Use this low-tech water trap for sanding dust
Issue 38 : Sept/Oct 2004
I have a random-orbital sander for which I have an affection that borders on the unseemly. Hook it up to a shop vacuum cleaner, and I no longer look like an extra from the shooting of Lawrence of Arabia when I finish a sanding session on our boat.
However, I can still hear the shrieks of dying shop vacuums as their bearings bite the dust. The problem is that the vacuums do a great job on relatively coarse stuff like sawdust, but the fine particles of paint or epoxy — especially when you sand with finer grits — pass right through the filters and wind up in the motor, greatly increasing its noise output and reducing its sucking power.
Then I observed a device used by contractors who were doing some Sheetrock work on our house. They had a little water trap between their sander and vacuum, and it trapped all the spackling dust.
I devised my own super-sized version of the device using a 5-gallon plastic bucket with lid from my local discount building supply and a few pieces from recently-deceased shop vacuums. I drilled two holes in the lid and inserted rigid sections of vacuum pipe. I pushed one in so that it reached within a few inches of the bottom. I left the other so that it only descended a few inches from the lid. I then attached a flexible hose from the sander to the “deep” pipe and another hose from the “high” pipe to the vacuum. Then I filled the bucket halfway with water, snapped on the lid, and went to work.
The shop vacuum pulls air from above the water in the bucket. The loss of this air pulls air from the sander’s hose in through the low pipe where the air bubbles through the water and proceeds on its way to the vacuum. As it passes through the water, however, most of the dust gets trapped. At the end of the day, you can dump out the water and paint dust and take home a vacuum that has survived to run another day.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
