Dust extraction for home made sander

[Tiger]

I've put together a disc sander for my lathe which is simply a rotating disc with velcro and sandpaper and an enclosed box which comes up about halfway to the disc. The box is for supporting work and I'll put a slot in it for a mitre gauge. The box has a hole cut out of its side for a 4 inch pvc connector to the dust extractor, however how should the dust get from the table to the dust port, a few holes drilled in the top part of the box or is a small gap in front of the disc sander enough for the dust to find its way into the dust port?

By the way if you want a specific size hole (eg for a dust port) and your holesaw/fly cutter fall a tad short how do enlarge the hole accurately, I thought attaching to a faceplate and carefully enlarging the hole with a woodturning chisel would be the way to go but is there a quicker way?

[BobL]

I've put together a disc sander for my lathe which is simply a rotating disc with velcro and sandpaper and an enclosed box which comes up about halfway to the disc. The box is for supporting work and I'll put a slot in it for a mitre gauge. The box has a hole cut out of its side for a 4 inch pvc connector to the dust extractor, however how should the dust get from the table to the dust port, a few holes drilled in the top part of the box or is a small gap in front of the disc sander enough for the dust to find its way into the dust port?

It will be a trade off between getting a sufficient high speed air flow through the gap in front of the sander to catch the sawdust before it scatters, and getting getting enough volume of flow to adequate carry the dust to the Dust extractor.

Drilling holes you suggest is one way of getting volume. Maybe try it out and see where the dust scatters and put hole in those areas if you can.

[Tiger]

Thanks Bob, that sounds like the way to go, at any rate any dust captured on these things is good as they generate a lot of dust very quickly.