Yep, Dysons are fragile too - makes me nervous using mine, all the creaking & cracking noises from the handle as you're shoving it around. The see-through ones are worse due to the brittle nature of the material. Doesn't help with the extortionate prices of spare parts for them eg the filters for mine are 30 quid a pop & only come as disposable, & there are 2x of them.... Luckily, there's a nice man on Ebay doing a washable sftermarket replacement.
Best vac I ever had was a 1970's Electrolux 1200 cylinder. It had a removable panel, under which you'd find the pressurised air outlet, complete with bayonette socket for fitting the hose to use as a blower. Apparently they used to do a paint spraying kit (Amongst other stuff) for it. Shame, but it bit the dust when my bro decided to borrow it to remove the water from the footwell of his car....
