Project Information
I hate sawdust! It is by far my biggest nemesis when I'm woodworking. I hate it! I've installed some VERY basic sawdust removal tubes in some of my power tools. It's great for the big dust, but the kind I HATE the most is the really fine powdery sawdust. It coats everything. This sawdust is the sawdust that gets kicked up when you're doing some heavy-duty sanding. Alas, I have finally decided to make a sanding table to help reduce this. The basic design is just a box. It measures: 5" in height x 23-1/2" long x 17-1/2" wide. As always checkout my site over at www.woodlogger.com to see more pics and videos of this project.
Materials
For the lumber I used 3/4" Plywood. I had enough scrap pieces to put the whole thing together. If you were buying new it would require nothing more than a 2' x 4' piece of plywood. For the top I used a 1/4" tempered pegboard that I picked up at Lowe's. The top will be cut down to 17-1/2×23" and placed into the top of the box that will have a 1/4" rabbit cut into it. Although I lucky enough to use scrap for most of my lumber, I still could have easily built this entire project for under $30.
- (1) 3/4" x 2' x 4' Plywood
- (1) 1/4" x 2' x 2' Pegboard
- (1) Universal Dust Port
- (1) 3/4'' Universal Rubber Bumpers (I got mine from Amazon)
Milling & Assembly
I started by cutting the top of the sanding table. I used 3/16" thick pegboard. In hindsight I think I would have preferred 1/4" thick pegboard. The table has just a little bit of give to it. I think that extra 1/16" would have shored it up. I cut the pegboard 17-1/2" x 23" using my tablesaw.
Next up was the sides of the box. I was lucky enough to have scrap plywood to finish this project. I cut all of the sides to a width of 5" first so it would be consistent. Then I cut the sides to a finished length of 5" x 23-1/2" and the front and back to a finished length of 5" x 17-1/2"
For the joints of the boards I cut a rabbit joint on the two side boards. I cut a 1/2" wide x 3/16" (the width of the pegboard) deep rabbit. After I finished the top of the boards, I then went back and cut another rabbit joint that was 3/4" wide and x 1/2" deep. This will allow the front and back boards to fit into the sides to make a solid joint. I used my router table to cut the deep end of the rabbit and finished the width on my table saw.
After I had all of my sides cut, I then cut a hole for the dust collector port to be attached too. The width of the port I'm using is 2". I could have simply used a jigsaw to cut this opening. I had a 1-1/2" Forstner bit and I figured that was big enough.
To hold the box together I used wood glue along all of the joints.
To help make the joints even stronger I used (3) 1-1/4" screws on all the sides of the box.
After the box was together, I then cut a baffle. The baffle is really important to the air flow of the table. First it reduces the amount of space that has to be suctioned in half thus creating a higher suction. Secondly it helps to distribute the air flow across the top of the table evenly.
To make the baffle I custom cut the length and width to box. I went from the top of back to the bottom of the front to get my length. You'll want to make this a little snug as you need to get this as air tight as possible from the bottom and sides.To help make this more air tight I ran a thick bead of glue along the sides of the baffle. If I had some caulking it would have been better, but this seems to work pretty well too.
I attached the top of the table by pre-drilling all of my holes into the top. I then slightly countersunk a 1" screw in all four sides of the table.
To help reduce the table from sliding around I installed a 3/4'' Universal Rubber Bumpers on all four sides of the table.
I installed the Universal Dust Port
Finishing
Not a lot to finishing this one. I did attach rubber bumpers to the bottom of the box. That's really a must as any sander is going to vibrate this box like crazy.
Also I made a bench dog cleat hybrid that I could insert into the table. I can use this to help keep objects steady as their being sanded.