a floor sanding vacuum is designed to be used in conjunction with floor sanding machines to provide a near dust free process for sanding floors . a displacement blower is driven by a gasoline or electric motor which creates a high vacuum that draws air through the sanding machine via a flexible hose connected to a cyclone separator where the sanding debris drops into an integral hopper . after the cyclone , the air is drawn through an air filter to the blower where the cleaned air is discharged through either an optional integral silencer built into the base of the vacuum or a commercially available silencer for noise reduction .