Allergy to wood dust and air filtration

Bert,
First- Happy Birthday!!

Here is a site that may help answer some of your questions. Also, I would try and determine what, specifically, caused the reaction. If the allergy is acerbated by just contact, the air filter may not completely solve the problem.

Lew

Edit: forgot to add the site

one more link

-- Lew- Time traveler. Purveyor of the world's finest custom rolling pins!

Happy birthday a bit early!
Were your reactions respiratory or skin contact? You might need to wear a dust mask or respirator, if respiratory.

-- Regret- the feeling you get just after you do something really stupid.

I wear a 3M Hepa 1/2 face respirator when I sand or turn or when I make a lot of dust.
Yet I still find dust in my nose and I believe that this is what cause my allergies.
Lew, I read this website a long time ago, I forgot about it, thank you the link.

-- Bert

I work with a lot of exotic wood and the dust from many of these cause some respiratory problems for me (I’ll start sneezing uncontrollably). A mask helps but I hate wearing a mask.

Of course, the problem is the worse when sanding. For me the solution is Festool. The dust control capability of a Festool sander is exceptional (if you use it with one of their dust extractors). If you are sanding a flat surface you are working in a virtually dust free environment. That was the primary reason I purchased a Festool sander. The fact that I got an incredibly good sander in every other regard was a bonus.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

Thank you Rich and Happy New Year

-- Bert

I have clogged/infection prone sinuses. One of the things that has helped me most is a daily nasal rinse which I will also do as needed (such as after too much dust or mowing):

http://www.amazon.com/Neilmed-Sinus-Rinse-Soothing-Saline/dp/B000GG1TQM

I add table salt (NOT sea salt), water, heat in the microwave and go. It was weird at first, but I found it to be very helpful.

Brandon

-- I came, I was conquered, I was born again. ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν

Happy Birthday Is this possibly due to a specific species of wood maybe. What wood were you using?

Happy Birthday Bert. You will find a lot of useful information on Bill Pentz's site. He got very sick after installing “top of the line” dust collection and conducted much research to find out why. -Jack

I can’t add anything more to what has already been said, except to wish you a Happy Birthday Bert.

-- I don't make mistakes, I have great learning lessons, Greg

I use a Trend Airshield: http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2020998/23498/TREND-Airshield-Pro.aspx
It’s pricey and a bit heavy after a few hours but it does a really great job of sealing off your face from dust.

-- Don - I wood work if I could. Redmond WA.

You who rejoice because I a getting older do not forget that you are right behind!
Thank you all for your replies

-- Bert

IrreverentJack

Thanks for the link, I was looking for that for a while.

-- shdesign3.com

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10396&source=googleps&utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Google

Woodshop Dust Control, 2nd ed.

-- shdesign3.com

Allergies change over our lifetime. Some woods are sorse than others. Walnut is a prime offender.

Happy birthday! Glad you are chatching up ;-))

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

I am sure you know the answer to this by now, but your best bet is to collect at the source, keep it from getting back in to the air, and THEN clean the air…

Having said that, yes Wynn does sell replacement filters for the JET and I believe Delta ambient cleaners.

I ended up with a Grizzly G0572 fitted with a PSI replacement filter (AC1000-PF2), and it works like a dream. I have 2 filters, one to wash, and one to use so that when one gets dirty, I simply swap a clean one in, keep working, and THEN wash the filter out.

Several things sold me on the Grizzly unit.

#1. Size. Which is perfect, or even just a bit of overkill in my 372 sq / ft shop. Your much larger air volume is most likely too large for a single ceiling mount air cleaner. I could be wrong, but most I see are for 500 sq / ft and smaller… Check with the mfgs… #2. Price. I am not particularly wealthy, and Grizzly had a summer sale. With shipping it was about $250.00 to my door, easily $100.00 less than the closest competitor. #3. Capacity, 1044CFM moves more than enough air to clean it up in a hurry… #4. Physical dimensions. I know this is a funny criteria, but I figured that even with it hanging 1.5’ down from the ceiling, that would put the lowest part 7’ + off the floor, which is more than enough room for my noggin, and I do NOT carry fully sheet goods anywhere near this area… I typically break those down in the driveway, THEN move them in to the shop… I plan on using ceiling space for other storage as I can arrange it. I already have long handles for rollers, ladders, and fertilizer spreaders hung from the ceiling… I need to maximize my ceiling space as much as any other space in the shop…

I am very happy with the performance of the Grizzly, but then again, Like I mentioned, my shop is roughly half the size of yours… I can not attest to results in your shop, only mine…

Mind you, my approach is FAR from perfect, but both LOML and myself are allergy prone, and I must say I feel better after a day of working in my shop, than I do after a day of working in a climate controller server room…

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!