My friend, who is 80 and still an active woodworker, installed a new dust collector in his shop. His system has a remote on/off switch, but he still had to go around to each machine to open or close the floor-level blast gate. Reaching down to the blast gate was hard on his creaky back, so I built this fixture that allows him to open and close the gates without bending over.

First I built a chase diagonally from the top of the machine to the front of the blast gate with 1/2-in., schedule 40 PVC conduit and various other easily available components.

After carefully dry-fitting the pipe and adjusting the location to leave plenty of clearance when the gate is open, I glued up the PVC, fastened it to the machine with a couple of saddle clamps, and attached it to the floor with a galvanized steel pipe flange.

For the “pull,” I needed something flexible enough to make the bends in the pipe but stiff enough that it wouldn’t sag or slip. I found just the thing at the hardware store-a 1/4-in. by 25-ft. drain snake (Cobra brand Model No. 10250; $9.95). I used a grinder to cut a length of the snake about 6 in. longer than the chase, pushed it into the chase, and attached it to the slide with a small angle bracket. I attached a dowel handle at the top end.

The system works fine, was inexpensive, and by changing some of the fittings and locations of parts, was easily adapted to the other machines.

Drawings by Jim Richey

Drawings by Jim Richey

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