Dust Collection and portable sanders

[Travis Porter]

I purchased and am getting ready to install a new dust collector. Can I should I use a drop off of my dust collector for my palm/angle sanders or should I just stick with my shop vacuum?

[Tom Jones III]

I've used DC for a biscuit joiner and router, whatever the standard porter cable size is and it actually worked. I didn't really think it would work, but I didn't want to have to get out the shop vac. Now that I know that it really works I'll have to put together a nice connector for it.

[tod evans]

if you have the room check into building a small down draft table, you`ll find it handy for lots of different tools as well as sanding. .02, tod

[J.R. Rutter]

Some sanders do a great job at sucking the dust up and blowing it into the little dust bag attached to the sander. Others, not so much. For tools that seem to leave dust on the workpiece (or in the air), the DC might not be enough. For the better ones, it will probably work fine.

I have a current sensing outlet switch with an outlet strip plugged into it. All of my snaders stay plugged in, and all I do is swap hoses. When a sander gets turned on, the Shop Vac starts up. Works very well. If the shop vac has a similar feature built in, the outlet strip should still work plugged into that.

[Jim Bell]

I'm with Todd on this one, the down draft table is great for collecting dust and fumes too.
Jim