Home made blast gate

[Escudo]

Here's an idea, a simple home made blast gate for my small dust collection ducting system.

Made from two small pieces of scrap MDF and some scraps of ply. The gate itself is made from a sort of plastic / upvc type board, I don't know exactly what it is called but it is very easy to cut, very stable and perfectly just a tiny bit thinner than the ply sides which enable it to slide nicely in and out.

I came across this material while working near a sign maker and asked if there were any offcuts. Ideal for jig making etc.

My old blast gates (the horrid black plastic ones) were always clogging up and were very difficult to clear. Compacted dust would find it's way into the groove and there was no ability to remove the gate to clean this away.

Now I can fully remove the gate, which is a bit thicker and easily clean this out. I suspect it will not clog up so much as well.

The bolt helps to hold the gate in place when open and the red line shows the point at which it is fully open.

Only problem is now I have to make another five ! :roll:

This project will save the cost of buying new aluminium gates like these, at £12 each.

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Axminster-Aluminium-Blastgates-376520.htm

Hope this is of interest. Cheers, Tony.

 

[Green]

Good idea, Escudo.

The white stuff is called Foamex.

 

[wizer]

Thanks Tony. Ply scraps, I have! Dust control, I don't

On the list 8)

 

[Gower]

Nicely done Escudo. I have the same problem with the dreadful black plastic jobs. The clear plastic tubes look like the pipe connectors from the original fittings. If so, I'll start copying your design tomorrow!
Cheers,
Jim

 

[DaveL]

Yes home made gates are much better, I need to make some more, best set the tuit trap again. :roll: :wink:

 

[bluezephyr]

Im glad its not just me had problems with the blast gates, The 63mm ones were a pain in the pineapple, So i changed to the 125mm and still had the same problems.

Do the Aluminium ones have a slot all the way through so it can push the dust out instead of get trapped?

I like your home made ones, I suppose if you had a length of mdf you could route out one side to allow for the gate instead of useing small ply scraps? route a whole length out cut it up to size, might save some work.