With needing to move around the workshop to make larger projects, having trailing cables and dust collection hoses was getting annoying as well as being a trip hazard. Time to make something to solve that!
I wanted some way of having dust collection and power easily accessible wherever I was in the workshop. I came up with the idea of having these suspended above my head, so I could just grab what I needed, when I needed it without having to unwind or layout cables every time I wanted to use my random orbit sander for example. I settled on some kind of support arm and did some research online for ideas. I stumbled across a fantastic YouTube video by Jon from Lincoln Street Woodworks giving details of how to make such a boom arm. He makes his out of plywood, but as that is super expensive here (and “I hate my lungs”!) I went with an mdf option. I didn’t have a single piece of 18mm mdf that was long enough for what I wanted, so I laminated some pieces together to get the required length, as well as increase the thickness and strength.
After putting down a good amount of glue, attaching a million clamps, and waiting for a bit, I set about drawing on the various marks for cutting and drilling. Jon recommends a hook shape on the end to loop cables etc over, so I drew out the designs for that. I also liked Jon’s suggestion of drilling holes at regular intervals in two off-set rows the length of the boom arm to reduce the overall weight on the hinges.
After marking all the drilling locations I got out my jigsaw and set up the drill press stand. It was at this point I realised how useful it would be to have a boom arm to help me collect the sawdust!
I notched out the section for the hook part and decided to add a curve to the end to encourage a looped cable to fall into the hook section. Plus it softens the look slightly too. After drilling what felt like a never ending number of holes, I grabbed a roundover bit and used my palm router to soften the edges of all of the holes, as well as all the sides of the boom arm and hook.
I cut some triangle pieces from some more mdf, two larger and one smaller, and attached these to the opposite end to the hook. These provide additional support for the hinges and help stop the boom arm sagging.
I glued and screwed a piece of plywood onto a scrap 2×4 block and marked the holes for the hinges. I drilled and countersunk holes for the screws to go into the wall, measured to fit into existing rawl plugged holes already in the garage wall (rented house!). I applied some outdoor wood stain to the block to give it a bit of protection and make it look a bit nicer. I left it to dry and turned my attention to the boom arm.
I decided to use the same decorating/finish method that I used for the mitre saw bench drawer pulls and the upgraded electrics box handles – using silver and black spray paint to create a sort of wrought iron effect. I moved the boom arm outside onto some scrap cardboard to catch the overspray. I applied a good coat of silver paint and then, once it had dried, went over it with some matt black spray paint. I used kitchen towel to blot at some of the wet black paint to remove it in places to expose the silver underneath.
I like how this came out and it definitely looks pretty good from a distance!
While the spray paint finished drying, I mounted the hinges to the block and secured the block to the wall. I labelled up an extension lead to run the length of the boom arm and then brought the now painted boom arm back into the workshop. I pre-drilled holes for the hinges and then mounted the boom arm to the block using screws through all the hinges.
I added a block to the wall to take the weight of the boom arm when in the closed position and then used zip ties to secure on the cable and the dust hose.
With the boom arm “plumbed in” to my improved dust collection setup with air splitters, I can now quickly switch to the boom arm when needed to have easily accessible dust collection for hand-held power tools.
When in the open position, the boom arm reaches three quarters of the way across the workshop, meaning I can have power and dust collection pretty much wherever I need it now, without falling over a dust hose or cable on the floor. I’m really looking forward to progressing a number of upcoming projects now to try it out thoroughly! 🔨
The Woodworking Scientist 