Bob Hammond's sanding downdraft table with a surface of double-layer perforated board [Pictures] - created 03-02-2004

Hammond, Bob - 03/02/2004.17:20:21

I'm getting older (almost dead!) and find it hard to tolerate sanding dust. Here's a straightforward design that I've been working on for an hour or two over the past weekends, and that might become a good workbench as well:

It's a frame of strawboard (7" deep) with a bottom of plastic-coated hardboard (cheap bathtub/shower surround aka 'whiteboard' for markers) that slants down to a dust collector fitting. On the top is a double layer of perf-board. The bottom layer(s) are shutters that can be moved to control airflow either a little or a lot for each quarter of the table. The top layer is the same perf-board, cut to make a perfect register with the holes in the shutters.

I made this for sanding, but I see that I could make clamp-jigs that would fit into the holes of the top to wedge a workpiece tightly. Add some stout legs, and hey!, it's a workbench

Here's another pic:

Although this is meant to work with my cyclone/dustcollector system, I think that an efficient dust collection system could be incorporated into a base cabinet without too much difficulty.

Also, I think that I will add another feature to collect larger chips, e.g. chisel and plane shavings. Either it will be a trapdoor in the top, or another section added onto the port side, where I would just sweep the shavings into a slot.

I like the the downdraft fixture, but I love the lathe/thickness sander conversion in the background. Very slick, Bob.

I have a very similar down draft table but actually built it in as part of my 16' workbench along one wall. The only thing I found was that the peg board I used on previous down draft boxes wasn't solid enough for the bench top so I used 5/8 MDF that I drilled using Peg board as a template and then counter sunk the holes. Works great. I put the anti slip green stuff on top when I want extra protection. I also find the down draft hold work in place very well.

Richard, I've been thinking about adding a third layer to the sandwich. Also, the quadrants are only ~10"x14" so they're reasonably stiff.

John, tnx, I posted the ramp-bed sander last year (maybe it's in line for the archives). It's so solid and easy to adjust that I'm in the process of imagineering a 22" wide model, but I haven't decided whether to buy an extension for the midi-lathe and extend it that way, or if I'm going to make a dedicated motor/bed arrangement. I've also (I think) worked out a powerfeed for it, using a backerboard dragged down by a bicycle chain attached to a weight. The bicycle chain would run in a dado in the ramp.

I made a similar downdraft table by drilling holes in the top surface of my wooden tablesaw extension and enclosing the bottom of the extension. I hook my dust collector to the fitting--it works great and doesn't take up any more of my very scarce shop space!

I suspect this setup will also work when you throw a small piece of 1/4" glass on top for some flat sanding. The crud should get pushed to the edges of the glass/sandpaper by the sanding action and into the vacuum system. Then the glass can just be tipped and tapped!

That sander/lathe was what I first noticed too - cool!

anti-slip green stuff I see house of tools calls it "non-slip sanding pads or protective drawer liner." They sell it both green and gray in a lot of tool places for using while routing or sanding something but all it is is the rubber stuff you put in kitchen drawers to keep things in place or too put under a cutting board so it wont slide around. You can buy it quite cheap in fabric places (get a whole roll for the cost of one piece in a tool store).

Wall mart has the anti slip stuff in the kitchen section and the camping section. They sell it for drawers as well as an anti slip pad for under plates, cups and things like that while camping. The stuff under the carpet is similar but a lot thicker. This stuff is great. You can just put a piece of wood on it and start sanding, no clamps or jigs needed. I've also seen people use it while routing (thats what they first advertised it for) but I don't trust it that much. Saw a guy at a trade show put a board down on top of it on a work bench and plunge rout out words for a sign. Didn't move a bit.

If it's not to late, there's a modification you might like. I built a very similar table but found that it performed better by extending the vacuum inlet with 4" sewer pipe so that it draws out of the center of the box not from one end. My box was larger and I was only using a 1 hp., two bag dust collection system so I really had to mess with it to get it to work.