries or tomatoes are in at the grocery store.

We were trying to think of what we would add to this project, but we got nothing. It doesn’t really need any LEDs and a microcontroller with an Internet connection would be overkill. Maybe a 555 could give you a high and low setting with some PWM for the motor.

Perhaps this could be the start of a tiny robot vacuum. If you think bigger is better, there’s always this Dyson clone.

 

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