Inspired by a link called “13 Exciting Weekend Projects for Engineers”, I was instantly drawn to a video that teaches me how to make a vacuum cleaner. It’s something I can use in my daily life and the materials needed are not complicated. For example, in the video, there are a lot of projects that require larger pieces of wood and sophisticated tools, it’s not practical to complete such projects within a short amount of time and even if I could, the final product will not be detail-oriented. With that being said, I wanted to shift my focus on making something creative, but at the same time, not extremely difficult.

Supplies

a tube – the thickness of the tube should fit the cork of the plastic bottle
a plastic bottle – drill a hole at the bottom of the plastic bottle so that the motor can stuck in the center
a motor – connected to the fan so that it creates enough pressure to suck up dust
3D print fan (with 8 blades) – go to onshape.com and build a mold for fans (try different shapes and different numbers for fan blades)

Step 1: 3D Print a Fan

go to onshape.com and start a new project
find a tutorial online and follow it through (make modifications based on the size of your bottle and the any other needed changes)
combine all the parts you create into one piece (so it won't fall apart)
print it out (make changes to the size, thickness, and the number of fan blades accordingly)

Vacuum Cleaner.STL
Download View in 3D

Step 2: Cut the Plastic Bottle

prepare a (2L) plastic bottle
use a knife or scissors to cut off the top part of the plastic bottle
drill a hole at the bottom of the bottle (large enough for all the attaching wires to go through and for the motor to stuck at the bottom center of the bottle) -- do this step very carefully since the hole needed is relatively big and it takes patient to use the drilling machine