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Dust collection is an important part of woodworking, especially if it involves sanding. Sanding can create a mess of fine dust all over your workshop. It’s best to avoid this as best you can and collect the dust while you work. Not only is it bad for your lungs but it also creates more to clean up when you are finished.
The DeWalt 20V Orbital sander is one of the best on the market. While it does contain a dust bag like many power tools do, this isn’t usually enough to catch all the dust that it will create.
You can get by using it on smaller projects or shorter periods of time but if you are working on a larger project that requires a lot of sanding, having a better dust collection system just makes good sense.
There are several dust collection solutions on the market that can be purchased for this specific sander. Let’s look at a few of them below.
Dewalt DWV9000 Universal Quick Connector
Dewalt makes this connector (affiliate link) and it is supposed to fit on dust collection ports of various products. It is designed for a 1 1/4″ vacuum hose allowing you to connect the hose to the sander while you sand. This would be perfect if it worked but there are some questions as to whether or not it fits properly on the sander.
Users have reported not being able to fit it onto the dust collection port on the sander. Besides that, it’s quite pricey for a little piece of plastic. It’s especially pricey if it won’t fit correctly or additional adapters are needed.
It may take some ingenuity and other adapters to make it work with your vacuum cleaner. If it does work, great! If it doesn’t, you will have spent a lot of money on a useless product when something cheaper may have done the trick.
Custom Options on Etsy
There are plenty of sellers on Etsy who have custom-crafted products that are designed to fit perfectly with this sander and some other Dewalt dust ports on various products. These are also pricey in some cases but you can also find more affordable options.
One thing for certain is that these products are designed to fit perfectly onto the Dewalt Orbital Sander so you shouldn’t have an issue.
A few listed below are among the highest-rated ones that I have found in my search.
Dewalt Sander to 1 7/8″ Vacuum Hose Adapter
This adapter is designed to fit perfectly onto your sander and allows you to attach your 1 1/4″ vacuum hose. It’s still expensive for what you get but it’s hard to put a price on a clean workshop and healthy lungs!
Shop Vac Adapter for Dewalt Random Orbital Sander
As a more affordable option, this adapter fits on the sander just like any other one will. The only difference is the lower price and you can get it in multiple colors.
Dewalt Sander to 1 7/8” Shop Vacuum Hose Adapter
A third option that is still affordable and much like the other ones listed above as far as design goes. This adapter will also do the job of connecting your sander to a standard shop vac hose.
Cheap DIY Version
If those options above won’t do the trick for you then there is always a DIY solution! I created this low-cost version for mine for around $5 and it has worked perfectly for me. It need not be fancy or pretty since it is doing an ugly job anyway of capturing dust and sending it to the vacuum cleaner.
For this solution, you’ll need a vacuum cleaner that has a standard-sized 1 1/4 hose and a flexible PVC Mechanical Drain and Trap Connector as seen below.
I purchased mine at Home Depot and it can be found here.
The Dewalt sander dust collection port measures approximately 1 3/4″ wide. The large part of this hose clamp will fit over the dust port on the sander and can be securely tightened with the screw.
You will need to screw it down quite a bit for it to be tight but there’s plenty of threading on the adjustable clamp to tighten it securely. Just don’t get it too tight.
The other side of the hose can be securely tightened in the same way around your vacuum hose which generally measures around 1 1/4″ and is usually smaller on the tip depending on the brand or model of the vacuum.
If you have an extra extension that you aren’t using, you can easily cut a piece off of it so that you always have it securely connected to it. Then, when you are ready to use your vacuum, you simply connect it to that vacuum extension and you are ready to go.
The only downside to this solution is that you may have to screw and unscrew the clamp each time you install it onto your sander but this usually isn’t often. If you are like me, I don’t even use my sander without connecting the vacuum hose to it.
This means that it can stay connected to my sander at all times and when I am ready to use it, I only need to connect my vacuum hose to the other side of the connector. Even if you do have to tighten and loosen it each time you use it, it’s a small task that only takes a couple of seconds. It’s not a big deal and the money you are saving for a custom-fit solution like this makes it worth it!
Conclusion
With a little ingenuity, you can customize this to meet the needs of whatever system you are using. The flexible part that you’ll need can be purchased online or at any home improvement store or plumbing supply store. You may even find something that works better but hopefully, you have gotten an idea of how a DIY solution can be put together that will allow you to collect dust while you are sanding.
My garage is no longer filled with fine dust from sanding large projects.
It used to be a struggle to keep dust out of the garage and off the walls and everything else in it. However, by using a shop vacuum attached to this sander, the dust is mostly collected as I go and there is nothing left over to be distributed around my garage.
It’s a great solution and whether you go with a third-party item designed specifically for your sander or you create one yourself, you’ll be glad you have it as it will make a huge difference in the cleanup process after you have finished sanding.
