# Does the installation of basic dust collection induce obsessive compulsive disorder?



## LeeBarker (Aug 6, 2010)

A recent post about dust collection for a drill press brought this question into sharp focus.

Several questions followed quickly:

Is there any danger from wood chips generated by a drill press?

Is installing more dust collection really more fun than making something in the shop?

Are we seeing the emergence of woodworkers who are phobic about small pieces of wood?

Do we not want the 5 minutes of reflective time assigned to sweeping the shop at the end of our time there on any given day?

Are we afraid to take a broom and clear away stuff from, say, the drill press, and leave it in a pile until the evening's sweep?

Are we compulsed to go buy ducting and blast gates and hanging straps (instead of wood) just so we can turn on another electric motor every time we turn on a tool?

And finally,

Sometimes when I sharpen my pencil, wood shavings dribble on the floor. What size ducting is most effective in attaching DC to my pencil sharpener? Should I install a remote switch? How much CFM do I need?

Comments welcomed!

Kindly,

Lee


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## Alexandre (May 26, 2012)

My pencil sharpening shavings go into the bin… not the floor…


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## Grandpa (Jan 28, 2011)

Lee, there are different kinds of people on here. I can take tools and make anything I want. i am that confident. So I make those things. Not all the time. I get bored. I like the design aspect of it. I am also a tool collector. I like having them around me. I enjoy teaching people to use tools. I read a story once. The wide wanted new bedroom furniture. The husband said no way. I can build it for half that. The wife said Okay go for it. He said I need a table saw. Next gift giving occassion he got the saw. She said now my furniture. He said I need a planer. Next gift giving ocassion she got him the planer. No furniture. the story goes on. Finally about 10 years later he bought her the bedroom furniture for her birthday. He decided he was a hopeless tool collector. There is a lot of truth in this. I don't know is that makes us ocd or anal abouth things but there is a lot of truth in this story.


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## Swyftfeet (Jun 15, 2012)

Lee,

Too funny that you posted this today! I was standing in the shower thinking about how some of the threads here recently have gone a little past skill sharing into the absurd. I considered doing a review on one of those pencil sharpeners with the hex quick release that go into the impact drivers.










Pro's: no more mamby pamby .001 HP pencil sharpening. Can whittle a pencil from new to nub in 3 sec.

Con's: galoots wont like it, no dust collection.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

Lee, have you checked the price of a decent dust mask lately? hee hee

I'm with you about the obsessive compulsive dust containment being a little over the top. Wood shops are dusty, plain and simple. And it's saw dust, not asbestos.


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

Lee…in my shop it is much more than 5 minutes sweeping and that's the primary reason I'm looking at DC (I'll confess that I still smoke so you can figure out how concerned I am about the health aspects). I'm convinced that my radiant infloor heat sends the dust everywhere it can get and I seem to spend a ton of time chasing it (I even bought one of those 5' dust mops they use in schools). And I find that even the sweeping puts it back into airborne status and I get to start over.


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## jusfine (May 22, 2010)

You have a bunch of good questions, Lee. I don't know all the answers but I can relate some of my experiences.

Dust collection in my shop is connected to my drill presses and I have never had any issue with the resulting wood chips ( I assume you are speaking of them possibly causing a fire).

I purchased my cyclone about 5 years before I unpacked and installed it. Never seemed to have time so the warranty was up before it was ever turned on. Since I did not know that much about dust collection, except that I knew it had to be healthier, I finally hired a contractor to assess and install the required ducting.
I didn't really obsess over it though before it was installed.

I spent a little more money, but installation went quickly and my working area is very clean now. My shop is in the loft of my barn, my cyclone is on the main floor, the ducting is all run under the floor of my shop and comes through at the locations of the tools so it is very quiet too!

A little ashamed, but I use another motor as I have a motorized pencil sharpener…not sure about the CFM it needs either…


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

Lee, my own personal experience indicates that dust collection does NOT induce OCD. It's more like super fertilizer that enables OCD behavior to go into hper mode.


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## pintodeluxe (Sep 12, 2010)

I have CDO.
It's like OCD, but the letters are in alphabetical order like they should be.

And yes, you can find my drill press dust collection table on my projects page.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

My pencil sharpener already has the best dust collection in my shop, a metal container I simply twist off and dump. But you can't call yourself a tool guy unless you have a pencil sharpener like this complete with dust collection.


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## CL810 (Mar 21, 2010)

+1 pintodeluxe. I need help!!

!http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf!


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## marcuscraft (Nov 14, 2012)

My shop is in the basement, so I obsessively make sure my house does not see a spec of dust meander its way out of the basement. I'm more than ok w/ that.


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

Marcus…you are obviously afraid of SWMBO (like most of us).


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## JoeinGa (Nov 26, 2012)

I've got one like this in the shop. Same basic model but probably in a little better shape than this one. This is the first one that is similar that I saw on the Googly search  
Had it since I was a kid and it still works fine.


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## derosa (Aug 21, 2010)

I can see where in the process of drilling a lot of holes someone may want some dust collection. I would make something like a top that sits on the table with holes in the top, has the added advantage of just sweeping the dust into the holes. I've started really cleaning out my shop and have realized i need to put a lot more effort into dust collecting as a part of shop organization and neatness.


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

derosa…unless I had a drum sander mounted to the DP, I would think dust collection would be a PITA. A shop vac works for me.


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## marcuscraft (Nov 14, 2012)

Hmmm, I think you could put a 2 1/4" dust port on the side of that Joe and really extend the life of the blades as well as helping keep the shop clean!


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## Kreegan (Jul 10, 2012)

At the end of the day, I think there are more tool collectors and tinkerers than there are woodworkers on this forum. That's ok, because tool collection and tinkering are fun to talk about too. I personally didn't think more about dust collection than a broom and my 2.5 gal shop vac till I got a lathe and started turning. The mess generated is impressive. That's when I got one of those HF dust collectors, which to be honest has largely been used like an enormous shop vac.


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

kreegan…probably right on your assessment. nothing wrong with it (DVK will get upset though…too much idle chatter here). I mentioned a few weeks ago about a few boat owners that I knew/know…spend more time fiddling with boats than floating them).


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## REO (Sep 20, 2012)

two yeas ago I was diagnosed with leukimia. yeah it scared me at first as well. Then I found out it was hairy cell leukimia. one of the most treatable varieties. I underwent chemo for it and it is now in remission, most likely for the next 5-15 years. One of the potential causes for this is exposure to wood dust. I have been in production shops since I was 5. some had DC, some didn't or weren't used. I have had the wood dough buggers that could be used to fill a misdrilled hole! I still do woodworking. often without the DC running.
The trouble I have is someone starting a duplicate question of an active post. The second is re-posting in your own thread just to keep the thread on the front page. it is just not polite.

the above comment was not made concerning this post or anyone in it….more or less in agreement with the OP


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## SteviePete (May 10, 2009)

I have known too many people in the "Sunshine Years" suffer from cumulative attacks on the respiratory system and premature death. My father lived to 85 and said that in his 45 years as a carman on the railroad they never had painter retire - all died from cancers of all types. I spent the last 25 years of my work career providing good engineering controls for the workers. If there wasn't a feasible (cost) control available we tried an administrative control (Procedure to keep workers away from the hazard). Lacking an administrative control we would provide personal protective equipment (legal but the least protective control)

Dust Control-engineering control. Stand upwind of the sanding operation - administrative control. Wear a dust mask or air purifying respirator (allergy or sensitivity to a certain dust)-Personal Protective Equipment.

As an adult it is my decision the level of protection I will work under. I must consider my health, responsibilities to others and be prepared to defend my decision.

I think we can all act like adults when protecting those in our shops from airborne contaminants.

End of Sermonette.
Steve


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## teejk (Jan 19, 2011)

stevie…over-protect if you need to but even my doctor tells me that at age 50 the human body is going to start wearing out at an accelerated rate and every time a cell dies, it's going to regenerate and everytime that happens you roll the dice on what you get. and yes he knows I smoke.

A train-man in the old days was surrounded by asbestos, fluids, etc. hence was subject to risk factors that I don't see in the wood shop (I guess there are certain woods that can be bad but I don't use them).


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

I'm somewhat surprised how so many fail to see the value in dust collection on one end of the spectrum, and some who are obsessive about getting every micron

I fall into the middle on my time but in the real world I have trades who think they can turn a job site into blinding sand storm with little regard to their own health, or others, or the cost of dealing with it once settled.


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## ClintSearl (Dec 8, 2011)

Dust collection is just behind a cabinet saw as the least necessary thing in 98.7% of shops. Nyuk nyuk


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## RussellAP (Feb 21, 2012)

I think sometimes we run out of things to make and start obsessing on our shop.


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## Howie (May 25, 2010)

I have two d/c's in my shop. One for the TS and one for the Router table and BS. I have a shop vac over by the DP when I use it. But sometimes I just like to see the shaving pile up around the DP before I sweep.
My pencil sharpener is electric.(okay so I'm lazy) I buy the pencils by the dozen and always have a sharp one handy.


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## sixstring (Apr 4, 2012)

Hahaha… Man can I relate. I think I'm the guy in the story with the wife and furniture except I actually got off my ass a year into collecting the tools and started making stuff. Mostly I put myself on the spot and am relying on my need to keep a promise to get the job started. Of course, once i do, things get a lot more fun in the shop.

Does anyone else use their bench grinder to sharpen pencils? Took some practice not to turn new pencils into nubs but I've got the hang of it now and gave up on buying the sharpener.


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## bendfreezoo (Oct 14, 2010)

Lee,
I felt that dust was a real problem in my shop and you know I am not very good at math and trying to figure out how many CFMs I might need to get that darn dust out of my shop so I installed a 300,000 cfm system and 18" pipes and figured that would take care of it. Thing is hooked up to a switch at my door so when I bring a board home it automatically turns on and sucks the board right out of my hands and shoots it out the back into the neighbors fire wood pile. I did run into a problem first time I came home with a 10 foot board though - never had a problem with 8's but the I needed a more gentle curve in the ducting for that 10 footer to go through. One nice thing about the system, when I am not using it I can rent it out to NASA so they can make sure the shuttle can withstand air shock on re-entry. Also, I find that I am not making so much junk with wood anymore - in fact I am not able to make anything with wood so I would say my woodworking has improved considerably!


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## joeyinsouthaustin (Sep 22, 2012)

*Wow* luvin this thread. #1: Pentel P207








It is in my contracts .7mm is my margin of error
#2 When you pay someone to sweep up the chips behind the DP it opens a whole new OCD. How much do I pay to sweep them, VS., how quickly I can pay for DC mod's with the savings. RESULT I currently have 4 DCs in shop, and one of them is dedicated to the drill press. (bores cab doors in the shop, so is used a lot)

#3: Agree with all who state that DC is just vitamins for OCD. (hard to say..you can't have ocd without the dc, but you can have dc without the o)

#4 + 10,000 to OP+1 *Alenxadre* If all my employees had this philosophy, I wouldn't need much DC!!

(P.S. *Clint Searl* I don't like to go there but?


> ?


 TS is%95 of my production and DC is -%35 of labor in shoP)


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## vipond33 (Jul 25, 2011)

I think the OP fails to realize here the absolute necessity (and sheer beauty) of having every last iota of dust fly up the pipe to its proper home. One can't be too careful.

Case in point.

For Christmas this year I received a Little Shaver pencil sharpener.










This was a godsend to me as for the last few years I had been sending my pencil out for sharpening to the Artisanal Man. He did a real fine job and I'm not complaining about the $30 price per, as I am a rich man, but it did put a crimp in my building as I had to wait a week for its return before I could continue on with my projects. That and he returned the shavings he took off! - which had to be offered up immediately to the nearest blast gate.










So fine, I have this new tool, but all three of my DC's are maxed out and I had to buy another Festool CT22 E with two hoses to handle the shavings. I really did need the second hose as this was a manual operation and there's no telling where the chips will fly. And who wants lead dust poisoning just because they were too lazy to keep the CFM's moving? Not me.
Safely refuted I should think.
gene

+1 to grandpa's general remarks


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## kizerpea (Dec 2, 2011)

Dust collecting is a compulsive disorder…...


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## greg48 (Nov 7, 2010)

I don't know 'bout all you all, but I put in a lot of time and effort developing a fine even coating of chips, dust, and shavings on every environmental surface of my small shop. Goldurnit, it's a wood shop, it's supposed to have sawdust!


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## fuigb (Apr 21, 2010)

In my area some of the most dedicated woodworking hobbyists are also employed in the auto industry as engineers, toolmakers, and millwrights. I believe that it's generally acknowledged that to be really good at your work in those fields a person needs at least a touch of OCD. That's a joke, but not really. Interesting in that for all of the machines flying around on CL around me that the dust collectors are largely absent. Tells me that saws & lathes come and go , but guys won't part with their dust collectors.


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## SteviePete (May 10, 2009)

fuigb - probably because DC never used never wears out.

teejk-In my game of life - The winner is the guy with the most healthy days alive. (Seems irrational with the things we call fun. Play with sharp things, breath fumes, dusts and vapors. Drive cars, shoot wild game, ultralite camping in winter, bike in traffic, water ski.) Might have something to do with my years of football, boxing and other head pounding. On Wisconsin! Steve


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## joeyinsouthaustin (Sep 22, 2012)

probably because DC never used never wears out. Funny. Ironically I bought all of my 4DC's on CL. They were all very clean… and one was still in the box


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