DIY cheap and effective dust collector

[Dave Bagwill]

This keeps the dust produced by your power tools from getting to your shop vac and clogging the filters. The dust goes....well, here's the youtube link.
Let us know what you think.
http://youtu.be/g6j-psU1aWs

[ken cierp]

Thank you Dave --- I'll be making a few of those bad boys this week end! I was always under the impression the cyclones just seperated the chips (big stuff) keeping the filter clean is a most excellent improvement. I'm now pondering how to put the collection buckets outside the shops?

[Dave Bagwill]

Okay, I went to a junk store and got an old 5 gallon bucket and a lid, two pvc elbows, took them home, cut two holes in the lid, stuck the pvc in the right places, glued it, taped it, and hooked it up to my old shop vac. Then fired up my new (to me) performax 16-32 and ran the board through.

Results: a smooth board. A lot of sawdust, ALL of it in the bucket, none in the shop vac.

Now I'll need a more stable set-up, but it works and it's cheap!

No pix - the wife took the camera to a wedding. Dang. Well it ain't purty to look at anyway.

[ken cierp]

Now that I understand the principles seems the internet has a vast array of ideas that will work -- as usually matching up connectors will be a challenge. Get out the "duct tape"

[Kevin in California]

Dave,
When did you get the drum sander, did I miss something?
I would like to see a pic of the gizmo you made!!

Kevin

[Dave Bagwill]

Kevin - After two years of pretty much constant checking of Craigslist-Medford-Ashland Oregon and seeing NOT ONE drum sander for sale, I'd about decided to build my own when Lo! TWO of them showed up simultaneously, which means at the same time. Ha.
The one I bought was 15 minutes from home, works great, came with a buttload (which means, I don't really know how much) of extra Jet sandpaper for the machine.
So I did the following complicated procedure: I plugged it in, I set it so that the sander 'kissed' (the guy who sold it to me used the word 'kissed' so I suppose it is in the manual somewhere) the rough old timber I wanted to sand, and hit the 'on' switch. The rest is history, if by history you mean sawdust and a smooth board.
Since I am making the painful, tortured, angst-producing and acid-reflux transition to scratch building, this little machine will be used and treasured, and will share the bed with my wife and I.

As to the gizmo, it works great, and since most of you live far far away, I won't hear your laughter when I post the photo, so I will. :-)

[Dave Bagwill]

Here's the pic, with the obligatory shot of the dust in the bucket and the no-dust in the vac. The vac is stained from previous use, not from this trial.