One of the biggest disadvantages of this woodworking hobby is that when we sand wood, a huge amount of sawdust is generated, which ends up floating in the air, settling everywhere, and what is worse, it can go straight into our lungs.
If we use a sanding machine, such as a DIY drum sander installed in the drill press, the amount of sawdust is even greater than sanding by hand, and the machine expels it into the air with more force.
It is always advisable to use a mask when sanding wood, but for the specific case of the sanding drum, we see in the video how easy it is to make a vacuum system, which captures practically all the sawdust that is generated.
Making this sanding table for the drill press is fairly easy if we have some hole saws. And, perhaps the most complicated part is to give a shape to the hole where the vacuum cleaner hose enters, so that the air with the sawdust flows without turbulence straight into the hose.
The ring inside the suction system is also important, as it is used to fit the bearing of the sanding drum. It also gets wider towards the bottom, because I think that that can help to direct the dust to the outside of the ring.
The opening in the surface of the sanding table is only slightly wider than the diameter of the drum sander. Just enough to allow the air to flow easily but forcefully into the interior of the table. And on the inside I routed a bevel that I hope will help reduce turbulence.
The final surprise was to see how well this vacuum system works. And you can see in the video the enormous difference between connecting the vacuum cleaner and not connecting it. When I used this drum sander, I used to always leave the workbench a mess and I always could see all the sawdust floating in the air. Now I can sand wood with the peace of mind that all the dust will go inside the sanding table, through the vacuum cleaner hose, and into the shop vacuum cleaner.
