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Well, I found some time a few days ago to build a dedicated router work station / Down Draft Table. I modified an old cabinet base, built a sloped floor box (32" x 32") to set on top of it, added 3 side walls and a ceiling to capture the flying debris while routing. The floor or table top is 3/4" particle board with 3/8" holes spacedon 2" centers in alternating rows. It is connected to a dust collector with a 6" duct. The left side wall holds 6 dedicated Ryobi laminate trimmers with shortend cords. There is a main electric cord dropped in from the top to connect the routers to. I plan to add a light on the ceiling and an air hose. I have put it to use yesterday and today and it works very well capturing and eliminating router chips. I also did some sanding and it pulls ALL of the sanding dust away from the work piece. Here are some pics:

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Nice job Tim! It looks like you had a product week off!

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Brad
Avon, OH

product = productive!

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Brad
Avon, OH

dude, thats super sweet. how does the size of the work space feel to you? plenty of room? lets see it in action! thanks for the photos.

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sweat the small stuff.

GREAT idea!!

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Reguards,

Ken H

That is cool, Tim. Too bad you don't have more routers for it

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

Excellent Tim, looks like you are on the way to controlling more dust.

I am really looking at all of my tools that create dust and chips a LOT more closely now since Mary's bout with her wood allergy. Yes, this has been a very productive week. I also modified my powered dish sander by removing the belt drive system and replacing it with a direct drive unit which has a LOT more power. I used a 1 HP, 1725 RPM, 220 volt (C-faced motor) mounted to a 15:1 right angle gearbox that yields a final speed of 115 RPM which is an optimal speed IMHO. I also boxed the sides in and connected it to a HVAC register boot with an opening size of 2-1/2" x 12" coupled to a 6" duct to my dust collector. I also added a 10" wide partial top on the back side to aid in dust control.

When I used this sander in the past, I resembled "Pig-Pen" in the Charlie Brown cartoon. It was like I was standing in a cloud of dust while I sanded rims. This thing is awesome now. It has plenty of power, which I am not able to stop with ALL of my body weight bearing down on the rotating disc. It also removes 100%, YES 100% of the dust created while sanding rims. I sanded 5 rim sets this afternoon and there was NO dust that escaped. Here are a few pictures for your viewing pleasure:







And the last modification is the addition of a foot switch. It allows me total control of the spinning disc while sanding.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Tim, With the gearbox on the drive of the power disk sander, does the disk reach max rpm quickly or is there a slow acceleration up to full speed?

Mine is full speed as soon as I step on the foot switch. I have it wired up to a contactor but you could use a soft start which would allow it to accel/decel at a slower rate if needed.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

Gotcha! Great looking tools by the way.

Tim....great job on the disc sander conversion project. I really like the idea of the dust catch and foot switch... Something I will have to add to mine in the near future.

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Brad
Avon, OH

Excellent ideas, Tim! Thanks for sharing these.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Very cool router station and excellent mod. on the dish sander too.
I think a slow start on the sander would be a good idea Tim.

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Anderson Guitars
Clearwater,Fl. 33755

Nice station Tim.

I was thinking if this would be a way (making it larger if needed), to make a spray booth. Add some filters and outlet duct work to explosion proof fan. Sort of on concept of the Grizzly thing.

Thinking of your sanding rig there and going to do one with the dish coming down onto the rims. Used that at school and nice. Little more work in lifting it up and inspecting them though.

Hey Tim, that looks terrific!

BTW, Rockler makes a great rubberized coating for the tops of downdraft tables. Check it out here.

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"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Great idea Don. For now I am just using a fabric router mat that does a decent job of protecting the wood from mishaps.

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tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com