I created a reverse air hockey table out of a peg board and a Harbor Freight dust collector (2HP). The peg board is my waste board and I drape plastic outside of the project material area to plug any extra holes. I still use a hose connected to a shop vac through cyclone Dust Deputy on the router, but this additional suction really does the job, especially with fiber board. Check it out.
3 Likes
Looks great but I’m confused. Is the peg board suction intended to hold your work piece on or control dust? A picture all set up and running might help clarify. If you’re cutting a 4’x8’ sheet doesn’t everything get covered?
1 Like
I tried to have it hold the work, but the suction isn’t strong enough. So it is just for dust collection. I will post some pictures of it in action this afternoon.
1 Like
Dust collectors are designed for low static pressure and high airflow, shop vac are designed for high SP and (relatively) low airflow. You can find writeups on home made vacuum table builds online.
Wonder what the chances are of finding a vacuum table pump on eBay or similar for less than the cost of an economy car?
My only vacuum table experience was a small one (6x8", 150x200mm +/-) run off a small vac, worked reasonably well but took a lot of care to make sure there weren’t any uncovered holes. I used it mostly for engraving tags and had a fixture to position them that did most if the sealing. A bit of a pain to use
That is neat!
Most of the time (all the time so far) I am cutting 3’ to 6’ wide x 1’ to 3’ high parts out of 1/2” to 3/4” thick ply, and 3 or 4 passes are necessary to complete the cut. Thus, I don’t think the first 2 or 3 passes would be affected by the suction board on the back of the workpiece.
Please let us know how it works.
Thanks!
nice. Do you plan to cover the holes at the periphery when in use?
Also, saw this in my Instructables email this morning
That wet filter seems like a good Idea. I may have to add it in
2 Likes
From the description it doesn’t work very well, only down to 10 micron particles. Amazon has them down to at least a (claimed) 1 micron. I have a 3 micron on the basement lathe’s DC, after the trash can cyclone, that seems to work pretty well
Plus the water gadget would need frequent cleaning or turn into a rock hard lump
true, but certainly well sized for a small shop like mine
Yes, I have a big roll of plastic to cover the open areas. I am not 100% sure if it would be better to leave the extra area open just to pull in ambient dust in the air around the machine. This way it acts as a giant air filter for the room. It does have enough suction to hold a small piece of plastic or paper in place, so it is pulling in air.
After using this, so far I can’t say that would recommend going through all the trouble. It does collect dust, but really only on the final pass. I will try some fiber board and see if that changes my opinion.
Maybe leave the area under the cut open to gather in any escapee dust? 
Hi Orzot, Now that its been a few months do you have a longer term opinion of how your dust collector board worked?
I would not do it again. It does collect some of the dust, but I am a bit under impressed with my big idea.
1 Like