downdraft table?

[Stamper]

Am in the process of making a downdraft table and have a question. My table will be about 24" x 48". am wondering what size holes and spacing should be. Any suggestions?

[Turner52]

When I made mine in the old shop I went 3/4"holes 2" on center. Not as large as yours, but a fairly small fan was strong eneough that I could put a piece of wood on it and use a belt sander with no added hold down of any kind. Worked great. Now I do mostly turning so didn't put one in this shop. It worked better than any other kind of dust collection I have tried while sanding

[BrokenOlMarine]

I just built one and used back braced peg board for the top.  I tested it by sanding a pair of cutting boards, and everything flowed down.
Mine is a large box, I hook to the dust collector, then store out of the way when not in use.  So far, so good. There was enough suction that the cutting boards were "held" in place while I sanded.

[brianwelch]

I just built one and used back braced peg board for the top.  I tested it by sanding a pair of cutting boards, and everything flowed down.
Mine is a large box, I hook to the dust collector, then store out of the way when not in use.  So far, so good. There was enough suction that the cutting boards were "held" in place while I sanded.

Ditto...

[Mike in kc]

When I made my downdraft/air cleaner, I incorporated it into my 54" TS extension table, and simply made a grate of half lapped 1 by 2s to cover the opening and filters below.   

I used a HVAC blower and stacked two sets of two filters above the blower.   Its worked quite well as a DD table and a hepa air filter.   Placing cheaper filters on top significantly extends the useful life of the more expensive HEPA filters


Clicking the pic will lead to more...

[BrokenOlMarine]

A couple pics....

My sanding box frame glued and screwed.  The connection for the dust collector can be seen at the far end.

   

The angled bottom reduces the interior volume of the box and increases the suction applied by the Dust Collector.

   

Top cut to size, but not yet screwed down.  Once I screwed it down it was flush in the rabbits.

   

Ready for use...

   

I screwed the top down so that if I needed to access the box interior I could removed the eight screws and do so.  So far the box functions perfectly.  I added the sanding mat to protect the projects being sanded.  The suction still holds items in place as long as they have a flat surface to suck against. 

[tablesawtom]

Either WoodSmith or Shop notes did a sanding table  about 25 years ago. Used a squirrel gage blower out of an old house furnace.  Anyway it worked well and if building it can also be used as an assembly table. d. I Used 1/4 peg board for the top but I opened up the holes to 3/8th or 1/2 can't be sure anymore. I left it there when I moved. Worth looking into.

Tom

[handi]

I built this one for my shop and the 2Sand.com bog. 
Free plans available: https://2sand.com/blog/downdraft-sanding...on-part-1/

It has been in constant use in my shop since about 2011.

[Zack Butler]

Mine looks identical to Jim's. It is a pain as it is always in the way. I haven't used it in years. I was looking at it yesterday and it will probably get disassembled and the lumber repurposed.

[handi]

Mine looks identical to Jim's.  It is a pain as it is always in the way.  I haven't used it in years.  I was looking at it yesterday and it will probably get disassembled and the lumber repurposed.

One of the reasons I built the one I posted to be 1/8” lower than the top of my saw is to allow it to earn it’s shop space in more than one task. 

It is my sanding station and storage cart. It functions as my out feed table, and often as an assembly table. Having many roles justifies it’s footprint in my shop.