Has anyone made a down draft sanding table?

[Tom Rick]

I am designing a down draft sanding table and just wondered if I am thinking along the right lines.

I am thinking of a carcass construction with some area of the top inlet with 1/4" tempered peg board. Say a area of about 30" x 48". There will be some sort of access to the case to clean and the table will be ducted to the dust collection system.
I am hoping to use the table to sand out old parts of restore projects and the profile sanding I do with ROS, Fein, by hand etc. Hopefully the DC will pull down some of the dust created in these operations.

Sound doable or is there more to a shop made down draft table?

Thanks all

[george wilson]

I am not impressed by the low horsepower and large surface area that some of these units have. I wonder how so little h.p. can create a useful downdraft for 4 square feet of table top? (or something like that)> I just take the throat plate out of my table saw,and sand near the opening with my 2 h.p. dust collector running. Sometimes,if I feel it is needed,I'll put a box on the other side of the open throat to help direct dust down the throat. It works quite well. A good stream of suction comes out of that relatively small throat opening.

[Myk Rian]

I made a box frame that fits over my router table. A few braces and chicken wire for the top. I remove the RT insert plate and router, turn on the DC, and sand away.

[Chris Parks]

I think an overhead collection hood would be much better. I am with those who don't rate down draught tables very highly unless you have a very large dust collector.

[Ed Murray]

I didn't build this table but it works quite well. It's roughly 2' x 4' with a 4 inch DC fitting on one end. If these pics come out ok you will notice the sloped bottom which seems to help with the downdraft and sealed against leaks. When not sanding I put a melamine top on it and it's another work bench on wheels.

[Karl Brogger]

I haven't seen a manufactured downdraft table that hooked into a dust collection system, but it would be much nicer if it did.

I've kicked around building one myself. My thought was to pretty copy other examples and use a large squirrel cage fan to pull air down through the top, and out filters around the sides.

[Darnell Hagen]

I've done as your planning, with the peg board. It works well, but the holes nearest your main working area benefit from a reaming with a hand drill. Air flow can be observed with a lit cigarette. While power sanding it was ok because I wear hearing protection then, but while hand sanding the noise from the DC was too irritating and added to an already unpleasant task.

[Tom Rick]

[QUOTE=Darnell Hagen;1438714 While power sanding it was ok because I wear hearing protection then, but while hand sanding the noise from the DC was too irritating and added to an already unpleasant task.[/QUOTE]

Did the DC make a bunch of noise pulling air through the holes?
My DC is in the next room so not too bad to just run the unit for me.

In my work I end up having to clean up old small parts as well as sanding out profiles of parts I make.
Dust flies even with the Fein vac set up with decent DF pads set up on the sanders. Plus the problem of hand sanding.

[Van Huskey]

I didn't build this table but it works quite well. It's roughly 2' x 4' with a 4 inch DC fitting on one end. If these pics come out ok you will notice the sloped bottom which seems to help with the downdraft and sealed against leaks. When not sanding I put a melamine top on it and it's another work bench on wheels.

I really like that version, going in my metal file box!

[Bernie Kopfer]

LOok at Grizzly item H6397. I built a table/cabinet around it and put it on wheels so I can move around as needed. Eight drawers in the front for sanding stuff storage and the same height as my bench so it can be used for support etc. Only down side is that the surface is not perfectly flat or smooth, but that is a minor quibble. I have a 3pony collector and it does quite well. I saw this unit built in on someones website. you might try Googling this Shopfox item and see what you find.

[Howard Acheson]

>>>> 1/4" tempered peg board.

My downdraft table is 20 x 40. The 1/4" pegboard sits on top of a sort of torsion box supported frame open on the bottom. I found it worked much better to drill out the 1/4" holes to 3/8" and counter sink them. Dust collection was quite a bit better but I have a large "squirrel cage" type furnace fan so there is lots of air flow.

Because I used the torsion box construction, my table serves as a very flat set up and assembly table also. It's on wheels so I can move it easily around the shop or store it when it's not needed. It's also the same height off the floor as my table saw so I can use it as an infeed or outfeed support. It has two 120 volt outlets on it so I can plug my sanders in. The top flips up so I can change filters easily.

[Lee Koepke]

In my 'to-do' list is building one. My thought for the top would be a rubber floor mat similar to what you find behind your local bar. the holes are much larger to increase the air flow and the rubber helps keep your product in place.

One of those things I threw away last time I moved thinking theres NEVER gonna be a need for this ... :mad:

[Mitchell Andrus]

I think an overhead collection hood would be much better. I am with those who don't rate down draught tables very highly unless you have a very large dust collector.

Overhead? You want the dust to waft up past your face to get to the hood? Fumes and steam naturally rise, as with a kitchen range... is this what you're thinking of?

Dust settles to the table very nicely via gravity. It doesn't take a whole lot more force to get it to find a n opening to fall into. The relatively small amount of dust coming from a hand-held sander can be puffed away with a light exhale. I've seen a very effective table with a 1/3 hp fan under the slats and a few square feet of filters.
.

[Mitchell Andrus]

In my 'to-do' list is building one. My thought for the top would be a rubber floor mat similar to what you find behind your local bar. the holes are much larger to increase the air flow and the rubber helps keep your product in place.

Wow. Now THAT'S a good idea.
.

[Darnell Hagen]

Did the DC make a bunch of noise pulling air through the holes?


Oh no, just the racket of the DC itself. I've got a big Murphy, it requires hearing protection to be worn.

[Bernie May]

Are these tables really necessary when we have random orbital sanders hooked to our vacuums?

[Mitchell Andrus]

Are these tables really necessary when we have random orbital sanders hooked to our vacuums?

We don't all do this. I have 4 palm sanders each with different grit on them and a shop vac in my shop would last about a week.
.

[Joe Chritz]

I posted a start of an album on my profile that has pictures of one I built.

No need for a clean out there still isn't a speck of dust inside. I still use it even with a good vacuum and ROS combo. Now I run the ROS to a vac and not to the DC system but it worked well both ways.

I have access to a CNC so I made the top but you could drill holes or use pegboard just as well.

Joe

[Mike Harrison]

I made my own DD sanding table / air filter as an extension of my saw table, using a furnace blower and some Hepa filters. I can use a air powered jitterbug and there will be no dust in the air.

I have done tests, such as they were, where I used a respirator, and just sanded until you could see the air was so thick with dust you certainly wouldn't want to be in it, then turned on the cleaner and the place was clean in less than 5 minutes.

http://i670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/mikeinkcmo/WW%20tools/Air%20cleaner/shophousepics017.jpg (http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/vv62/mikeinkcmo/WW%20tools/Air%20cleaner/)

I set up a diverter on the outlet side so I can establish a circular air flow around the shop, that way all the air is constantly being cleaned.

[Tom Rick]

Are these tables really necessary when we have random orbital sanders hooked to our vacuums?

For me a definite yes.

On the flat, my gear picks up most all of the dust. If I start to do profile work the dust flies. Like rolling the pad over a bull nose for instance to clean up router work. Hand work also throws the dust around.
I am using a really good quality Fein vac with good boots on the sanders. Very effective dust collection but the off angle work still spins dust off the pads before the vac has a chance to pick it up.

[Tom Rick]

As far as placement this is heading in the direction I am going. I am building a large outfeed table & am putting the down draft table to port and a router lift/station on starboard.

I like the grid system for the top you used.

[Mike Malott]

About 10 years ago, I purchased a downdraft table kit from Duskits: (http://www.duskits.com/kits)

I had the MDF top sprayed with truck bed liner to give it some traction.

I'm very happy with this unit.

Mike

[Myk Rian]

Clamps right over the router table.
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=139760&d=1264451924

[Mike Cruz]

I purchased a home made version off a guy on CL. The box is 36Lx24Dx 36H...about. There is peg board on the top. He put a Grizzly DC inside with two filters on the side of the box. Just under the the peg board top, is plywood that tapers down to the DC port. Seems to pull very nicely.

I must say that I always kinda wondered about having the DC unit inside there and if dust would ever kill the motor. If it does, I'll just take the DC out of there and hook up to my central DC unit... At least the box will be made...