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Homemade downdraft sanding table

3Dchief

70cc twin V2
Found another awesome use for the sanding table: emptying the shopvac! Usually when I open it up, sawdust and junk goes everywhere. Today I just turned on the table, set the shopvac on top of it, and popped it open. As usual, dust went flying, and was promptly sucked into the table. No mess!
 

3Dchief

70cc twin V2
Cleaned out the sanding table for the first time tonight and it is obviously working! After about 100 board feet of sanding (about 3 hours of continuous sanding), there was about 1/4" of sawdust on the hopper surfaces that I cleaned up with a shop vac. The outer filter had about 1" of really fine sawdust on it. I took that outside and shook it out. The inner filter was spotless, as was the fan compartment. Looks like I'll have to clean it out a little more often, but it only takes 5 minutes to clean the filters and vacuum it out.
 

3Dchief

70cc twin V2
It feels like that @Pistolera ! But compared to all the dust floating around in the shop, it's a positive gain! Dump 20 pounds of sawdust out of the shopvac, then shopvac a pound of sawdust out of the table! Not sure how I went so long without one of these things, it is the perfect height for a work table and tool stand. I used it to varnish all the pieces for my wife's bench. And I end up using it as a mobile power strip, glad I put the extra outlets in the cabinet.
 
How much exhaust does the fan make? Meaning if I use it in my basement would it create a dust storm from the dust on the ground? Looking at different types of fans and noticed the one you used has huge cfm.
 

3Dchief

70cc twin V2
It's not bad at all. I didn't sweep the floor in my garage before turning it on the first time. It cleared out about a 2 foot circle of clean concrete. The deflector/vent cover does a good job of dispersing it without making a mess. I have noticed that everything is so much cleaner in my shop since I started using it.
 

3Dchief

70cc twin V2
The other thing is that it will remove any dust that it kicks up. I turn it on anytime I'm sweeping the shop or doing something that creates dust. It's amazing how efficient it is at cleaning out the entire shop atmosphere within minutes or less.

The other thing I haven't addressed is noise. It is a lot more quiet than I thought it would be. You can stand next to it running and have a normal conversation without having to raise your voice. When I run the shopvac in conjunction with it, the shopvac is easily twice as loud as the sanding table.
 
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