Light bulb moment.

When ballasting the track on my layout “Pix valley” I found that recovering the ballast that had not fixed down was tiresome. I tried one of those cheap miniature suction cleaners from that well know auction site; well to put it bluntly my goldfish has more suck!

Then I had that Light bulb moment. I would us that old bottle trap.

 

First off cover the suction inlet inside the trap with some filter material or a couple of thickness of an old pair of tights. Around 8 cm square should suffice and attach with the ubiquitous “Tyrap”.

Next Cut and fit a blank cap insert from 2mm plastic card. Depending on the outside diameter of the inlet hose drill a hole 0.5mm less in diameter. I used a length of 6mm bore silicone tubing available from that well know auction site.

Reassemble the trap and fit the pipe from the domestic vacuum cleaner mine was a snug fit however you may have to fabricate and adaptor depending on the pipe diameter.

You can see how effective the device is and of course you are able to reuse the contents.