I am quite happy with it, and I encourage others to make their own.
Mine is a bit simpler than Phil's.
I haven't entirely worked out how Phil's works - in that it sounded like he turned it on and a bunch of flies went into the jar. I have to move the collector around inside the cage to get them.
But it is so much easier than trying to get them into a jar by hand, and I get so many more into a jar it is wonderful.
I started out with what I had. Which was an ancient dirt devil with a hose attachment (obviously the hose attachment in a requirement). This method would easily convert to any style of vacuum hose, but the specific parts would need to account for the diameter of the hose used (the dirt devil uses a hose and attachments far thinner than a household vacuum).
What I also had was a number of plastic jars - I have been saving them for bug collecting. What I noticed in mucking around with these was that the smallest of my peanut butter jars (16.3 oz) fit snug into the mouth of the next larger size peanut butter jar (I don't have the size of this jar. It is not the 64 Oz, so it could be 28, 40, or 48 oz).
What I pictured in my head at that moment was cutting a hole in the bottom of the large jar, sticking in the extender piece from the vacuum (it tapers, so I could botch the hole a little bit) hot gluing if I had to (avoiding that if possible). Then all I would need is a hole in the bottom of the small jar, a piece of screen over that and I would be in business.
What I quickly saw with this set up was if the unit became jammed (say by the cloth tunnel it has to enter to get into the fly cage or simply by me placing the lid on the small jar) then the vacuum pressure might make the contraption collapse on itself, with the extender shooting forward, through the mesh, and then what would become of the flies?
I also at this time remembered Phil's picture and the fact that his crevice tool is 90 degrees off of his collecting jar, which would save him that particular nasty outcome.
I have related that part of the story for anyone looking to simplify my method. Mine could be simpler, but the above may not be the way to do it.
A second problem was that when I cut out the bottom of the small jar and glued in the mesh, it turned out not to fit as snug in the mouth of the large jar. It was actually a different small jar, but it was also already glued up, and the glueing was a pain.
So I went back to an earlier and slightly more complicated idea.
I went to a hardware chain and went to the PVC pipe section. I knew what I wanted and found out that this store was not as well stocked as I remember from NH. What I ended up with was a reducing coupling (a piece of PVC pipe that is a different size on each end) that the jar fit quite well into on the large end, and I needed a funny plug thing I could not name to fit in the other end which in turn the vacuum hose plugs into. Because the hose tapers, I had some leeway with what I would need for it to fit into. And I had to wrap the plug thingy in a bit of duct tape to fit snug in the small end of the reducing coupling.
But that was it, I was done. It fit right on the vacuum hose, and the jar fit right into it...
At this point I realized I brought the large jar into the hardware store, and so my "finished" unit was built for the large jar, but it was the small jar I had meshed up.
I ended up meshing the large jar and the second small jar. So I can plug in the large jar, and then plug the small jar into that. I cap the small jar when it is "full", and I can use the other small jar or the large jar if I need multiple jars of flies (it happens).
So at this point, done, completely done. Works slick, and I am very happy with it.
Here I will outline meshing the peanut butter jars, only because it was so annoying to do. There is nothing after this.
My theory was that cutting out the bottom, gluing on mesh, and using the screw on cap as normal was the way to go. This stemmed partly out of the never attempted option of having an extra lid with a hose sticking out. So the hose could go into the fly cage instead of the collecting jar.
Additionally I felt gluing the mesh inside the jar would be better resistant to the vacuum than gluing it outside and having it rip off and shoot down the vacuum hose with all the flies. I have no data to support this fear, or to suggest that gluing inside is stronger. But this is exactly the reason that the gluing was a pain.
Because of the dimpled bottom of the peanut butter jar I cut just inside of the rise of the dimple (rise = toward the top of the jar). This left a...dunno, quarter inch lip around the bottom that instead of being flat points up toward the jar opening. I then cut a mesh circle bigger than the hole but smaller than the wall of the jar. I banged around the kitchen until I found something round of a good size to stencil with.
I have no idea why I used mesh instead of screen. Screen should pass more air and reduce the threat of ripping the mesh/screen off and sucking the flies down into the vacuum.
So at this point I poked the gluegun up through the hole (hold the jar upright and angle it somewhat as needed to help apply the glue, this is important) and ran a heavy bead around the whole lip. Next I put the circle of mesh through the jar mouth, worked it down to the hotglue before it set. This was the hard part, accompanied by generic swearing, specific swearing over the crease in the mesh circle and a fear that the wife would pick this moment to interrupt - she did not.
The mesh once swearingly in place was poked into the glue with a Popsicle stick. The Popsicle stick only stuck lightly to the glue and only complicated the process a little.
Now another layer of glue was added by sticking the glue gun as far into the jar mouth as possible, and tilting the jar so that the glue fell heavily across the lip and mesh seam. Swearing at this point was much lighter.
Three layers of duct tape (one 1 third the thickness of a piece, one 2 thirds, and one the normal thickness to make a tapering effect) on the outside middle of the jar prevent the little jars from getting sucked into the big jar.
Once it cooled, it was perfectly sweet. The cap fits fine, and the whole unit works wonderfully.
Thankyou Phil for the idea.
Mine is a bit simpler than Phil's.
I haven't entirely worked out how Phil's works - in that it sounded like he turned it on and a bunch of flies went into the jar. I have to move the collector around inside the cage to get them.
But it is so much easier than trying to get them into a jar by hand, and I get so many more into a jar it is wonderful.
I started out with what I had. Which was an ancient dirt devil with a hose attachment (obviously the hose attachment in a requirement). This method would easily convert to any style of vacuum hose, but the specific parts would need to account for the diameter of the hose used (the dirt devil uses a hose and attachments far thinner than a household vacuum).
What I also had was a number of plastic jars - I have been saving them for bug collecting. What I noticed in mucking around with these was that the smallest of my peanut butter jars (16.3 oz) fit snug into the mouth of the next larger size peanut butter jar (I don't have the size of this jar. It is not the 64 Oz, so it could be 28, 40, or 48 oz).
What I pictured in my head at that moment was cutting a hole in the bottom of the large jar, sticking in the extender piece from the vacuum (it tapers, so I could botch the hole a little bit) hot gluing if I had to (avoiding that if possible). Then all I would need is a hole in the bottom of the small jar, a piece of screen over that and I would be in business.
What I quickly saw with this set up was if the unit became jammed (say by the cloth tunnel it has to enter to get into the fly cage or simply by me placing the lid on the small jar) then the vacuum pressure might make the contraption collapse on itself, with the extender shooting forward, through the mesh, and then what would become of the flies?
I also at this time remembered Phil's picture and the fact that his crevice tool is 90 degrees off of his collecting jar, which would save him that particular nasty outcome.
I have related that part of the story for anyone looking to simplify my method. Mine could be simpler, but the above may not be the way to do it.
A second problem was that when I cut out the bottom of the small jar and glued in the mesh, it turned out not to fit as snug in the mouth of the large jar. It was actually a different small jar, but it was also already glued up, and the glueing was a pain.
So I went back to an earlier and slightly more complicated idea.
I went to a hardware chain and went to the PVC pipe section. I knew what I wanted and found out that this store was not as well stocked as I remember from NH. What I ended up with was a reducing coupling (a piece of PVC pipe that is a different size on each end) that the jar fit quite well into on the large end, and I needed a funny plug thing I could not name to fit in the other end which in turn the vacuum hose plugs into. Because the hose tapers, I had some leeway with what I would need for it to fit into. And I had to wrap the plug thingy in a bit of duct tape to fit snug in the small end of the reducing coupling.
But that was it, I was done. It fit right on the vacuum hose, and the jar fit right into it...
At this point I realized I brought the large jar into the hardware store, and so my "finished" unit was built for the large jar, but it was the small jar I had meshed up.
I ended up meshing the large jar and the second small jar. So I can plug in the large jar, and then plug the small jar into that. I cap the small jar when it is "full", and I can use the other small jar or the large jar if I need multiple jars of flies (it happens).
So at this point, done, completely done. Works slick, and I am very happy with it.
Here I will outline meshing the peanut butter jars, only because it was so annoying to do. There is nothing after this.
My theory was that cutting out the bottom, gluing on mesh, and using the screw on cap as normal was the way to go. This stemmed partly out of the never attempted option of having an extra lid with a hose sticking out. So the hose could go into the fly cage instead of the collecting jar.
Additionally I felt gluing the mesh inside the jar would be better resistant to the vacuum than gluing it outside and having it rip off and shoot down the vacuum hose with all the flies. I have no data to support this fear, or to suggest that gluing inside is stronger. But this is exactly the reason that the gluing was a pain.
Because of the dimpled bottom of the peanut butter jar I cut just inside of the rise of the dimple (rise = toward the top of the jar). This left a...dunno, quarter inch lip around the bottom that instead of being flat points up toward the jar opening. I then cut a mesh circle bigger than the hole but smaller than the wall of the jar. I banged around the kitchen until I found something round of a good size to stencil with.
I have no idea why I used mesh instead of screen. Screen should pass more air and reduce the threat of ripping the mesh/screen off and sucking the flies down into the vacuum.
So at this point I poked the gluegun up through the hole (hold the jar upright and angle it somewhat as needed to help apply the glue, this is important) and ran a heavy bead around the whole lip. Next I put the circle of mesh through the jar mouth, worked it down to the hotglue before it set. This was the hard part, accompanied by generic swearing, specific swearing over the crease in the mesh circle and a fear that the wife would pick this moment to interrupt - she did not.
The mesh once swearingly in place was poked into the glue with a Popsicle stick. The Popsicle stick only stuck lightly to the glue and only complicated the process a little.
Now another layer of glue was added by sticking the glue gun as far into the jar mouth as possible, and tilting the jar so that the glue fell heavily across the lip and mesh seam. Swearing at this point was much lighter.
Three layers of duct tape (one 1 third the thickness of a piece, one 2 thirds, and one the normal thickness to make a tapering effect) on the outside middle of the jar prevent the little jars from getting sucked into the big jar.
Once it cooled, it was perfectly sweet. The cap fits fine, and the whole unit works wonderfully.
Thankyou Phil for the idea.
