For wood turners only, THIS PROJECT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE, put it on your Christmas bucket list

Its been said, WOOD DUST CAN KILL YOU,

After my Doctor friend was over to learn to wood turning, I thought, I need to make a more effective way to collect the dust from sanding bowls, so I set about thinking of way that would do the job. Idea’s where rattling around in my head, first some sort of wood box. I just couldn’t get my mind around what to do. then the thought started to emerge. If I had a round shroud of some sort, well buckets are round, right.

The first one I tried was a flower pot, It was just one of the ones that they sell large plants in, short on quality and thickness, I did get it to work, but it was feeble. This morning I looked for a short large bucket with a lid. No such luck, but I did have lots of 5 gallon pails that oil comes in, so why not cut the bottom off and put a plywood bottom in it, after doing this I think this is the best way to go.

This is the basic construction process, the video will explain it better and will show how well it works.

First cut the bottom off leaving about what you think you will need. I used the table saw and it worked quite well,

Using the open ended bucket trace the diameter of piece of plywood that you will need, measure the outside diameter of your chuck and cut lay that out at its center, cut on bandsaw.

Cut a section out of the bucket for a window, cut the section off the base where the window is, assemble the bucket parts with screws.

using a pieceof cardboard make a pattern of the diameter of the inside of the spiral of the dust collector hose, that way the dust collector hose can be secured by screwing it in.

Take the lid and cut a section off where the window is, cut the tabs on the outside mostly off, leaving just short tabs so it can be put on and taken off simply.

Assemble the unit on vertical support the size of your lathe, also with a hole in it the size of the chuck.

Take the end off and install the window to sand the outside of the bowl.

The 11 minute video will fill in the construction gaps and show how well it works. Here is the link for it.

https://youtu.be/6O0ZaUBh1U8

It is important to collect as much dust as possible, even then one needs to wear a dust respirator. I couldn’t smell any dust when the dust collector was on but it is better to be safe than sorry. IT MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE..

I have an idea in my head to make something that will work for spindles too, nothing like you have ever seen, I think I will haVe to try that too before my head explodes.

Thanks for looking, I hope find this method interesting, it works well, easy and cheap to make. This one will do average size bowls up to 10 inches, can be made bigger or smaller, depending on your needs.

Comments appreciated. MERRY CHRISTMAS

-- Brian - Hazelton, British Columbia