This forum seems to be all about sharing ideas and I figure someone might find this useful.
For those of you hobbyists looking for a simple and easy way to keep the dust down in your shop here's an idea I came up with a finally got around to building today.
My workbench is a half sheet of 1.5" plywood mounted against the wall in the laundry room.
To keep the dust down, I usually put a box fan in the window and another fan on the end of the workbench and create a cross draft over whatever I'm working on. It is barely good for many reasons, but better than nothing.
To step up my dust collecting efforts, I first went to a local appliance shop and ripped apart a clothes dryer from their recycle heap. The only part I wanted was the motor and the blower. I then built a box out of 1X6 with one side hinged to allow changing of the filters. I cut a hole for the blower and mounted it to 3/8" plywood and mounted that on the bottom of the box. Inside the box is a rail that runs all the way around and suspends a standard furnace filter. On top of the hole is a high quality furnace filter that covers the hole for the blower.
Then I drilled holes in my workbench and voila, I have a downdraft table. It is simple, crude and cheap, but... it works great. There isn't enough suction to hold a guitar to it, but it definitely holds the dust down AND filters the bad stuff out. I'm sure I could add filtration on the outlet, or vent it into the garage or any number of things, but for now, my wife is happy and that is what counts the most.
The entire project was made from scrap lumber and recycled parts. All except the filters. So total cost was about $10.
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