Pine straw makes a great garden bed and leaves the nutrients for the tree as nature intended. I would ditch the rocks and keep the pine needles in a tidy circle under the tree. Having said that I'm totally jealous of your tools and skills.
This is just what I needed! Aside from pine needles, we get a ton of mulch blowing or swimming into our river rocks from the rain. I tried using a leaf blower but the doesn’t work. Your idea seems like it should. Thanks so much!
I didn't have much luck with a shop vac as it kept picking up the rocks too. The high-volume low-pressure of a dust collector worked much better for me. Thanks for watching!
@@42Pursuit Can you share which machine did you use? I am all new to this and want to buy the right thing :) I was thinking to buy a Shop vacuum but it seems like you didn't have much luck?
@@ArijanaLukic I used a 1HP dust collector from Harbor Freight. It has hight volume but low pressure air movement so it'll suck up the light stuff like pine needles and small sticks but not enough pressure to pick up the rocks.
Just finished building mine and amazingly it works! We have a lot of river rock bordering our pool area that unfortunately collects leaves, pine needles, and other debris. I tried the leaf blower thing which only spread the mess. My normal shop vac sucked up every rock. This works very well and only picks up an occasional rock. Thanks!
This was literally the most satisfying rock cleaning video I've seen! Perfection. Because I don't understand the engineering behind your design would this work if I had smaller landscaping rocks? My rocks were laid on top of red pea gravel and a mostly dissolved weed barrier. What would happen to the gravel and barrier? I would really like to clean and reuse it all if possible. Trying to work smarter than harder since it's just me, myself and I. Lol.
Yay, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching! The idea is the airflow is high volume but low pressure so it can pick up the lighter things like the pine needles but leaves the heavier rocks. I'm not sure what it would do in your case if there was a lot of small rocks; I have a feeling it would likely suck up a lot of the lighter rocks as well as the debris. I'll have to think on this, there's gotta be a way to make it work for gravel too...
@@42Pursuit Thanks for puzzling on this one. I was told the pea gravel layer was an outdated practice. Not much of it is showing through but wondering if it would look like red confetti after if I set your design on it. Think I would be better off shoveling/screening/cleaning all gravel out? Then I could your design as maintenance in the future? I just love your results.
@@orangecrushtina8312 Yeah, it'd be a lot of work but shoveling/screening/cleaning might be the best way to take care of that. I hesitate to mention this because it definitely depends on a few factors like cost of things in your region, budget, how accessible and how large the area is, and how much you're wanting to do. It may actually be easiest if you're already shoveling it out to screen it, to just remove the existing jumble of rocks/debris entirely, and put new weed mat and fresh larger rocks down. I know that in my area getting rid of rocks and gravel would be easy, and getting a few yards of fresh landscaping rocks is less than a hundred bucks. Just a thought.
@@42Pursuit Tbh, that is probably the smartest idea if I'm gonna pick it all up with a shovel anyway. I would not have chosen the current rock I'm dealing with so makes sense to do away with it now. Sometimes as DIYers it helps for someone to just say it's okay to just spend some $ and have something new. Lol. Ty!
I just started on a similar project this weekend. The previous owners of my house put in a rock border in the front yard but he did a terrible job at installing it. It is completely crooked and was neglected so now it is full of weeds and just looks terrible. I ended up pulling all the rocks out by hand and laying them in my driveway, where I then used my leaf blower to blow all the debris out, then organized them into dingy river stone versus the high quality white marble stone. Used the river stone for bedding and the marble stone for accent. Looks really nice now that it is straight and clean.
@@42Pursuit Yea it is a ridiculous amount of work, but since I have to remove all the rocks anyway to re-clear and re-shape the beds and get the growing grass out of there, there is no point fussing with much. I prefer to spend energy over money anyway. If I had a nickel for every time one of my friends asked "Why didn't you just get/rent X?" after spending a dumb amount of time and energy to accomplish a relatively small task... heh, well I probably would spend it on renting the right equipment. :P
I use two methods. A power washer at a distance of a couple of feet or a small battery operated lawnmower, set with the blades high. Quick and fairly effective.
Without going to the time, cost, and trouble of fabricating a large shop-vac, I used my 10 Gallon Rigid Shop Vac. It was effective to a point, but in addition to sucking up the organic debris, it also was sucking up too much of the rock. So instead I began spreading my landscape rock onto my driveway and used my leaf blower to separate the debris from the rock. Since I was relocating the landscape rock, this method worked better anyway. Shovel, spread, blow, regather and relocate.
If you're not relocating your rock you could always use your shop back and put like chicken wire on the end of the little square chicken wire is not the bigger one. That's what I do and it works fine.
I think a good shop vac with a larger suction nozzle like you used equipped with an adjustable air bleed (to adjust vacuum so it won’t pick p the rocks) would work too.
Hello! This is awesome! I tried using a shop vac before to clean debris out of my rock landscape and sucked up rocks. How do you keep from sucking up rocks?
Shop Vacs have a thinner hose, therefore have stronger suction. This has a wide hose, and weaker suction = while being strong enough to reverse gravity a pine needle, it isn’t powerful enough to pick up a rock.
This would be nice with a set of all-terrain casters! A backpack version would be handy as well. Maybe a little more work and less safe than necessary. I'm going to have to do some thinking on how to incorporate a cyclone attachment to our handheld vacuum at work. We have smaller landscaping stone, and gets sucked up into the impeller.
A backpack version would be super handy! Especially for yearly maintenance after it's been deep cleaned, sucking up the stuff dropped on top in the last year. Probably wouldn't want to have long hair that close to the blower though 😄
This is definitely a clever methodology. We have a ton of pine cones and gumballs in our yard. I have been thinking about buying some sort of leaf vacuum, but from what I hear most get clogged by the wet pine needles common here in Yorktown, Virginia.
OMG I have 4 pine trees on my property and they are beautiful, but the pine needles in the rocks are the bane of my existence, lol I wish I had that system you used. Trying to find a machine that will suck up only the needles and not the rocks.
Great question! Shop vacs are designed to move air in a high-pressure and low-volume way which allows them to suck up most things that fit within the hose diameter which would cause them to pick up rocks as well as the pine needles. Dust collector blower motors are designed to operate with low-pressure and high-volume air flow which allows them to suck up light-weight things but they don't have the pressure to lift up heaver things like rocks. This make blowers motors the perfect tool for this job 👍🏼
@42Pursuit thank you for your answer. So, in theory, if I use a 4" to 2.5" reducer attachment to create a larger suction area, I believe I could lower the effective suction. Maybe even cap it with a 1" wire mesh for good measure if it still has too much suction. Love the idea in the video, just don't have the room for an additional item like that.
@@djexclusivee haha unfortunately there right now, have to clean small gravel around my backyard perimeter. Sucking it all up in a shop vac then dumping on a big area tarp. Then the plan is to wash em with a pressure washer. These are small gravel rocks so the method in the video wouldn't work.
You were a better man than me I would’ve just went to Lowe’s spent 75 bucks on 10 bags of rock threw some weed killer on top of it. Poured the rock on top been down in an hour.
The Harbor freight unit used is 660 cfm through 4 inch hose. Would the larger 2hp Harbor Freight be too much velocity at 1550 cfm through 5 inch hose? I am just finishing 100 foot drive of river rock along trees so your idea is looking like the best think since sliced bread to me. Thanks 👍
Yup, that should work just fine! Actually, the first time I tried this (before I made the video) I used the 2hp Harbor Freight with a cyclone separator and a 4" hose. If I remember correctly, the extra cfm's of the blower actually worked slightly better. I'm glad you found video helpful 🙂 thanks for watchin!
@@42Pursuit Thanks! I have a 12/3 100' extension cord and a will construct it on a lawn tractor cart that I was about to get rid of. I noticed commercial gas powered leaf vacuums for lawn tractors use 6 or 7" hoses with larger sharpened impellers and run $2k+. I think your approach may work better for my needs.
Really awesome video. Very nice shop vac you builf there. Was thinking though. Um couldnt you just use a store bought shop vac? If a regular shop vac is to powerful maybe you could make a different attatchment for the end of the hose that is like a funnel to just give it a bigger opening and weaken the pull of the vacuum? Really did dig the shop vac you built though.
Thanks Justin! You might be able to find a compromise of hose size/funnel for a shop-vac that would work alright at picking up lighter debris while leaving the rocks. I don't think it would ever be as good as a blower motor like what's in a dust collector though since it's a difference between cubic feet per minute (CFM) and static pressure. A shop-vac has high static pressure with low CFM, whereas a dust collector has high CFM with low static pressure. Increasing the hose size for a shop vac would increase the CFM a bit, but I think you'd end up kinda getting mediocre CFM as well as mediocre pressure. Might be worth playing around with though!
3 Question 1. Would a craftsmen shop vac with cmf 137 work as well or do you need the extra vacuum suction of the 13 gallon 1 HP High Flow Dust Collector 660 cmf air Flow in order for it to work? 2. Do you think it would work well on rocks that have 40 Years of dirt on and impact on them, to collect the dirt? 3. While cleaning did you collect a lot of rocks that were sucked up into the unit?
1. Shop vacs can be a good option depending on the size of stones. The benefit of the setup in the video is that a dust collector blower like that one is designed to move a high volume of air but at a low pressure so it can suck up the light debris, but leave the heavier rocks. A shop vac is designed to move air differently by creating a high pressure but moving a lower volume of air so it has a much higher likelihood of picking up small to medium sized rocks with the debris. 2. Maybe. If the rocks are large enough, and you're able to break up the dirt, it should be able to suck up mostly just the dirt. 3. Not many rocks were sucked up and the ones that were sucked up were generally smaller than 1" across.
I have slightly smaller rocks. The thing I'm worried about is I'll suck up just as many rocks as pine needles. Did you have any issues sucking up more rocks than pine needles with your blower?
Smaller rocks are tricky. For me it sucked up a bit of the small gravel-sized rocks. They were light enough that the airflow was enough to pick them up. Unfortunately I don't have a good solution for cleaning small rocks 🤔
This system seems to work best for picking up light weight debris. If things are really packed down they'd need to be broken up and loosened before this vacuum would do much.
For where a filter benefits, would a secondary container further benefit with a filter after it? That, in theory, should collect almost everything ejected from the first and the filter would need much less frequent cleaning.
Ryobi makes a "Vac-Attack" leaf vacuum. Sucks all the loose debris up, and throws it in a bag. Empty and repeat. I don't wanna have to build something to do the same thing.
As long as it's fluffed up a bit it should work great. I actually used this setup to get small bits of mulch out of grass where the wind had caught and strewn it.
Hello! I tried using a shop vac before to clean debris out of my rock landscape and sucked up rocks. With your invention how do you keep from sucking up rocks? Looks awesome!!
It has to do with the difference between how a shop vac and a dust collector style blower moves air. A shop vac creates high pressure suction but moves a low volume of air comparatively, a dust collector creates low pressure suction but moves a lot of air. Low pressure means there isn't enough power to suck up rocks but there is enough to suck up the lighter twigs and pine needles. Hope that explanation helps!
Make a new attatchment with a bigger opening. Ive been contemplating this for a long time to clean out the gravel by our house. I havent tried it yet. But think it will work. If it does work I think somebody could start a business doing this and do pretty good.
Unfortunately a shop vac doesn't work the same since they're generally high pressure and low volume suckers. A dust collector blower is low pressure and high volume so can move a lot of air and pick up light stuff, but doesn't generate enough pressure to pick up rocks.
I like your idea. I don't understand all the naysayers who disrespect your machine. It's given me food for thought. I have a garden railway which I am building, but a very large Scots pine sheds its 4in needles all over the place, especially in high winds. Its a lovely tree with squirrels, but I hate the pigeons in it, and I hate the needles, but it will cost £1000 to cut down, due to buildings/sheds below. I'm seriously considering the chop, but your ventrifuge /vortex idea might do the trick. So thanks for making me think outside the box. Normal (cheap) leaf blower/vacs don't lift long needles so well, especially around delicate model railway buildings, and track ballast! One thing I wish you had shown in the video was the can end, where the air exhausts out, and also with sound to hear how noisy it is?
There's always going to be naysayers but you can't argue with results 😎 Showing the exhaust would've been a good idea. There really wasn't much coming out of the exhaust, mostly just dust. Anything with any weight to it got trapped in the can. As far as noise, I know the 2hp version of that blower is around 80dB and it was a 1.5hp so it'll be slightly quieter than that. A typical shop-vac is quite a bit louder in the high 80 to mid 90db range. Hope that helps!
@@beefcakebrock if you want it just for cleaning up landscaping debris, the 1hp is smaller and works fine, but if you have a workshop and want to have one for dual purpose landscaping cleanup and dust collection I'd consider going with the slightly heavier 2hp version.
Has anyone found a way to suck up leaves (after trimming bushes) from pine bark? Unfortunately, I believe this devise will still have too much suction for the pine bark. Thank you.
Unfortunately not that I know of. The only thing close that I found are some hand-held leaf vacuums, but they're a bit underpowered and not the easiest for cleaning through landscape rocks.
Yeah, it sucks up the rocks as well because it's a high-pressure low-volume device. Dust collector blower motors are designed to be low-pressure high-volume so are great a picking up light things while leaving heaver things alone.
Fantastic device! It does exactly what we need, no more shovel and screen! Before I buy all of your suggestions, I have a dumb question. What exactly does your trash can cyclone device do that the Harbor Freight dust collector does not do on its own? I’m so sorry, I just can’t picture why I couldn’t use it alone? Not to discount the perfection of your system, but it will take me a whole day just to cut the fancy wooden lid to your trash can because I’m not that good with a router and jigsaw! :) But I know I’m missing the mechanism by which this works.Thank you for this video, I just subscribed.
Great question! My reason for setting it up this way is that the debris will drop into the trash can before it goes through the blades of the blower. If a small rock or a pine cone gets picked up, it has to go through the blades which isn't great for the blower and can also cause clogs. Having the debris drop in the trash can also makes emptying easier as the bag that comes with the harbor freight dust collectors is quite a pain to empty. Hope that helps!
@@42Pursuit Yes, that helps! We have a large xeriscape both front and back, so I’m going to build your device the right way and start cleaning up this yard! Thank you again for your awesome invention. We have way too much yard to shovel and filter every year.
@@Jknudsen0523 Shop vacs are usually high pressure and low volume air movers while dust collector blowers are low pressure high volume. A shop vac will end up picking up the rocks as well as the pine needles, while a dust collector blower won't have the power to suck up the rocks, but will have enough to pick up the lighter pine needles and debris.
The air flow is high-volume/low-pressure so not many rocks can get sucked up, only small gravel pieces are light enough to get caught in the airflow and end up with the pine needles in the can.
If you have any type of pine tree on your property, the best thing to do is admit defeat and embrace the pine needles. Make a Pine needle "bed" under your pine tree and you will never have to worry about it again. And in the fall when pine needles are actively dropping from your tree, simply rake, or blow the pine needle that dont drop straight down back into the bed. There are many type of plants that do well living under pine trees. Certain types of Hostas and Ivy's do well. But cleaning out a rock bed of pine needles is an endless, time consuming battle.
Never give up, never surrender!!! What is life but fighting entropy? 😄 I'm fine spending an hour or two a year sucking up the pine needles that have dropped from that tree to keep things looking tidy but understand that's not for everyone. Planning out the landscaping before putting it in to put plants under pine trees that thrive in that environment is a great idea, but one I can't do as the landscaping was already done when I moved in. Alas, next time.
Fire season 🔥 where I live means we REALLY need to annually clean up the needles and cones. I'd love to be able to use the needles as pine straw in paths and garden beds, but it's simply too risky.
If you use a blower like in the video, it creates a high-volume low-pressure flow of air which is strong enough only to pick up light things so the rocks should stay put.
Nah, this is a well established 45ft+ tree that provides all kinds of value including shade and beauty. An evening of putting this together and then an hour every year or so to keep up on the landscaping is well worth it.
@@42Pursuit I'm sure my neighbors say the same thing with the huge pine tree they planted 45yrs ago right next to the property line that leaves tons of needles on my pole barn roof and all over my yard and in my rocks...
Trees around our homes are notoriously dirty and labor intensive. I no longer want trees near my house, roof etc. They create too many problems with debris. Your tool works well. The rocks will continually be getting full of needles. You may want simply dirt and just rake it occasionally.
Yeah, trees can definitely be a bit of work to clean up after. But now that I've got the vacuum built, all it takes is a few minutes every year to suck up the fresh layer of debris on top of the rocks and they're back to looking like new in no time!
I haven't had luck with just water on top, it turned into a soupy mess when I tried it. Putting the rocks in a bucket of water works, but is a ton more work, and pretty messy too.
Cool gadget, You can also lay down flower felt for a couple weeks or like the guy below said leaf blower , or buy a leaf sucker does the same thing, much better things in life to do than worry bout rocks, but that's me.
They're not that great of a tool in my opinion. They're prone to clogging and breaking, and you carry the bag that they fill so you've gotta lug around all the weight you suck up. Also that bag is pretty small and can be hard to empty.
@@42Pursuit that is a well thought out response, and i agree with your response, particularly the bag is heavy and awkward and clogging. Thanks for sharing knowledge
Wow, seems like it would be easier to hire a kid to clean it then make a whole new machine! Actually how many people could actually do that. You might as well sell these
The only fancy tool is the cnc and I explain how to easily do it with more common tools. You might be surprised how common it is for a DIYer to have or be able to borrow a drill, jigsaw, and router.
I wish I could! Hmm, maybe find someone locally that could build one for you? Or google 'local makerspace' and they might have the tools/resources to help you out.
Instead of a low volume of air and high pressure like a typical vacuum, it is a low pressure and high volume of air. This means there isn't enough pressure (force) to lift the rocks up, but since the pine needles are light, they are able to be sucked up. Hope that helps!
How could you clean white rock when *some* debris has been left and the rock has been discolored? This was done by the people who were paid to mow, edge, etc… How can I tell them to CLEAN the expensive rock that (now) looks like crap…defeating the purpose of using rock vs. mulch.
In my experience, first removing the debris and then washing the rock with a pressure washer helped a ton. At first it'll still look discolored but if most of the debris is gone the sun will help bleach things back to white after a few weeks.
I'm confused by this, you'd rather cut down a tall and healthy tree that provides shade and beauty than spend a few hours sucking up the pine needles every few years?
Shop-Vacs provide high-pressure low-volume suction which has a tendency of sucking up rocks with the debris. Dust collector blowers have low-pressure high-volume suction so typically just suck up the light stuff and leave the rocks. But your mileage may vary.
Not actually very well because shop vacs have a proportionately low volume of air but at a high pressure; dust collectors on the other hand have low pressure air but at a high volume. Shop vacs have enough pressure (force) to suck up the rocks, but dust collectors will mostly only suck up the light pine needles and leave the rocks. Hope that helps!
Uh huh, and how much is the thing you're attaching it to? Also, look up the reviews of that vacuum attachment kit. We're working smarter and more efficient over here 🤘🏼
Very cool... I am one of those homeowners who has neglected his landscape rock bed for 18 years.. going to try this out.... thanks
Awesome! Glad this video could help you out!
Did you try it with a wet vac first?
Pine straw makes a great garden bed and leaves the nutrients for the tree as nature intended. I would ditch the rocks and keep the pine needles in a tidy circle under the tree.
Having said that I'm totally jealous of your tools and skills.
I agree, pine needles make a great mulch.. I’m removing all the rock the previous owners put down for this reason but it is a huge task.
Pine straw near my home was almost 2 foot deep near a carpenter pine and had mice galore living in it. No thanks!
@@tonyb7748 Uh oh. I didn't know that 😳
Cool idea. I used my leaf blower to remove pine needles from a small rock bed, but it also blew the soil.
Doesn't your leaf blower have a vacuum setting does that's what I use and I put a wire mesh on the end of it.
@@marylynnbehrens5562 My battery-powered leaf blower doesn't have a vacuum feature.
This is just what I needed! Aside from pine needles, we get a ton of mulch blowing or swimming into our river rocks from the rain. I tried using a leaf blower but the doesn’t work. Your idea seems like it should. Thanks so much!
I like the fact that I know exactly what parts and where to get them. That is real helpfull.
Glad you found the video helpful! Thanks for watchin!
Fabulous results. You are very smart.
Ever heard of a Shop Vac with a diffuser. Thats how I get it done. Love that CNC machine. 👍
I didn't have much luck with a shop vac as it kept picking up the rocks too. The high-volume low-pressure of a dust collector worked much better for me.
Thanks for watching!
@@42Pursuit Can you share which machine did you use? I am all new to this and want to buy the right thing :) I was thinking to buy a Shop vacuum but it seems like you didn't have much luck?
Can you share which machine do you have?
@@ArijanaLukic I used a 1HP dust collector from Harbor Freight. It has hight volume but low pressure air movement so it'll suck up the light stuff like pine needles and small sticks but not enough pressure to pick up the rocks.
@mark torres what shop vac brand do you have
Just finished building mine and amazingly it works! We have a lot of river rock bordering our pool area that unfortunately collects leaves, pine needles, and other debris. I tried the leaf blower thing which only spread the mess. My normal shop vac sucked up every rock. This works very well and only picks up an occasional rock. Thanks!
Very diligent! I let my rocks go and couldnt figure out what to do. Thanks for the idea!!!
Happy to help! Thanks for watchin!
Nice design mate, and a great video production
Looks great. If nothing else I'll be using a shop vac with a downspout filter in my first attemp.
This was literally the most satisfying rock cleaning video I've seen! Perfection. Because I don't understand the engineering behind your design would this work if I had smaller landscaping rocks? My rocks were laid on top of red pea gravel and a mostly dissolved weed barrier. What would happen to the gravel and barrier?
I would really like to clean and reuse it all if possible. Trying to work smarter than harder since it's just me, myself and I. Lol.
Yay, I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for watching!
The idea is the airflow is high volume but low pressure so it can pick up the lighter things like the pine needles but leaves the heavier rocks. I'm not sure what it would do in your case if there was a lot of small rocks; I have a feeling it would likely suck up a lot of the lighter rocks as well as the debris. I'll have to think on this, there's gotta be a way to make it work for gravel too...
@@42Pursuit Thanks for puzzling on this one. I was told the pea gravel layer was an outdated practice. Not much of it is showing through but wondering if it would look like red confetti after if I set your design on it.
Think I would be better off shoveling/screening/cleaning all gravel out? Then I could your design as maintenance in the future? I just love your results.
@@orangecrushtina8312 Yeah, it'd be a lot of work but shoveling/screening/cleaning might be the best way to take care of that.
I hesitate to mention this because it definitely depends on a few factors like cost of things in your region, budget, how accessible and how large the area is, and how much you're wanting to do. It may actually be easiest if you're already shoveling it out to screen it, to just remove the existing jumble of rocks/debris entirely, and put new weed mat and fresh larger rocks down. I know that in my area getting rid of rocks and gravel would be easy, and getting a few yards of fresh landscaping rocks is less than a hundred bucks. Just a thought.
@@42Pursuit Tbh, that is probably the smartest idea if I'm gonna pick it all up with a shovel anyway. I would not have chosen the current rock I'm dealing with so makes sense to do away with it now.
Sometimes as DIYers it helps for someone to just say it's okay to just spend some $ and have something new. Lol. Ty!
@@orangecrushtina8312 So true! Best of luck on your project!
This is brilliant! THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS! Amazing ♥️
Thanks! Glad you found it helpful!
I just started on a similar project this weekend. The previous owners of my house put in a rock border in the front yard but he did a terrible job at installing it. It is completely crooked and was neglected so now it is full of weeds and just looks terrible. I ended up pulling all the rocks out by hand and laying them in my driveway, where I then used my leaf blower to blow all the debris out, then organized them into dingy river stone versus the high quality white marble stone. Used the river stone for bedding and the marble stone for accent. Looks really nice now that it is straight and clean.
Wow, sounds like a ton of work! I bet it looks great now though!
@@42Pursuit Yea it is a ridiculous amount of work, but since I have to remove all the rocks anyway to re-clear and re-shape the beds and get the growing grass out of there, there is no point fussing with much. I prefer to spend energy over money anyway. If I had a nickel for every time one of my friends asked "Why didn't you just get/rent X?" after spending a dumb amount of time and energy to accomplish a relatively small task... heh, well I probably would spend it on renting the right equipment. :P
I use two methods. A power washer at a distance of a couple of feet or a small battery operated lawnmower, set with the blades high. Quick and fairly effective.
Without going to the time, cost, and trouble of fabricating a large shop-vac, I used my 10 Gallon Rigid Shop Vac. It was effective to a point, but in addition to sucking up the organic debris, it also was sucking up too much of the rock. So instead I began spreading my landscape rock onto my driveway and used my leaf blower to separate the debris from the rock. Since I was relocating the landscape rock, this method worked better anyway. Shovel, spread, blow, regather and relocate.
If you're not relocating your rock you could always use your shop back and put like chicken wire on the end of the little square chicken wire is not the bigger one. That's what I do and it works fine.
I think a good shop vac with a larger suction nozzle like you used equipped with an adjustable air bleed (to adjust vacuum so it won’t pick p the rocks) would work too.
I would do it one time, looks like a lot of work.
Hello! This is awesome! I tried using a shop vac before to clean debris out of my rock landscape and sucked up rocks. How do you keep from sucking up rocks?
That's the answer I am in search of!
Shop Vacs have a thinner hose, therefore have stronger suction. This has a wide hose, and weaker suction = while being strong enough to reverse gravity a pine needle, it isn’t powerful enough to pick up a rock.
This would be nice with a set of all-terrain casters!
A backpack version would be handy as well. Maybe a little more work and less safe than necessary. I'm going to have to do some thinking on how to incorporate a cyclone attachment to our handheld vacuum at work. We have smaller landscaping stone, and gets sucked up into the impeller.
A backpack version would be super handy! Especially for yearly maintenance after it's been deep cleaned, sucking up the stuff dropped on top in the last year. Probably wouldn't want to have long hair that close to the blower though 😄
Bigger opening on end of hose = lower vacuum
Great video and a great idea. Sure beats shoveling and screening it. Thanks for posting it.
Glad you liked it! I hoped it was a good enough idea to share
Excellent solution! Thank you!
Pretty cool idea. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the positive feedback 👍 and thanks for watchin!
I'm so excited to see this video! How do you keep the gravel from being sucked up?
the rocks are too heavy to get sucked into the hose. So, the vacuum might pick up the rock an inch or two, but it's not going up the hose.
👀 I’ve been working on my brothers landscape Rocks under the pine needles haven’t been Taken care of for 20years ! I’m so burnt out !!
This is definitely a clever methodology. We have a ton of pine cones and gumballs in our yard. I have been thinking about buying some sort of leaf vacuum, but from what I hear most get clogged by the wet pine needles common here in Yorktown, Virginia.
Yeah, I didn't find any consistently good reviews on any of those leaf vacuums. They all seemed to be under-powered and cheaply made.
Did you have to install a grill/grate at the tip of the angle elbow to keep the rocks from being sucked in?
OMG I have 4 pine trees on my property and they are beautiful, but the pine needles in the rocks are the bane of my existence, lol I wish I had that system you used. Trying to find a machine that will suck up only the needles and not the rocks.
It's a game changer, you should definitely make one! If you don't have the know-how, ask around and see if you know anyone who can make one for you :)
I'm looking to do this soon.
Fantastic! I must ask, and maybe the answer is obvious, but can this not be done with a shop vac? I only ask because I have one already.
Great question! Shop vacs are designed to move air in a high-pressure and low-volume way which allows them to suck up most things that fit within the hose diameter which would cause them to pick up rocks as well as the pine needles. Dust collector blower motors are designed to operate with low-pressure and high-volume air flow which allows them to suck up light-weight things but they don't have the pressure to lift up heaver things like rocks. This make blowers motors the perfect tool for this job 👍🏼
@42Pursuit thank you for your answer. So, in theory, if I use a 4" to 2.5" reducer attachment to create a larger suction area, I believe I could lower the effective suction. Maybe even cap it with a 1" wire mesh for good measure if it still has too much suction. Love the idea in the video, just don't have the room for an additional item like that.
I bet if you put a screen with holes just smaller than the rocks it would just pick up the green. Good work
Hmmm, that's an interesting idea, I may just have to try that....
only thing is if you also have leaves, they will clog the screen often
@@Beenthere2xs yep. You were right. Guess youve been there 2 hehe
@@djexclusivee haha unfortunately there right now, have to clean small gravel around my backyard perimeter. Sucking it all up in a shop vac then dumping on a big area tarp. Then the plan is to wash em with a pressure washer. These are small gravel rocks so the method in the video wouldn't work.
You were a better man than me I would’ve just went to Lowe’s spent 75 bucks on 10 bags of rock threw some weed killer on top of it. Poured the rock on top been down in an hour.
The Harbor freight unit used is 660 cfm through 4 inch hose. Would the larger 2hp Harbor Freight be too much velocity at 1550 cfm through 5 inch hose? I am just finishing 100 foot drive of river rock along trees so your idea is looking like the best think since sliced bread to me. Thanks 👍
Yup, that should work just fine! Actually, the first time I tried this (before I made the video) I used the 2hp Harbor Freight with a cyclone separator and a 4" hose. If I remember correctly, the extra cfm's of the blower actually worked slightly better.
I'm glad you found video helpful 🙂 thanks for watchin!
@@42Pursuit Thanks!
I have a 12/3 100' extension cord and a will construct it on a lawn tractor cart that I was about to get rid of.
I noticed commercial gas powered leaf vacuums for lawn tractors use 6 or 7" hoses with larger sharpened impellers and run $2k+. I think your approach may work better for my needs.
Could I get you to build me one. 😆 I just don't have the technology to build one myself. Most don't. I could certainly use this.
Ah I wish I could. Do you have a local makerspace that might be able to help you out with building one?
What a great idea!
Was the suction enough to suck up the rocks, but only an inch or so, and thus didn't get sucked all the way into the cyclone seperator?
Yes, exactly 👍🏼
Really awesome video. Very nice shop vac you builf there. Was thinking though. Um couldnt you just use a store bought shop vac? If a regular shop vac is to powerful maybe you could make a different attatchment for the end of the hose that is like a funnel to just give it a bigger opening and weaken the pull of the vacuum? Really did dig the shop vac you built though.
Thanks Justin! You might be able to find a compromise of hose size/funnel for a shop-vac that would work alright at picking up lighter debris while leaving the rocks. I don't think it would ever be as good as a blower motor like what's in a dust collector though since it's a difference between cubic feet per minute (CFM) and static pressure. A shop-vac has high static pressure with low CFM, whereas a dust collector has high CFM with low static pressure. Increasing the hose size for a shop vac would increase the CFM a bit, but I think you'd end up kinda getting mediocre CFM as well as mediocre pressure. Might be worth playing around with though!
3 Question
1. Would a craftsmen shop vac with cmf 137 work as well or do you need the extra vacuum suction of the 13 gallon 1 HP High Flow
Dust Collector 660 cmf air Flow in order for it to work?
2. Do you think it would work well on rocks that have 40 Years of dirt on and impact on them, to collect the dirt?
3. While cleaning did you collect a lot of rocks that were sucked up into the unit?
1. Shop vacs can be a good option depending on the size of stones. The benefit of the setup in the video is that a dust collector blower like that one is designed to move a high volume of air but at a low pressure so it can suck up the light debris, but leave the heavier rocks. A shop vac is designed to move air differently by creating a high pressure but moving a lower volume of air so it has a much higher likelihood of picking up small to medium sized rocks with the debris.
2. Maybe. If the rocks are large enough, and you're able to break up the dirt, it should be able to suck up mostly just the dirt.
3. Not many rocks were sucked up and the ones that were sucked up were generally smaller than 1" across.
@@42Pursuit Thank you for answering my question.
I have slightly smaller rocks. The thing I'm worried about is I'll suck up just as many rocks as pine needles. Did you have any issues sucking up more rocks than pine needles with your blower?
Smaller rocks are tricky. For me it sucked up a bit of the small gravel-sized rocks. They were light enough that the airflow was enough to pick them up. Unfortunately I don't have a good solution for cleaning small rocks 🤔
What about when the rocks become imbedded in the ground? I've seen harley rakes do it, but their big and expensive.
This system seems to work best for picking up light weight debris. If things are really packed down they'd need to be broken up and loosened before this vacuum would do much.
For where a filter benefits, would a secondary container further benefit with a filter after it? That, in theory, should collect almost everything ejected from the first and the filter would need much less frequent cleaning.
Ryobi makes a "Vac-Attack" leaf vacuum. Sucks all the loose debris up, and throws it in a bag. Empty and repeat. I don't wanna have to build something to do the same thing.
Could this suck up old mulch from beds before adding new mulch?
As long as it's fluffed up a bit it should work great. I actually used this setup to get small bits of mulch out of grass where the wind had caught and strewn it.
Hello! I tried using a shop vac before to clean debris out of my rock landscape and sucked up rocks. With your invention how do you keep from sucking up rocks? Looks awesome!!
It has to do with the difference between how a shop vac and a dust collector style blower moves air. A shop vac creates high pressure suction but moves a low volume of air comparatively, a dust collector creates low pressure suction but moves a lot of air. Low pressure means there isn't enough power to suck up rocks but there is enough to suck up the lighter twigs and pine needles.
Hope that explanation helps!
Make a new attatchment with a bigger opening. Ive been contemplating this for a long time to clean out the gravel by our house. I havent tried it yet. But think it will work. If it does work I think somebody could start a business doing this and do pretty good.
Would this work to remove mulch that was laid down on top of rock?
It can if the mulch is dry and light and small enough pieces that can be easily sucked up. I've done it and it can work great!
It does not suck up the rocks? Can you do the same thing with a shop vac?
Unfortunately a shop vac doesn't work the same since they're generally high pressure and low volume suckers. A dust collector blower is low pressure and high volume so can move a lot of air and pick up light stuff, but doesn't generate enough pressure to pick up rocks.
@@42Pursuit Ok, thanks for letting me know.
You could’ve just put some medium width mesh over a shop vac nozzle.…..
I love you tube due to this reason here on this video
Awesome! Thanks for watchin!
I like your idea. I don't understand all the naysayers who disrespect your machine. It's given me food for thought. I have a garden railway which I am building, but a very large Scots pine sheds its 4in needles all over the place, especially in high winds. Its a lovely tree with squirrels, but I hate the pigeons in it, and I hate the needles, but it will cost £1000 to cut down, due to buildings/sheds below. I'm seriously considering the chop, but your ventrifuge /vortex idea might do the trick. So thanks for making me think outside the box. Normal (cheap) leaf blower/vacs don't lift long needles so well, especially around delicate model railway buildings, and track ballast! One thing I wish you had shown in the video was the can end, where the air exhausts out, and also with sound to hear how noisy it is?
There's always going to be naysayers but you can't argue with results 😎
Showing the exhaust would've been a good idea. There really wasn't much coming out of the exhaust, mostly just dust. Anything with any weight to it got trapped in the can.
As far as noise, I know the 2hp version of that blower is around 80dB and it was a 1.5hp so it'll be slightly quieter than that. A typical shop-vac is quite a bit louder in the high 80 to mid 90db range.
Hope that helps!
@@42Pursuit yes, thanks for the reply
Would love to have one of these but I'm not building one, lol. Name a price!
Ah, I wish I could help! Do you have a handy friend that could help you make one?
Will this pick up small twigs? We don't have problems with pine needles.
It did for me so long as they fit in the 4" opening
You should start your own business making these for sale.
Hah! Ya think? I suppose there has been a good bit of interest....
I’d be interested. I’m beyond fed up with my pine tree
I would buy one!
I'd buy one too!!
I would buy one
I want to buy one from you. Any chance we can make that happen?
I wish I could! Unfortunately I'm not in a spot right now where I am able to produce these.
@@42Pursuit no sweat, thank you. I noticed you listed both the 1hp and 2hp dust collectors from harbor freight. Which do you recommend?
@@beefcakebrock if you want it just for cleaning up landscaping debris, the 1hp is smaller and works fine, but if you have a workshop and want to have one for dual purpose landscaping cleanup and dust collection I'd consider going with the slightly heavier 2hp version.
Has anyone found a way to suck up leaves (after trimming bushes) from pine bark? Unfortunately, I believe this devise will still have too much suction for the pine bark. Thank you.
Hmm, I've thought about this problem for a while but unfortunately haven't found a good solution yet.
@@42Pursuit thank you for the quick response.
Why not use the leaf blower?
Great for diy but I am not. Is there somewhere to buy or rent?? Thank you
Unfortunately not that I know of. The only thing close that I found are some hand-held leaf vacuums, but they're a bit underpowered and not the easiest for cleaning through landscape rocks.
Did you try a wet vac first?
Yeah, it sucks up the rocks as well because it's a high-pressure low-volume device. Dust collector blower motors are designed to be low-pressure high-volume so are great a picking up light things while leaving heaver things alone.
This looks way too complicated and I don't have those tools. Anyone suggest a good leaf vacuum to use over rocks?
lol, then buy a piece of round wood premade at home depot, work smarter not harder
Do we get this tool anywhere to buy
Not that I know of. I think you would have to make it.
Fantastic device! It does exactly what we need, no more shovel and screen! Before I buy all of your suggestions, I have a dumb question. What exactly does your trash can cyclone device do that the Harbor Freight dust collector does not do on its own? I’m so sorry, I just can’t picture why I couldn’t use it alone? Not to discount the perfection of your system, but it will take me a whole day just to cut the fancy wooden lid to your trash can because I’m not that good with a router and jigsaw! :) But I know I’m missing the mechanism by which this works.Thank you for this video, I just subscribed.
Great question! My reason for setting it up this way is that the debris will drop into the trash can before it goes through the blades of the blower. If a small rock or a pine cone gets picked up, it has to go through the blades which isn't great for the blower and can also cause clogs. Having the debris drop in the trash can also makes emptying easier as the bag that comes with the harbor freight dust collectors is quite a pain to empty. Hope that helps!
@@42Pursuit Yes, that helps! We have a large xeriscape both front and back, so I’m going to build your device the right way and start cleaning up this yard! Thank you again for your awesome invention. We have way too much yard to shovel and filter every year.
Awesome! I hope it works really well for you!
How is this different from using a shop vac with a dust bin cyclone in the middle to catch the debris?
@@Jknudsen0523 Shop vacs are usually high pressure and low volume air movers while dust collector blowers are low pressure high volume. A shop vac will end up picking up the rocks as well as the pine needles, while a dust collector blower won't have the power to suck up the rocks, but will have enough to pick up the lighter pine needles and debris.
My concern has been not sucking up stones
that's not waste, that's great compost
How many rocks did you pick up?
Probably only like half a dozen small rocks. It left all of the larger rocks.
What happened to the rocks that got sucked up
The air flow is high-volume/low-pressure so not many rocks can get sucked up, only small gravel pieces are light enough to get caught in the airflow and end up with the pine needles in the can.
What size stone is that?
They average around 1.5" in diameter. Around here it's a pretty standard landscaping rock I've heard called 'washed river rock'.
I need something like this, but I don't have a way of making it.
See if you have a local makerspace. They should have the tools and be able to help you put one together.
If you have any type of pine tree on your property, the best thing to do is admit defeat and embrace the pine needles. Make a Pine needle "bed" under your pine tree and you will never have to worry about it again. And in the fall when pine needles are actively dropping from your tree, simply rake, or blow the pine needle that dont drop straight down back into the bed. There are many type of plants that do well living under pine trees. Certain types of Hostas and Ivy's do well. But cleaning out a rock bed of pine needles is an endless, time consuming battle.
Never give up, never surrender!!! What is life but fighting entropy? 😄 I'm fine spending an hour or two a year sucking up the pine needles that have dropped from that tree to keep things looking tidy but understand that's not for everyone.
Planning out the landscaping before putting it in to put plants under pine trees that thrive in that environment is a great idea, but one I can't do as the landscaping was already done when I moved in. Alas, next time.
Fire season 🔥 where I live means we REALLY need to annually clean up the needles and cones. I'd love to be able to use the needles as pine straw in paths and garden beds, but it's simply too risky.
Would that suck up the rocks, I don't want to shovel?
If you use a blower like in the video, it creates a high-volume low-pressure flow of air which is strong enough only to pick up light things so the rocks should stay put.
What would save you alot of time and hassle in the future is to get rid of the high maintenance tree and plant another or decorate the area.
Nah, this is a well established 45ft+ tree that provides all kinds of value including shade and beauty. An evening of putting this together and then an hour every year or so to keep up on the landscaping is well worth it.
@@42Pursuit I'm sure my neighbors say the same thing with the huge pine tree they planted 45yrs ago right next to the property line that leaves tons of needles on my pole barn roof and all over my yard and in my rocks...
I need a way to clean lava rocks. This thing would probably suck them up too.
Hmm, that's a tough one. That kind of rock unfortunately might require more of the shovel/screen method.
I watched your video twice. I probably still don't know how to do it.
You got this! Do you have a handy friend that could help or a local makerspace where you could make one of these?
Trees around our homes are notoriously dirty and labor intensive. I no longer want trees near my house, roof etc. They create too many problems with debris. Your tool works well. The rocks will continually be getting full of needles. You may want simply dirt and just rake it occasionally.
Yeah, trees can definitely be a bit of work to clean up after. But now that I've got the vacuum built, all it takes is a few minutes every year to suck up the fresh layer of debris on top of the rocks and they're back to looking like new in no time!
You coulda put a filter under the top and a hole on the side so they don’t interact at all
Hmm, not quite sure what you mean. A filter for what? And a hole on the side of what?
So you made a shop vac? Lol
can't u use just a bucket full of water? rocks go down and dirt stays up, in theory... I havent tried myself yet
I haven't had luck with just water on top, it turned into a soupy mess when I tried it. Putting the rocks in a bucket of water works, but is a ton more work, and pretty messy too.
Another option? I cannot built this
Hmm, maybe find someone locally that could build one for you? Or google 'local makerspace' and they might have the tools/resources to help you out.
can u just produce and sell ？
Cool gadget, You can also lay down flower felt for a couple weeks or like the guy below said leaf blower , or buy a leaf sucker does the same thing, much better things in life to do than worry bout rocks, but that's me.
I burnt out two motors on two different vacuum mulchers back to back trying to do this with them
Curious why didn't you just use a leaf blower VACUUM? What's your logic? Specifically Toro blower vacuum as example
They're not that great of a tool in my opinion. They're prone to clogging and breaking, and you carry the bag that they fill so you've gotta lug around all the weight you suck up. Also that bag is pretty small and can be hard to empty.
@@42Pursuit that is a well thought out response, and i agree with your response, particularly the bag is heavy and awkward and clogging. Thanks for sharing knowledge
Take that Bill Nye
Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill! Bill Nye the science guy!
Pine Needles are acidic, great for growing berries.
ah yes a jig saw, cuts to cnc router cutting the wood
Cnc machine is way quicker!,badass
also that's not called a separator, it's just a home made shop vac
Haha, you're totally right, it definitely doesn't separate out the debris from the air without the use of a filter. My bad 😄
Wow, seems like it would be easier to hire a kid to clean it then make a whole new machine! Actually how many people could actually do that. You might as well sell these
You must be thinking that everybody has these fancy tools.
The only fancy tool is the cnc and I explain how to easily do it with more common tools. You might be surprised how common it is for a DIYer to have or be able to borrow a drill, jigsaw, and router.
Can I just pay double for you to make this for me?! Please!!😅
I wish I could! Hmm, maybe find someone locally that could build one for you? Or google 'local makerspace' and they might have the tools/resources to help you out.
Or you could use a leaf blower
How would a leaf blower pick up pine needles?
@@42Pursuit, it won’t, but it’ll blow them away. Then they become your neighbor’s problem.
@@Drakencoo Ah, hahaha, I see 😄
I don't understand the concept, why it doesn't suck up the rocks? This grandma really needs one of these bad.
Instead of a low volume of air and high pressure like a typical vacuum, it is a low pressure and high volume of air. This means there isn't enough pressure (force) to lift the rocks up, but since the pine needles are light, they are able to be sucked up. Hope that helps!
Remove that tree and it will stay cleaner longer! :)
True, but then I wouldn't have a tree to shade me while I drank my lemonade 😄
How could you clean white rock when *some* debris has been left and the rock has been discolored?
This was done by the people who were paid to mow, edge, etc…
How can I tell them to CLEAN the expensive rock that (now) looks like crap…defeating the purpose of using rock vs. mulch.
In my experience, first removing the debris and then washing the rock with a pressure washer helped a ton. At first it'll still look discolored but if most of the debris is gone the sun will help bleach things back to white after a few weeks.
Before I would do that, that tree would have to go.
I'm confused by this, you'd rather cut down a tall and healthy tree that provides shade and beauty than spend a few hours sucking up the pine needles every few years?
I use a shop vac.🤷♂️
Shop-Vacs provide high-pressure low-volume suction which has a tendency of sucking up rocks with the debris. Dust collector blowers have low-pressure high-volume suction so typically just suck up the light stuff and leave the rocks. But your mileage may vary.
Wouldn't shop vaccine work just as well?
Not actually very well because shop vacs have a proportionately low volume of air but at a high pressure; dust collectors on the other hand have low pressure air but at a high volume. Shop vacs have enough pressure (force) to suck up the rocks, but dust collectors will mostly only suck up the light pine needles and leave the rocks. Hope that helps!
Why is everything put into plastic bags? Why can't you compost it?
It ended up being way too much for my little compost pile, so the bags were for giving away to other composters.
Just use a shop vac. lol
A shop vac will suck up the rocks as well as it's a low-volume/high-pressure device. This is high-volume/low-pressure.
Should use COMPOST Bags instead of Trash bags. Recycle!
Yup, those were just for transporting to various compost piles/bins. The bags were reused after.
Always that one guy that has to be negative! Lol
It only looks fast because it's played at a faster speed.
Like how light travels faster than sound. That’s why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
@@42Pursuit I couldn't have said it better.
Or, you can just get a Stihl vacuum attachment kit for 49 bucks. Work smarter, not harder. Now go ahead, comment time!
Uh huh, and how much is the thing you're attaching it to?
Also, look up the reviews of that vacuum attachment kit.
We're working smarter and more efficient over here 🤘🏼
I think your family and our family bought the same house.....OMG....they didn't do anything!!
Haha, I feel that!