Dust collection and management is always a concern and sometimes a problem in a wood shop. There are many good dust collector devices available, some better than others. A few years ago, I was able to purchase a used dust collector made by Powermatic (PM1300TX). I use it to collect dust on my Table Saw or for collecting dust with a flexible hose connected to a planer, jointer, router and sander. It works great, but when I have to switch from the Table Saw to the flex hose, I have to skinny between the outfeed table and the wall to open and close the dust gates. There are companies that make very good automatic system to open and close the dust gates based on which tool is activated. The problem is that a simple system that I would for just these two gates would cost around $500. OUCH!!!

Since I has some time, and no projects to work on I decided to do some research and see if I could build my own dust gate system. I decided to use a 12v linear actuator to open and close the dust gate. I needed the linear actuator, a 110v to 12v converter, and a up/down momentary switch, plus some miscellaneous hardware (nuts and bolts). I purchased all the pies that I needed for about $225.

I first started with a prototype to make sure that it would work and to configure the hardware correctly. It was easier to build it on the bench that connected to the dust collector.

The final result is a little more manual that the automated system, and a little slower, but it works great and I don't have to skinny between the outfeed table and the wall to open and close the dust gates!!!