Have a blast with dust control

I use PVC pipe for dust collection in my shop, with drops placed near my tools. Before gluing the fittings, I made inexpensive plywood blast gates, as shown above. 

I started by cutting slots in the PVC for each gate using a tall auxiliary fence on my tablesaw's miter gauge. This keeps the pipe stable and square during the cut.

Next, I made a pattern for the blast gate and traced it onto plywood and then and bandsawed the gates to shape. Insert the convex end of the gate as shown to close the duct; flip it around to the concave end to open the duct while keeping the slot sealed. 

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