Down-Draft Table Keeps The Shop Dust Free

Down Draft table

Wood working is great but it can certainly get the shop dusty. [BigD] is a wood worker and needed a way to keep his shop from getting super dusty while sanding or routing. He ended up making a pretty slick dual-use downdraft table with a hidden filtration system.

The table’s frame is made from standard 2-by dimensional lumber you’d likely see most shop tables made from. It was built so that the top of the table would be flush with the table of the table saw. This allows the down-draft table to also act as an out feed support for the table saw, making it easier to cut longer pieces of wood.

To allow airflow to pull any generated dust down, a plethora of holes were drilled in the table top. Down below are a couple sealed chambers, one for the incoming dust and one for the air blower that creates the down-draft air flow. The two chambers are separated by a pair of filters which keep the dust from being blown back into the shop. A little door on the side of the table allows access to clean out the accumulated dust and debris. Now [BigD] can sand up a storm on his down-draft table without breathing in a sapling worth of dust.

17 thoughts on “Down-Draft Table Keeps The Shop Dust Free

      1. Maybe a spring loaded sheet with raised bits to fit in the holes interspersed with holes to allow you to open the vents but when closed the holes are flush with the top of the table, keeping a flat work area. The air could be used to drop the cover and it could spring into one corner and latch until you press a button.

    1. Dropping a screw is not really a problem as it has been nicely designed so easily accessed (have a look at the build photos – the handle on the left side, in the main photo here, is the access to the filter/bin and the top grid can be lifted off).
      It’s arguably no worse than if you left rubbish on the floor and dropped a screw.

  1. I would have tried to get the filter up higher so that the whole thing worked more or less like a gravity filter. That way the actual filter would rarely need cleaning.

    He definitely has the right idea with the squirrel cage motor – low noise. A normal ‘shop vac’ like motor would drive you insane lol.

  2. Wow this could be the basics of a vacuum forming system for plastic fabrication — flat surface with holes and a vacuum below; all you need is a slider-over plastic sheet holder and heating element.

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