# Yep another one about dust collecting



## timhicks (Mar 29, 2008)

Okay, most of our dust is from the disk grinder and running our hand sanders all day. We use abox fan on our bench in the summer to suck the dust out the window, but in the winter time it just floats around the shop. We do wear good dustmasks all the time, but I still suck in a bit of dust. What is the best way to collect this dust? I have heard of bench top dust collectors, what is your take on them? I worry about the kids being in the shop with the dust floating around. They are usually out side all day but still, we are in there and are kids come in as well. Anyway are there any ideas? THanks all ideas are appreciated


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## Max (Sep 13, 2006)

Candy,

Have you ever thought of using a down draft sanding table? Here are a couple of links to look at. I think one of these may work for you. The first one is a table you could make and the second is a purchase from Rockler.

http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/plansshare/air_filter_downdraft_sanding_table.htm
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10169&cookietest=1


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## dalec (Oct 3, 2007)

Seems a down draft table would be worth your consideration. I am a firm believer in capturing the most dust as you can directly at the source.

I also am sold on air filtration in addition to dust collection. The fine dust that is not captured with your dust collector is just pumped back into the shop environment.

The air filteration system fiilters out that very light dust that remains suspended in the air long after the process that produced the dust has ended. I have just set up a Jet Air Filteration System (1000B) in my garage/workshop. It appears to do a good job scrubbing the fine dust.

A LJ "dust collection" search will bring up a number of forum discussions and suggestions on dust collection.

Good luck.

Also welcome to LJ.

Dalec


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## Mario (Apr 23, 2007)

I did notice a bunch of dust everywhere in your post about the lamp. I went to a local HVAC shop an purchased a motor/fan from an old furnace for $10. I put it in a box that I made to hold a couple of furnace filters and made my own air filtration unit for about $25.00. There are plans around if you look but they are very easy to build. I made mine to fit the filters that you can find at any hardware store. I also made my own downdraft table using a pegboard top and hooked it up to my dust collector.


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## trifern (Feb 1, 2008)

I have a Jet Air Filtration system (1000B) also. It does a good job with the airborne particals. I still use my dust collector whenever possible though. The more you collect from the source the better. It is a challenge to collect all the dust generated while sanding on the lathe.


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## Greg3G (Mar 20, 2007)

Hi Cindy, I hate to say this but a lot of damage has already been done. Not only will you spend "years" trying to get the dust out of the shop but you have probably already ingested a good amount as well. Now for the good news. You can control a lot of it. The first step is try and control the dust as close to the source as possible, even if its with a "shop-vac" You will be supprised how much that will help. The next step will be to get a dust collector. With that you can add a home made down draft table (you'll be able to find a number of plans online and in paper mags.) As for the ambent air cleaners, you can save a lot of money on this one, get a 20" box fan and add a good quality furnace filter to the inbound side of it. Some guys I know even build a frame for it. I just use duct tabe to hold the filter and hang it upside down by some light weight chains from the ceiling so I can reach the controls.

As for the effect it may have had on your daughter, that's hard to say, I'm not a doctor. I don't think you are using a wood that contains a large amount of toxins. If she hasn't demonstrated any symptoms, running nose, cough, wheeze. she may be fine. If you are concerned, please see your doctor. Children are one of those mystries of life, in some ways they very resilent and in others as fragile as a flower. I'm sure your instints as a mother will serve you well on this.


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## Jon3 (Feb 28, 2007)

Whenever possible, collect the dust at the source, or as close to as possible. The most effective way to keep it out of the air is to not let it get into the air in the first place.

Downdraft tables will help, as will tools that have good dust collection that is directly connected to the tool (Festool/Fein/etc). Thankfully the latter feature is becoming more and more common these days.

Also, a good overhead air cleaning unit will help clean up the dust that does get airborne. I like the JDS, but there are plenty.

Also, working outside, or with doors/windows open helps as well.


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## timhicks (Mar 29, 2008)

Hey Greg, THanks for the advice, I know how bad the dust can be. We do wear a good dust mask which helps a lot and if the dust gets bad we open the big door on the shop to get the dust out. We always make sure that the air is moving good when the kids are in there, but we know that there are still some particles floating around. We have been using a box fan to suck the air away from us and I didnt even think about putting a filter on it. When I go to town on Friday I am going to buy some furnace filters for the box fans. We do have an overhead filter in the shop that we bought from Lee Valley tools, it works good but just can not keep up with the dust from the grinder. I wish it would hurry and get warmed up here so we can open the big door on the shop, and we can do our grinding outside. It is snowing here today so everything will be closed up tight in the shop.

The good thing about our kids is that they are out door kids. They are not in the shop very often and when they are it is only for a short period of time. We have 17 acres that they run on and even though they are only 3 & 5 they go all day. They usually alternate there time between the house and outside. And lke I said we try to get the kids out of the shop if the dust gets too bad or we will open the big door and the small doors to get there air flowing, their safety is always on our mind. When they were in the shop yesterday, the dust was settled down so I was not too worried about her in the shop, my son however, he is 5, told me that he was going outside to get some air on his ass. Hahaha just had to laugh.

Thanks to all of the comments we have some good ideas on how to control the dust, we are going to invest in a good dust collection system for our blast cabinet and disk sander, right now we are using a shop vac but it just dont keep up quite enough. Then we will construct a large fan to set up while we are grinding and then maybe fix our benches so they are down draft or just upgrade our box fans with furnace filters.

I am excited about the dust collecting venture that I am about to embark on. I know that you can not control all the dust but we can do a better job of it and I am tired of everything being covered in dust.

Thanks for all of your help, comments and ideas. We are two healthy adults who love what we do and we will do all that we can to keep our family healthy.

Thanks again and have a great day!


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## ND2ELK (Jan 25, 2008)

Hi Candy

I just ordered a Penn Industries Tempest 142CX Cyclone dust collector for my new 14 X 21 shop. It has a 2HP, 220V motor. Because this machine has such good air flow and two 1/2 - micron canisters on it an air cleaner is not needed. You can have up to 12 drops and up to 30 feet runs. They are on sale now for $695 plus duct work. You also get a $50.00 coupon towards duct work. Maybe this is way more than you are looking for. They also have the DC2000BCF portable dust collector with a 1 - micron canister on it. This also has a 2HP, 220V motor (They also have other models that run on 110V). There are two 4 inch drops and it is on casters. They are on sale now for $389.95. If you are looking for down draft tables they make a PSI Dust Grabber that is 2'W X 3'L X 6"H for $79.95. They look like a suitcase and hook up to a standard 4" inlet or 2 1/2" vac hose. Just some other options for you to think about.

God Bless
tom


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## timhicks (Mar 29, 2008)

Francisco, that is one thing we do for sure is drink lots of fluid while we are in the shop and it does seem to help. The circulation is real good onthe shop in the summer, but in the winter when we hit -30 we cant open up the windows and doors and today it is 30 degrees out. We do have doors on the east and west walls, on the south wall there is a window and on the north wall we have a large garage door with 4 windows on the two front corners. I just cant wait till it gtes warm so we can circulate the air better.


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## BuildItOrBust (Apr 21, 2008)

Candy -

What kind of dust mask are you using? It sounds like in addtion to the dust collector, you're still getting dust through your mask. If you're using a disposable mask you might want to consider wearing a half-mask respirator with N95 filter covers. For most dust particles N95 masks or filter should work just fine. If you're working with very fine dust (similar to dry wall dust) you might want to consider looking at N100 filters. (99.7% efficient vs. 95%).

I use a 3M spray painting respirator kit that I bought from Cooper Safety for both my painting an cutting projects. It sees to work really well in addition to the ventalation that I have.


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