Keeping the dust collection hose out of the way

[Brian W Evans]

I've seen numerous examples of this type of thing over the years. Here's my version. This is a quick and easy project but has made sanding MUCH less of a PITA.

Materials:

• 1/2" x 72" galvanized pipe
• 1/2" conduit pipe hangers (2)
• Velcro easy hang strap
• Spring balancer
• A few velcro cord organizers

The pipe is attached to the ceiling using the conduit pipe hangers. I used a 6' pipe because I want to be able to slide the spring balancer when necessary, especially to move it out of the way of the garage door. I hung my dust collection hose to the carabiner using the velcro easy hang strap, then I attached my power cord to the dust collection hose using some velcro strips I had around. I thought about using one of those Festool-style hose and cable wraps, but my tools are not Festool and don't have interchangeable power cords. The small velcro strips work just fine, though.

The whole system:
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The spring balancer can easily be adjusted for different weights:
IMG_20220417_113511.jpg


The pipe hangers:
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The velcro easy hang strap, which I like because it has the hardware built in:

IMG_20220417_113725.jpg

[Paul F Franklin]

A lot of good ideas there, thanks! I'm curious about the advantage of the spring balance. I just have a big carabiner hanging from a cord and pass the hose and cord through that, and it seems to be pretty effective for keeping the hose and cord up and out of the way. Does the balance mostly give you more slack for sanding larger pieces?

[Brian W Evans]

Paul,

The spring balancer is nice because it keeps tension on the hose while letting me move around. Perhaps not strictly necessary but it works well for me.

[glenn bradley]

Paul,

The spring balancer is nice because it keeps tension on the hose while letting me move around. Perhaps not strictly necessary but it works well for me.

Slick idea Brian. I tried this with a goesupa-goesdowna hanger for watering plants. Not successful. Your spring balancer is probably just what I was trying to do with the wrong mechanism . Now that I know what to use I may give this another go.

[Tom Bender]

I often use the sanders without the collector for small tasks or with a dust mask so the cord and DC hose are not connected. And the DC hose gets used on other machines. The wires hang from little Hollywood rollers made with toy car wheels.
Wheels.jpgDC Hose h.jpgSanders 2.jpg

[Brian W Evans]

That's a neat setup, Tom. I like those rollers especially.

[Charles Lent]

For the drop to my bench and hand held sanders, I wanted a work loop tp make it easy to move my sanders around the bench, yet not drag on the bench or work. I wanted to do something for both the power cord and the 1 1/2" dust collection hose. I also have a power cable on a rewind reel above my work bench to provide power at the bench or anywhere around it. This provides the power for my hand held sanders or other power tool needs.

My vacuum system for sanding and other small chip/dust collection is a repurposed home central vacuum system with a Dust Deputy on a 30 gallon grease barrel separating the chips and saw dust out before it reaches the vacuum. It's installed with the home system pipes and inlets that came with the vacuum. I also have the 25' home system hose and hang this hose from hooks across my shop ceiling to wherever I need it. With an 8' ceiling in my shop, it's easy to form a loop in the vacuum hose and hold it up to the ceiling when placing the hose on or off the ceiling hooks without the need for a step ladder or even a stool to reach the hooks with the hose. At the workbench I attach a smaller hose and bundle it with the power cable to my sander using Velcro cable ties so they are easy to attach together and separate later.

For the working loop to keep the sander hose and power cable above the work bench while I'm sanding, I have attached a plastic clothes line rewinder above my work bench. Another Velcro cable tie is used to join the end piece of the clothes line to the center of the work loop of power cable and vacuum hose. On installation, I found that the clothes line rewind tension was a bit too much, so I removed one turn of the rewind spring, and this proved to be the perfect tension. I now work in complete freedom while sanding on the work bench without any problems at all from the vacuum hose and sander power cable. The work loop of the two hovers in the air above my work piece and never catches on anything. These plastic clothes lines sell for about $20. I found mine at Target.

Charley

[Tom Bender]

Charlie it sounds good, can you provide photos?

[Charles Lent]

Tom,

Attached are a couple of photos. Sorry, cell phone didn't like looking at clothesline winder up on the ceiling next to the light, bit I think you can see it OK. I'm making some boxes and will be pre-sanding the cut pieces tomorrow, if SWMBO doesn't have other plans for me.

I may get the chance for some better shots while working and will add them if worth it. The third photo shows the pieces of Apple Boxes (actually wooden platforms in 8, 4, 2, and 1" tall that can be stacked to raise something in 1" increments up to 15". The hand holes in the ends are the only openings. They are just spacers and don't open. The term "Apple Box" was coined by the early movie industry, probably because the first ones were made from apple crates. They are usually 12" X 20". I made two sets that size for my photo/video studio last year. Now I'm building 1/2 Apple Boxes, actually 12" X 12" and the same 8, 4, 2, and 1" height configuration. I'm making two sets of these 1/2 Apple Boxes this time. I made two sets of the standard size last year, all made from Baltic Birch plywood. I'm using up scraps from larger projects. The commercially available versions of these are made from construction grade plywood, not finished, and very splintery, and they want $200 or more per set. I sand and finish mine with several coats of Poly. Every photographer that sees them wants me to make some for them. The third photo shows the full size 12 X 20" Apple Boxes, (so you can see what these will look like). Sorry, the website wants to position things out of order)

Charley

[William Hodge]

Charlie it sounds good, can you provide photos?

This central vac has 125" of static lift.
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