Need help with dust collection

[Wade Holloway]

I have spent most of my free time the last two days cleaning the shop and trying to get all the saw dust cleaned up. I have dust collection but it is really on my planner, router table, table saw and thing like that. What I have been cleaning it dust from all of the sanding I do. There seems to be no good way to get sanders hooked up to any type of dust collection that I have been able to fine. I tried vacuum cleaners but I can never seem to find any adaptors to hook up the sanders to the vacuum. So I thought about all of the Festool type systems with their tools and vacuum hook ups. Seems there are several of those type systems out there but I have not found any real information on how good these systems are and the tools are. I know the Festool is a very expensive system but I have heard that the tools are good quality tools. Does anyone have any type of these tool systems for dust collection set up their shop. I would be very interested in how or what kind of system yall have to keep the dust down from sanding. My shop is set up in my garage so space is limited. I have to do something about all of this dust. Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.

[Mark Bolton]

I have spent most of my free time the last two days cleaning the shop and trying to get all the saw dust cleaned up. I have dust collection but it is really on my planner, router table, table saw and thing like that. What I have been cleaning it dust from all of the sanding I do. There seems to be no good way to get sanders hooked up to any type of dust collection that I have been able to fine. I tried vacuum cleaners but I can never seem to find any adaptors to hook up the sanders to the vacuum. So I thought about all of the Festool type systems with their tools and vacuum hook ups. Seems there are several of those type systems out there but I have not found any real information on how good these systems are and the tools are. I know the Festool is a very expensive system but I have heard that the tools are good quality tools. Does anyone have any type of these tool systems for dust collection set up their shop. I would be very interested in how or what kind of system yall have to keep the dust down from sanding. My shop is set up in my garage so space is limited. I have to do something about all of this dust. Any help or guidance will be greatly appreciated.

I personally am not a Festool fan.. I think the vast majorty of the stuff is vastly overpriced and its a cult-like brand. That said... you can get some pretty decent dust collection out of even consumer level sander. It sounds to me like you may have to upgrade your sanders but even buying a few dewalt ROS sanders, with good shop vac(s) behind them you could be able to get 90 percent of your dust before it gets in the air. I am a Mirkka Ceros fan myself but that puts you in the festool price range (but a machine that is far and away worth the price, unlike the festool), but I also have several small RO's and a PC 6" angle grinder style RO that all do very very well with good shop vac DC attached.

You will have a hard time finding any after market add on's for a sander that will improve dust collection. If your in the budget for consumer tools it just means buying a couple 50$ sanders and plugging in a shop vac.

[Wade Lippman]

My Bosch, PC, and Rigid sanders fit my Festool end like they were made for it; the Bosch and PC are male, the Rigid female. I don't have a Festool, just a hose end stuck on my vacuum hose. It is pretty much dust free.

http://www.amazon.com/Festool-487071...ol+vacuum+hose

[Prashun Patel]

Wade-
I am sure the Festool system is as good, but I use the Mirka Ceros sander with a Porter Cable hose that screws into the adapter tightly. The sander is hooked up to a mini-cyclone and a plain-old-Ridgid shop vac. (I've used it with a Dust Deputy too).

I can FINALLY sand in confined spaces and my basement with minimal worry now. The hose stays put, and the dust goes kaput. I still use a mask, but I sand under raking light which allows me to see scratch marks, and also lets me see the dust clouds. I don't see any.

Also, consider using Abranet discs with a backing pad. Their mesh system makes them better at passing dust through. This has the added benefit of making the sanding more efficient.

[Brian Henderson]

Stop thinking about dust collection at the sander and make yourself a downdraft table. It'll suck all of that dust away.

downdraft table.jpg

[Robert Delhommer Sr]

Brian, do you have any plans for your downdraft table. I have been thinking about making one for sanding my small projects which is mostly what I do? Curious what you used for the top, I was thinking about peg board?

[Lee Schierer]

There seems to be no good way to get sanders hooked up to any type of dust collection that I have been able to fine. I tried vacuum cleaners but I can never seem to find any adaptors to hook up the sanders to the vacuum.

Over the years, I've made adapters for my sanders to fit the various shop vacs and DC system in my shop. I currently use my ROS hooked up to my DC system. I have a 2" flex hose from the 4" duct to a 1-1/4" shop vac hose. Where the small hose meets the sander I wrapped four turns of black electrical tape around the metal outlet on the sander. This makes it a light force fit to the inside diameter of the end of the plastic end of the 1-1/4 shop vac hose. I simply push the hose over the sander outlet and go to work. I added a screw type hose clamp to the outside of the shop vac hose just to insure that the plastic end did not crack from the internal pressure of the force fit.

Since my PC sander had a dust collection cup that came with it and it has an internal fan that sucks the dust off the work and expels it into the 1-1/4 hose where the slight vacuum and air movement of the dc system is sufficient to carry away the sanding dust.

I also built a box that fits into the bottom of my Craftsman contractor saw that catches the sawdust created from cutting. I glued a 4" pvc elbow into the bottom of this box to connect to my DC system. I reduced the miscellaneous openings into the saw frame with sheets of magnetic vent covers available from the various big box stores. I left enough opening to satisfy the air flow for the 4" outlet to the DC system.

[Susumu Mori]

A festool guy here. I already forgot those days when sanding was mess. Festool sanders + DC do not leave much behind. You can feel the sanders are sort of sticking to the wood surface. Especially ETS 150/3 just glides over the surface and you just need to hold the hose to help it to move the direction you want.

Having said that, I'm not sure if it is just the sander and you can use other DC for the same results. What I like about Festool DC (I guess I should call DE according to Festool) is, the auto-start, flexible hose, quiet, and the integrated systems like the boomarm, systainer that rides on DE, and other storage accessories such as WCR100. I think other DCs like Bosch can offer something similar with less costs, but maybe not all of these. One thing for sure for me is, I can't stand my Rigid DC anymore that is extremely loud, blow the air (with fine dust) in your face, and tip over easily because of the stiff hose.

[Wade Holloway]

[QUOTE=Lee Schierer;2342390]Over the years, I've made adapters for my sanders to fit the various shop vacs and DC system in my shop. I currently use my ROS hooked up to my DC system. I have a 2" flex hose from the 4" duct to a 1-1/4" shop vac hose. Where the small hose meets the sander I wrapped four turns of black electrical tape around the metal outlet on the sander. This makes it a light force fit to the inside diameter of the end of the plastic end of the 1-1/4 shop vac hose. I simply push the hose over the sander outlet and go to work. I added a screw type hose clamp to the outside of the shop vac hose just to insure that the plastic end did not crack from the internal pressure of the force fit.QUOTE]

There really should be easier ways to connect sanders to a DC system. All my other tools like the table saw, router table, planer all have the standard 2 1/2 hose outlet. This makes it easy to hook up. My big flat sander has a 4 inch outlet. It really does not take a smart man to figure out that most of the fine dust in the shop comes from sanding.

I like the idea of a sanding station and if I get a bigger shop one day I will build one, but with space limited and my projects vary a lot in size with most being larger projects like beds and things and sanding station is not very feasible at this time. So I think I am going to look into one of the vacuums like Bosch makes and see about either hooking my old sanders or just getting some new ones that will hook up to it. I have heard the Bosch is a little cheaper but still pretty good and is very quiet. I will just have to get a couple of them out and compare. But that seems like the best route so far. I have not read anything that makes me feel like the Festool sanders are any better than any other sander except that they hook up real easy to a vacuum system. So on with my search. Maybe some one needs to design a few different adaptors to hook sanders up to vacuums.

[Ole Anderson]

I have a downdraft table hooked to my DC system and frankly I am disappointed. It works just OK for smaller pieces, but start doing something larger like cabinet sides or doors and it is problematic. The cooling fan in the ROS can blow the dust around that is just sitting on top of the piece you are sanding, and once it gets a few inches away from the table, it goes anywhere it wants. A downdraft table combined with good sander dust collection works better.

[Jim Andrew]

I have a Bosch ROS, and bought the fittings to attach a vac hose to it. Uses a 1 1/4" hose, and you just put the end of the hose in the fitting. I use the 8 hole hook and loop discs, and it works very well with just a shop vac. The same hose fits in my Makita belt sander.

[Wade Holloway]

I finally pulled the trigger and bought a Festool set up. I got the CT26 and the ET125 sander. Picked it up last weekend, got it set up and started playing with it and I must say that I am very impressed so far with it. It worked very well and there was no dust floating in the air. There was a little dust left on the board that you could see if you wiped your hand over the board but that might even get better as I learn a little more about the different vacuum settings. So far I would highly recommend this sander set up. Now to try and tackle the dust collection on my band saw, can't believe there is no easy way to attach a dust collection system to it.