Workshop tip: Plastic tubing keeps bag in dust-collector bin

Some dust collectors deposit chips into a barrel. Placing a plastic bag inside makes the barrel easier to empty. However, if the lip of the bag wraps over the edge and there is any sort of air leak in the barrel—whoosh!—up goes the bag into the vacuum. Here is a very simple solution. Cut a length of stiff but flexible plastic pipe (lawn irrigation pipe, Hula Hoop, etc.) to fit inside the barrel, and fold the lip of the bag over the tubing and down into the barrel. Bingo, the pressure is the same across the whole bag, and it stays put.

—ALAN CAMPBELL, Lexington, Ky.

Illustrations by Dan Thornton
From Fine Woodworking issue #294