I have been making some river keychains for sale (so far, not so much 
), but, to that end, I bought a small belt sander for some of the work on them. BTW, it’s really small, the belts are only 15mm X 330mm! But it’s perfect for my needs and situation. However, it doesn’t have dust collection, something that I really like to have.
So, armed with FreeCAD and my Ender 3 Pro, I set out to design something. In the pictures you will see liberal use of Gorilla Tape to seal seams, and a couple of modifications to avoid reprinting things.
My original design for the pins to latch the door to the top of the wall didn’t work. So, rather than reprint things, I created the clamp that slips over the top. It works well, and I printed it in red so I can find it on the bench.
I made the flip-up front because I don’t have any need for more room than that, but I can flip it up if I need. Hopefully it increases the airflow near the business end.
The door and the flip-up are hinged with 3mm all thread and 3mm bearings. Had some of those kicking around in the parts bins.
The door has 1/4" foam rod in pockets to try to seal it up. The goal was to maximize the airflow where its needed. Probably a vain attempt, but the wind around the belt at the front is pretty good.
It works really well. I emptied the vortex separator on the vacuum line, then sanded a bit. There was virtually nothing outside the machine, and lots in the separator. So, a win, I guess.
It was by far the most complicated thing I ever designed and it was a good learning exercise to further my skills on FreeCAD.
Its for sure a prototype, and fairly rough, but its only for me, so its fine. I can see now how many iterations companies must go through to bring something to market.
that’s great, Very nice job on that!
Necessity is the mother of invention. This was very well thought out, and executed, GREAT JOB!!!