Dust Collector Cart : Finishing Touches

So now that I have the Cart assembled I needed to do some of the finishing touches on the project and a few other odds & ends today, so here is what I did.

• Filled all of the counter-sunk holes either with wood filler (on the divider& base) or wooden plugs needed to be added to the sides.

• Making the wooden plugs

• Some Sanding

• I needed to build the dust collector & install it temporarily onto the cart

• A lick of paint

ADD WOOD FILLER

I added wood filler to the counter-sunk holes on the divider 7 base sections of the cart, I used filler in these 2 sections because I was going to come back and paint these sections later on today.

Below you can see some pictures of the filler and before and after pictures of the cart.

I used this filler because its natural color matched the color of the sanded plywood.

Here is what some of the holes looked like, I have to say that the filler did a great job, sometimes I usually mix wood glue and saw dust so as that the filler matches the wood being filled but because this was plywood I just used this.

Here is the plywood after being filled, doesn’t look too bad at all, but no mind this will be painted later. The plywood looks dusty but I have not wiped it down yet.

MAKING SOME WOODEN PLUGS

I decided to use wooden plugs on the sides since I wasnt going to paint this section. I usally have a ton of wooden plugs on standy but I couldnt locate them and I didnt want to go to a store to buy some more. I did find however a length of oak dowel that I decided to cut up into indivual plugs to use.

I brough the dowel over to my chop saw to cut them but everytime I cut one dowel I bounced all over the place and I could not find it, so I decided to switch gears and them by hand.

I made a quick and dirty jig and use my Japanese pull saw to cut them, the jig is very basic. I used a scrap piece of plywood and glued a fence in place , then cut a kerf into the base indicating where to position my saw and receive the same length dowel everytime, you can see a few pictures below of the jig.

Here is the jig, I used a spring clamp to hold the stop block in place while the glue set, you can also see the kerf I cut indicating where to position the saw.

This is a close-up picture of the jig

Here you can see my Japanese pull saw, this worked out awesome and I will definitely use this jig in the future.

INSTALLING THE WOODEN PLUGS

Installing the wooden plugs is very simple, just apply glue into the counter-sunk holes making sure to get glue on the walls of the hole and not the base because that is where the screw is, wood glue will not work attaching the plug to screw head, tap the dowel home until you hear it seat, then leave for about 30 minutes returning with a flush cutting saw to remove the excess, you can see pictures below of this process.

Here are the plugs insta

Here is me using my flush trim saw removing the excess plugs.

Here is a picture of wooden plugs all flush trimmed, looks good, these plugs will pop once I apply the polyurethane finish to the sides.

SANDING

I didn’t take any pictures of this step because lets face sanding is boring , its one of them steps that needs to get done but I dont get and enjoyment out of it, I used 120 grit sand paper on my orbital sander and sanded every surface, and then came back with 180 grit and sanded some more, after I was done I came back with a tack cloth to remove all the dust, and prepped the cart for paint.

ASSEMBLING THE DUST RIGHT DUST COLLECTOR

Before I moved onto the painting part of the project I needed to assemble the dust collector unit, so I did the following:

• Removed all the contents of the boxes

• Read the user guide and assembly instruction

• Made sure all parts were accounted for and not damaged.

• Assembling the dust collector was pretty easy except they included the wrong size wrench in the assembly kit to tighten all the bolts, but its a good thing that I have my own.

  Other than that the tool was well packaged and the instruction were easy to follow, below you can see the parts all laid out before assembly began.

Here is the Dust Right dust collector pre-assembly.

TEMPORARILY ATTACHING THE UNIT

Now that the dust collector was all assembled I needed to determine the following before I got to painting the cart.

• The dust collector motor is attached to the cart using the supplied Z bracket, which is almost like a shop made french cleat but made of metal, the bracket is about 10” long so I needed to place the bracket so as that I came into contact the 2” x 4”’s I used to make up the divider, this dust collector is not light and I needed to locate these studs so as that all of it considerable weight could be handled correctly

• Secondly I purchased some accessories to organise the dust collector main handle and hose, otherwise this cart would fail before I ever got to using it, the hose that I purchased was 2 feet long but expanded to 14 feet and I needed a way to organise this and not just have it sitting on the cart base..

• I also purchased a Rockler Dust right floor sweep which basically is a big vacuum attachment that you can use in conjunction with the dust collector to vacuum the floor of my shop.

  Below are pictures of all these accessories and of course the main dust collector.

Here is the main dust collector all attached, the organizers keep everything in its place.

Here is the docking port for the main handle, this handle hooks up to every accessory that I purchased, this docking cup is screwed to the cart using 3 screws and the handle slips on over the outside of the dock, works awesome.

Here you can see the adjustable straps that keep the hose organised while its not being use, its basically a rubber strap with holds , you can use this with a variety if diameter hoses.

I didn’t get to organised this today , but this is a stock photo displaying what it can be used for. I think this will probably get mounted on the other side of the dust collector.

Here is another stock photo displaying the docking systems for the handle and hose.

PAINTING TIME

Like I commented earlier in this post I decided to paint some of the cart, so I decided to purchase a gloss paint the color of the powder coating on the dust collector its a kind of light grey. But before I got started painting I needed to section off the areas that were not receiving the paint, which were the sides and the base.

My painting skills are not that great so I used blue painters tape to outline the area that I was painting and then used a 2’ paint brush to cut in the paint around the edges and then finally used a small roller to paint the divider panels, I think it came out great, below you can see the pictures.

Here is one of the sides of the cart all painted up, its the same on the other side.

Well that is all I had time for today, thanks for reading.

NEXT:

• I need to add polyurethane to the base and sides of the cart

• Permanently mount the dust collector and all accessories, I still need to figure out where to place my small shop vac.

• Add handles to the upper edges of the cart, so as that I can pull it around with ease.

Project Office Divider : Day 1

This morning I went to my local home center and purchased most of the supplies to get me started on this project, and I am looking forward to this build because there is a little artistic element to the project.

WHAT I DID TODAY

• Purchased supplies for the project
• Cut the Plywood Panels in the divider sections
• Made the face frames for the front and back of each divider.
• Painted the Plywood Panels

Cut the Plywood Panels

Nothing really exciting here, I just cut the panels to the dimensions I wanted which are 72' high x 24" wide.

Here are the 2 panels cut to final dimensions 72" x 24"

FACE FRAMES

I made the face frames out of 1x2 material. I cut the parts to final size and also mitered the corners at 45 degrees. I didn't secure them to the plywood panel yet because I need to paint both of them in the next step, and to avoid being extremely careful not to get black paint on them I decided to add after the paint had dried, so I will be doing that tomorrow.

The face frames are important because I use them to attach the entire divider to the legs, and I will probably use biscuit joints. But to me honest I am also playing around with the idea of just screwing them together and maybe coving them with dowels, to be determined.

Here I am trying to get correct miter cuts on the corners, I used clamps to secure the corners to make sure they line up when it comes to securing them.

Nice and tight miter, just the way I like them

Another close-up of the mitered corner

I used my machinist square to make sure the face frame is flush to the plywood edge, because that is where my legs will be secured to the divider, everything looks square and flush. I am looking for no daylight between the square and the boards edge.

PAINT TIME

When I was designing the dividers I decided that a black backdrop to the herringbone wood pattern I will be putting on the front side of the dividers would add a lot of definition to the panel. So I purchased a can of semi-gloss black paint, its also water based so as that we can clean it when it gets dirty.

Below you can see what I mean with my Sketchup drawing

The black contrast adds so much definition to the front side of the dividers.

Below are just a series of pictures of the painted up boards, and the saw horses worked out great.

I don't usually use black paint on any of my projects , but I really like how the grain of the plywood came through the paint, I am curious to see if its there tomorrow.

Only one side of the boards will be painted black as I have other plans for the back side. Here are the 2 panels all painted, I will let them dry over night.

Here is another view of the boards painted up.

So that's all I had time for tonight, catch you on my next post.

Take care