Dust Collection Woes

It sounds like you need an air filtration system of some kind. I believe it was Jockmike2 that showed how he made his own system.

I have also read in several magazines an inexpensive way to make an air filtration system is to take a box fan, and tape an air filter on the back of it. The filter will collect the dust, and the fan circulates the air to keep things clean. This actually works as well as some of the expensive systems, and at a fraction of the cost.

Of course, it also sounds like you need a dust collector rather than a shop vac. The dust collector has much more power than the shop vac, and should collect a lot more dust.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

I have also seen the box fan tip in many different articles. I think I will try that first as it is a cheap investment and it is easy to store and move near the tool creating the dust. I am dragging my feet about getting a decent DC, b/c there are so many other “fun” tools I want. I saw a small DC that had these specs:

Filters particles down to 35 microns (half the width of a human hair)
4’’ inlet/outlet
914 CFM

It’s 1HP and smaller than some Shop-Vacs. Is the 914CFM decent for a small shop?

-- Jeff, South Carolina

The CFM load depends on the machines you are attaching your dust collector to, and the length of tubing between the collector and the machine. Also, the more items you attach at the same time, the more CFM you will need. Most of the machines will give you a CFM rating for their products. For a single machine, 914 sounds good.

You might also check Lowes. I bought a Delta dust collector there for less than $250 a few months ago. I have assembled it, but not set it up yet since I need to buy a few more tools for my shop first. Then I can decide where things will go. But, it will have enough power for a single machine at a time.

-- Bill, Turlock California, http://www.brookswoodworks.com

Good points, Bill. My shop is in a 1 car garage. I would most likely stick the DC in a corner since that makes sense. It would be about 4 feet from my cabinet saw and 6 feet from where I dock all of my benchtop tools. I would use blast gates to maintain higher suction at the tool in operation. I saw chart somewhere (can’t remember where) that showed the rate of decline in CFM per foot of hose. I’d love to know how your’s works out when you get set up. I have eyeballed the same DC at Lowe’s myself. They also have a air filtration system that is appealing.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Jeff, you might want to check out PSI (Penn State Industries). They have good air filtration and dust collection systems at reasonable prices.

You might want to also check out the Dust Deputy if you don’t think you’ll be running more than one machine at a time and you’re looking for a fairly inexpensive solution (probably more along the lines of a temporary one).

-- Ethan, http://www.merganserwoodworks.com, http://greystonegreen.blogspot.com/

I have the Delta and it’s a 650 CFM machine, but I believe you will find that you need both a good dust collector(with a homemade seperator) and a shop filtration system( whether it is a box fan with a good A/C filter or a commercial unit) if you are going to keep the dust down in your shop. The box fan will do well if you place it close to where you are sanding or otherwise creating fine dust, but get a good filter, not the cheapo ones if you want to get the most out of it. Good luck!

-- Jesus is Lord!

The system I put together was cheap and does and excellent job of filltering the air, using 2 regular furnace filters. Not only that but it circulates the warm or cool air back into the room clean, and its quiet. jockmike, oh and my shop is the same size about in the winter.

-- Mike. Profisher50@yahoo.com

We also used a shop vac when we used the smaller machines. Now that we upgraded on the sander and table saw we ran into dust problems. We bought the Grizzly 2hp cyclone collector. http://www.grizzly.com/products/g0440 we didn’t get the stand as we hung it on a wall. It does get alot of the dust when the machine is running and the dust is not near what we had before we bought it. Unless you have some big fan blowing the rest out the door and of course that’s only going to work during summer. We just use the shop vac to get the rest picked up. Wearing a mask while cutting is something one should do no matter what they used. Just a good saftey rule for inhaling wood dust. You get what you pay for and sometimes it better to just get a good one then spend more later if you go cheap.

-- Cathy Krumrei (Krum) http://www.TheCarversCorner.com

I know nothing about these systems but have been thinking about buying one for a while also. The info I have read talks about one, maybe two intake ports and many say they have wheels for easy transport. The last thing I need to be doing is rolling this colossus around my shop constantly. Can you only hook one machine up to them at a time or can multiple machines be hooked up at the same time? I see workshop pics with tubing running from each machine (I assume to a central vac) but do you have to connect and disconnect tubes all the time? Does it depend on how powerful your vac system is?

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt.

Chip, I obviusly am not the authority on DC since I started this thread, but here is what I know. The shops that you see that have the hoses running to all the machines at once use blast gates to control the suction. When you want to use the table saw, lift the TS’s blast gate and leave all the other ones closed. It restricts the suction to the desired tool. It is worth noting that the longer the runs, the more suction is lost in transit. I plan to keep my DC in a corner near my big dust producers as a result since they need the most suction.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Great information Jeff and thanks. I had heard the term “blast gate” before but wasn’t really sure what it meant or how they were used. I need to get to more of other peoples shops I guess to see the different ways these things are hooked up. Thanks again for getting back to me Jeff.

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt.

We have ours temporarily in the “middle” of the space but I like your idea of keeping it closer to the biggest culprit instead!! Thanks.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Check out this link from Rockler’s site:

http://www.rockler.com/articles/display_article.cfm?story_id=3

In it is a 6 page article on all things dust. I should have read this before posting this thread. It is very informative and dumbed down to my level. :)

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Jeff,

I would suggest a cyclone dust collection system because they are the best for collecting the highest percentage of particles. Unfortunately, your shop of 10’ x 20’ may not lend much room for one. So, like Ethan said, the Dust Deputy could be an option and I’ve seen reviews that stated it does a good job when used in conjunction with a portable dust collector.

-- There are three types of people in the world, those who can count and those who can't!

Jeff, thanks for posting that Rockler article. It really was a good explanation of the systems for someone who doesn’t know much about them like myself. Appreciate you finding that and thanks again.

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt.

Yeah, my shop doesn’t have much room for a huge DC. I’ll have to post images of my shop when I get a chance. My shop is small, but I planned it well. I followed a LOT of space saving tips from many sources. I have my table saw partially buried under a couter top that spans one wall. I have several mobile tools with “flip” tops docked under the table as well. This leaves me with a good space in the center of the garage for large assembly jobs. I have to be careful though, I want to get a bandsaw that can resaw, a jointer, and a mini-lathe in the future.

-- Jeff, South Carolina

Jeff there is always the option of building an enclosure outside and putting your dust collector there (less noise in shop and doesn’t take up shop space). Here’s a site that you may want to check out, too. http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/Ducting.cfm

-- Jesus is Lord!

I just revamped my DC system this winter. Check this out.
It doesn’t matter what kind of system you have, you can’t completely eliminate all of the dust.
At the time I bought mine, the finest filter you could get was 5 microns, Now you can get them with 1 micron. The finer the better.

-- -** You are never to old to set another goal or to dream a new dream ****************** Dick, & Barb Cain, Hibbing, MN. http://www.woodcarvingillustrated.com/gallery/member.php?uid=3627&protype=1

The woodworking shop that we use to make the toys has the hose from the DC going into a rectangular box with a clear plastic top. It then has blast gates attached to the sides. Some are 2” and some are 4” You open the one that goes to the tools that you want to use. We do flip the hose between the TS and the planer, but for the most cases a dedicated hose is attached to each tool.

Some tools in other parts of the shop have a shop-vac attached to them, small sanders, band-saws etc. There are about 4 shop-vacs along with the DC for the larger tools with lots of chips.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

OS: On the outside DC I’ve always been concerned about heat loss. A 600 to 1000CFM dust collector could suck a heated building cold in a matter of a few minutes. So your outside DC would need a return air vent back into the building.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com