Down filling machine

[psyculman]

That "down eductor" method looks workable. I usually just do it outside in the yard, which winds up looking like a chicken haul train wreck for a couple of days, although the neighbors have gotten used to it.

[mando]

That "down eductor" method looks workable. I usually just do it outside in the yard, which winds up looking like a chicken haul train wreck for a couple of days, although the neighbors have gotten used to it.

LOL. I did my first down harvesting project out in the back yard. It looked liked a chicken crime scene for a few days.

[justinvaughan]

I've been trying to come up with a better way to fill down quilts and wondered if anyone has been down this road before I spent way too many hours trying to engineer something like china manufacturer.

I'm thinking of rigging an old computer fan between 2 pieces of pvc pipe and make a "blow through" designed vacuume to pull down from a comforter, pillow or whatever and blow it into the baffles of a quilt.

Any thoughts or experience trying this before? After one experience of making a complete mess hand stuffing there has to be a better way.

Anyone purchased a liquid filling machine ? What is best type for lotions ? I was looking at the ones on ebay with manual operation for about $300

[WV]

Reading over these posts, I think HoosierT is the one I believe. His experience seems to be closest to mine - using an old Electrolux vacuum cleaner and filling the wand with down from a bag on a scale, then transferring it to where it's needed with a homemade piston. The key is to have a scale that measures tenths of grams. As the wand fills up, the suction gets less, so you do need to use your fingers to push small clumps of down into the tube. This is a process I've used over and over. After each batch of down is transferred, the vacuum cleaner wand is handy to suck any floaters out of the air, before being refilled from the bag. It's a relatively neat method.

[stevebo]

Ive tried the "down eductor" method a few times. I never got it to work for me. Wv's method works well, or in a pinch you can eyeball it and carefully add handfulls of down into each chamber until they look right. Not very sophisticated, but it works!