Dust collecting base cabinet for table sander, plus sanding table
 

A comment about dust control reminded me of a cabinet base I built
for a Sears 6 X 48" belt sander with 10" disk. The sander came
with a metal-legged stand and a little gizmo that was intended to
catch some dust with a shop vac, but was still the dirtiest thing
in the shop. I ended that problem by building my own cabinet
base, adding a 6" collector pipe to the main DC and building
baffles to direct the air flow.

I had a TEFC 1hp motor, so I slapped it on hinges and hung it
inside the cabinet to power the sander. The Sears version, as I
recall was about a 1/2 horse open frame, that I didn't want to run
inside a dust-filled cabinet. I also put in a relay so that when
the motor ran, it also tripped the DC on.

The cabinet was very straight forward, as was the motor mount and
DC connection. The only thing I was kinda happy about was taking
the time to think through where the dust was going when I sanded
and then placing baffles and holes between the top and base to
control airflow. I sanded LOTS of old scrap to see where the dust
landed with no airflow control, then used those spots to place
holes. It worked like a charm.

The second photo, taken from across the shop, shows another gizmo
I built that sure kept life less dusty. It's the blue thing over
the RAS. I acquired a grocery store bread delivery carrier one
time and just kept in the storage room, thinking I'd eventually
have a use for it. It was made of very heavy plastic and about
30" in one direction and 36" or so in the other, as I recall. It
had a slight edge around it to hold loafs of bread, but the open
framework was what I found interesting.

I finally decided to make it into a sanding table I could place on
my workbench when using the ROS or buzzy sander for final
finishing of small pieces. I'd run a 4" DC line to the workbench
itself and had a flexible 6' hose connection coming up from the
floor via a blast gate. All I did was make an open top box out of
scrap Melamine board about 6" tall, and place the bread holder on
top. I cut a 4" hole in one side, where I could insert the flex
line and put a couple angle brackets on the outside bottom so I
could clamp it down or screw it temporarily to the workbench when
sanding.

The plastic didn't mar freshly sanded wood and the open framework
let air carry dust away from the sanders that didn't collect in
their old, leaky bags. I could set it up in under a minute and
take it down just as quickly.
--
Nonny

ELOQUIDIOT (n) A highly educated, sophisticated,
and articulate person who has absolutely no clue
concerning what they are talking about.
The person is typically a media commentator or politician.