Build Log: Hanging up Power Cleaners
Cordless power cleaners are really awesome in that you can do some [very light duty] cleaning ‘in the middle of nowhere’ with nothing more than a bucket or even a bottle. This makes then superb for cleaning outdoor furniture for apartment dwellers, or for washing bikes on a camping trip or even some light cleaning around the house. Their lower power output makes them an excellent choice for doing car washes too — there’s not enough pressure to damage the clearcoat!
I bought my first unit (a Worx-branded one) because it was the only option available at the time and awhile later, Ryobi [finally] brought one to market as well. Fast forward a couple years, and Ryobi introduced an improved model (which I upgraded to). Now, for all the strengths of being battery powered and portable, in general (and particularly for the Ryobi units, specifically their first-gen model), they are a huge pain to store. There’s no clean, simple, easy way to just hang the power cleaners up just to get them out of the way.
This was a good enough opportunity to raid the scrap wood bin to throw something together to get these off the floor, counter, sink etc.
Quick Links
Goals and Objectives
This is intended to be a very quick project that I can put together using scraps I had on hand; the design needed to be easy enough to work with that it wouldn’t be an inconvenience to use and not rely on straps or clips or anything like that.
The only notable points were that I wanted to be able to hang the power cleaners in a “tip-down” position so that any dripping would go into my laundry-tub and that I didn’t want the hanging mechanism to depend on pressure/hanging on the trigger.
Step 1: Easy build with scraps
I debated hanging the power cleaners in a bunch of different orientations: tip-down & sideways, tip-down & back-against-the-wall and tip-down & front-against-the-wall. I went with tip-down back against the wall mostly because of how much the battery compartment would have bulged out the build.
With the ‘spine’ of the tool against the wall, this design works for almost any power cleaner on the market since that surface will mostly be flat. The weight of the tool would be held by either the trigger guard (on some models) or the little plastic bump-out where the water inlet connector is. By sizing the left and right side guards, we can install/remove the power cleaner without too much fuss and not have to reply on clips, loops, hooks etc.
Milestone
If you’re building one for yourself, the only consideration you’ll need to take into mind is whether you want the opening on the left or the right — and that will depend on your shop layout.
To remove the power-cleaner from the hanger, just lift it slightly and then the ‘rod-portion’ can slip out of the opening. Easy-peasy.
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