IBM Handheld Vacuum

[rohmell]

Hello all,
I have a handheld vacuum cleaner with the IBM logo on it. I don't know the vintage, maybe 70s-80s, and I believe it was made for the IBM Field Engineers to use when they went out to service the mainframes.

Does anyone have one of these in their collection?
Does anyone know the OEM of the vac?
If there'a any interest, i can take some pics and post 'em up here.

 

[kirbyclassiciii]

rohmell

Let's see... does it resemble the Royal 501 Prince revolving brush hand vacuum, if you consider Royal made lots of vacuums for numerous private labels over the years?

~Ben

 

[tolivac]

Do you have a picture of this machine? Is it similar to the 3M copier-printer tech's vacuum?

 

[rohmell]

Here Are Some Pics

Of this IBM Vac:

 

[rohmell]

An Old Ebay Listing

With a Different part Number on it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ibm-1245521...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ibm-1245521...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

[human]

Yeah, so it's apparently a vac used by copier technicians to clean up dry toner out of copiers. You can see toner residue on the inside of the front cap in photo #3. Actually, I'd kinda forgotten IBM made copiers. I'm not sure they still do.

 

[tolivac]

Yes,a copier-printer vacuum.Surprized there isn't an additional filter in front of the motor air intake.Toner dust is bad for motors and people.The filter would provide protection in case the bag leaks or breaks.DataVac also makes vacuums for copier-printer cleaning.They are under the same company as Metropolitan Vacuums.

 

[sptyks]

Back in the day when I used to service printers for HP, we had special vacuums that used special bags and had a very dense pre-motor filter between the bag and motor. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">The toner dust in older laser printers was highly explosive!</span>


 


<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If the Field Service technician was unaware of this and used a regular vacuum cleaner to clean up a toner spill it could ruin their day. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If any toner dust made it through the bag and into the motor commutator area it was bad news! The arcing between the brushes and commutator would ignite the toner dust and BANG!!! Not only would the vacuum cleaner be in pieces, but a few technicians suffered severe burns if they were standing too close to the vacuum.</span>


 


<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I believe this is no longer an issue because Toner has been reformulated and is no longer explosive.</span>


 


 


 

 

[sptyks]

Back in the day when I used to service printers for HP, we had special vacuums that used special bags and had a very dense pre-motor filter between the bag and motor. <span style="font-size: 12pt;">The toner dust in older laser printers was highly explosive!</span>


 


<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If the Field Service technician was unaware of this and used a regular vacuum cleaner to clean up a toner spill it could ruin their day. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">If any toner dust made it through the bag and into the motor commutator area it was bad news! The arcing between the brushes and commutator would ignite the toner dust and BANG!!! Not only would the vacuum cleaner be in pieces, but a few technicians suffered severe burns if they were standing too close to the vacuum.</span>


 


<span style="font-size: 12pt;">I believe this is no longer an issue because Toner has been reformulated and is no longer explosive.</span>


 


 


 

 

[tolivac]

Another point didn't realize some toners were flammable and even explosive.Guess I have only dealt with those that aren't-another thought on toners-they do contain carbon black-this is conductive-and could be an issue if it gets into the vacuums motor or wiring.Some vacuum cleaner warrantees are invalidated if you use the vacuum to pick up toner or plaster dust.

 

[tolivac]

Thought of another thing-use a vacuum cleaner with a FULL BYPASS motor if cleaning toners.Then no danger of it getting into the motor itself-at worst only the fans and fancase.

 

[rohmell]

Here is Douglas'

Version of this vac:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Dou...062678?hash=item25c2dd2496:g:xC0AAOSwsTxXkYfK

 

[rohmell]

And Sears

Had to have their version also:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Sea...506135?hash=item3d236f5dd7:g:p6gAAOSwMpZUqccu