Orion wrote:What is the best technique for removing all the down from a baffled bag or quilt? Can you just reach in and pull it out? Shake it out? Or is it tricky?
Hi Orion, I need to do this job myself sometime soon to make a new super quilt for my down mat.
Reaching in and grabbing does work but is very messy in my limited experience. I used to lock myself up in the bathroom and work in the bath tube. I stuffed fists full of the down into a cardboard cone and weighed it before pushing it through into the new quilt pockets. I pinned the pocket closed after filling each pocket. I had someone pass in a vacuum cleaner to clean up the mess.
Using the vacuum cleaner right from the start might be better if you can weigh the down in it. It would be nice if you could simply reverse the fan to blow the down out into your new quilt?
If you use a clean vacuum cleaner to remove the down first, that will make a good start. I find that it makes the down form a solid clump that is easy to handle as a biscuit (still a bit messy).
My old Electrolux vacuum cleaner had a pipe connection on both ends so that it could be used as a blower.
You could probably make a cloth filter pad/disk to go in a piece of 50mm PVC pipe with reducer unions pushed on both ends. Suck the down in with your Dyson vacuum cleaner. Weigh the down by the increase in the weight. When the correct weight, remove the end unions and force the down plug out deep inside your new quilt pocket. The filter disk could have a fishing-line tether tied to it so that it would be easy to retrieve for the next fill.
I can post a sketch of the tube device sometime if you think this idea might help. If nothing else it will help to get my own thoughts straight.
Tim