Fitting tools into the tight quarters of my small shop is always a challenge. And even though the space is small, I still manage to kick out an alarming amount of dust. I was happy that I was able to shoe horn in a small, but mighty, dust collector in the corner.
As you see in the photo, it’s the type that has a canister filter on top. I had one problem with the setup. To clean the pleats, I had to rotate the large handle on the top of the filter. This meant leaving the unit out from the wall, which ate into my floor space. I could roll out the collector, clean the filter, then roll it back, but that proved to be a hassle, as well.
I decided to abandon the handle and make the large handwheel you see in the drawing above. It’s a simple plywood disc that lets you turn the paddles on the canister without having to move the collector. A hole in the center lets you bolt it to the paddle arm. And with the four slots, you can grab and turn the disc freely in the proper direction.
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