My basement shop is crowded, and easily gets cluttered. My biggest problem, however, is dust. I plan to add an overhead guard to by table saw, which will eliminate some of it, but the majority of it comes from sanding. My Bosch ROS has a cartridge filter, which works OK until the disk passes over the edge of the board. The Makita has a bag which leaves much to be desired. The spindle sander has dust collection, but I think more goes into the air than into the collector.
Any ideas? (I thought about making a table with dust collection, but really can’t come up with a place to put it.)
Jeff
Replies
You've already hit upon the solution. A downdraft table which you can use for sanding. If you're tight for space, I'd be willing bet that you could incorporate some sort of downdraft area into your normal workbench. After all, it really doesn't matter if you have holes in your workbench, does it?
John
Shop vac and adaptors for all sanding tools. overhead dust filtering system. And a 20"x20" filter in a box with an attic fan inside to pull the air through.
My suggestion would be to STOP sanding and learn how to tune and use a scraper. It leaves a much nicer surface than sanding ever could.
Scott
Scott,
It's funny, but every time I run into a problem, the use of hand tools pops its head up as a solution. I haven't used scrapers very much, but I've been using them a bit for clean-up lately.
In a way, I wouldn't mind using only hand tools, but that requires a bit of learning on my part. Grew up with power tools, and hand tools were always a last resort.
Jeff
Jeff,
I can't remember what kind of a saw you have, but recently I saw a solution which comes pretty close to something you already mentioned. A down draft table hinged to your TS on the outfeed side...save space, get double use...hose right there from the tS to connect up to the downdraft top...
Also, I sand a lot less now (scrape more)...and wear the respirator when I do.
Thanks for the ideas. There's no way I'm going to drill holes in my bench top, but perhaps I can rig up a hinged table that could be lifted up when I need it, and will hang on the back side of the bench when not in use.
I didn't realize they made adaptors for small power tools. I'll have to look into that. Thanks, and I'm still looking for more ideas if anybody has some.
Jeff
Here's my solution- works well for me. Drops below my TS table so can use the bench as an outfeed- hook it up to my DC, works well. Also have an air cleaner mounted overhead. There's more info on the post about the TS DC port a week ago.
What part of So Cal are you in? I live in Temecula.
Craig,
Looks like what I had in mind. Thanks! I'll check out you other post for more info.
I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; guess that's a bit north of So. Cal.
Jeff
I have a down draft table(?) that is 2'x2' made of peg board (one side) and 1x4's. It has a hole for insertion of the DC hose. I stow it under my workbench when not in use. The other side is solid 1/4" scrap plywood. Any size is really easy to make.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_KatyPlaneWood
I've gotta quit doing these posts so late...
I was thinking about a solution that combined a sound dampening box for my shop vac. I saw a plan for a box to put the vac in that is lined with carpet, and has wheels. I figured I might have an add on to the top that would act as a down draft table. On another point, I'm skeptical about the use of a box fan and filter above the bench. First, I would rather have dust pulled down, and second, when the fan is turned off, I don't want loose dust falling back down. Does it really work?
Sears makes a small "muffler" that attaches to the exhaust outlet of their shop vacs. Should fit other brands too. Not sure how well it works.
Jeff
My downdraft table is conected to my 1.5 hp dc with <1 micron bags. I am not sure if a shop vac would provide enough air flow to attract most of the dust. I have a Jet AFS 1000 mounted above my bench to attract what the table doesn't. I am very pleased with the results & minimal costs for my table.
I also put my shop vac in a cabinet- haven't lined it with carpet, no need to in my situation.
Jeff,
I recently built a downdraft table from 1/2" plywood and salvaged closet shelving, I got the description from a woodworker's web site. I can't seem to find the site now. It's basically a box with sides that slope up from a flat strip in the bottom. The top is just 1/4" pegboard dropped into the frame. As you can see, I made it to fit into the back of a roll around cabinet with drawers on the other side for sanders, and sanding equipment. When in use I have a mobile sanding center, and when the down draft table is stowed, I have a top about 2'x2' as a mobile surface in my rather cramped shop. You can see the cabinet stored under the bench that also has my SCPMS mounted on it. I may make a larger removable top for a larger surface for assemble etc. as needed.
The adapter is 4" and I just connect it to a drop hose from my cyclone DC when I need it. It works very well especially when the ROS is connected to a shop vac too.
Hope this gives you some ideas.
Oh yes, if you loo closely, you will see that I had to trim the drawer faces after edging the plywood as I had cut the faces to fit forgetting to subtract the edge dimensions from the pieces I had cut. Should add this boo boo to the thread on errrors yesterday.Bill
Edited 1/13/2004 7:21:10 PM ET by BILLL6
Thanks, Bill, especially for taking the time to post the photos and the good idea. Looks like a nice unit.
Jeff
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