AMAZON multi-meters discounts AMAZON oscilloscope discounts If the health hazards of breathing wood dust threaten to scare the enjoyment out of your woodworking, now is a good time to get serious about dust control in your shop. It should already be clear that collecting dust-in the form of shavings, chips, and sawdust-isn't enough to keep your shop completely clean; you must deal with the fine wood powder floating around the shop as well to keep the air safe to breathe. But this doesn't mean you have to wear a spacesuit in the shop to stay healthy during a lifetime of woodworking. There is a wide variety of filtration and collection methods to corral dust and keep your shop clean. The best devices and strategies for dealing with dust depend on the size of your shop and the kind of woodworking you do. To help you gain a better perspective of your dust-control needs, I've compiled a quick overview of the major forms of collection and control in the first part of this section. The advantages and disadvantages of each are summarized in the chart on the facing page. In subsequent sections, I'll delve deeper into each method of dust control and collection, presenting you with a more complete picture of how to choose the right equipment as well as how to install and /or use it in your shop. Implementing complete and effective dust collection doesn't necessarily mean that you have to run right out and buy a lot of equipment. At the end of this section, there are some alternative strategies for reducing the production of dust in your shop as well as basic means of reducing your exposure to dust in the long run. A SUMMARY OF METHODS OF DUST CONTROL and COLLECTION Method Personal respiratory protection (disposable mask or reusable respirator; powered air-purifying respirator)
Advantages
Disadvantages
A disposable face mask provides inexpensive respiratory protection from the long-term effects of fine dust, created in great quantities during jobs such as machine sanding. Masks and Respirators Although wearable personal-protection devices are the last line of defense against reparable wood dust (which is best collected at the source), their low cost and ease of use make them the first choice for many woodworkers. Respirators offer inexpensive protection for hobbyists, who need only occasional protection, or for small-shop woodworkers who don't have a dust-collection system in place. Respirators worn around the nose and mouth prevent dust from entering your respiratory tract, which is especially important when generating fine dust during sanding. Disposable masks are a popular choice for daily shop duty because they are inexpensive and comfortable to wear. Reusable cartridge-style respirators accept a wide assortment of replaceable-filter elements, making them more versatile than disposables. For woodworkers who find it difficult to wear respirators yet demand thorough protection against dust due to allergies or respiratory problems, powered air-purifying respirators (PAPRs) are a good choice. PAPRs commonly known as air helmets or dust helmets-supply fresh, clean air to the wearer via a small filter and fan device. The positive airflow makes them effective even for bearded woodworkers, who usually don't get effective protection from other kinds of respirators. Shop Ventilation If you use a shop vacuum to collect chips in your small woodshop but still need to deal with small amounts of fine sanding dust, you can keep your shop and lungs cleaner by exhausting the dust-laden air outside the shop with a fan. All it takes to ventilate small garage-size shops is one or two inexpensive box-style household fans. A larger squirrel cage-style blower is needed for larger spaces. Fresh air enters the shop through an inlet port-an open window or door, or a cutout in a wall. Filters at the intake and /or exhaust openings keep incoming air clean and prevent exhausted air from polluting your yard or neighborhood. This kind of ventilation system not only reduces your exposure to fine wood dust but also exhausts vapors from water-based glues and finishes and other nonflammable vapors or mists. Since simple shop ventilation means drawing in fresh air from the outside, it's a method that has real limitations: If your shop is subject to bitterly cold winters or horribly humid summers, it's expensive and uncomfortable to dump your heated (or air-conditioned) air outdoors. If you live in a harsh climate, use ventilation only during the more temperate seasons. Air-Filtration Devices While ventilation replaces dusty air with clean air from the outside, air-filtration systems (also called air cleaners) recirculate the air inside your shop, drawing in and trapping airborne wood dust before it settles on bench tops or gets inhaled. Designed to be suspended from the ceiling or a wall bracket, an air-filtration device (AFD) consists of a squirrel-cage fan and two or more filters housed inside a cabinet. The fan draws shop air through the filters, where the fine powder is collected. By circulating the air through the filters several times an hour, a significant part of the floating, invisible wood dust is removed, making the air in your shop cleaner, even after sanding. A simple box fan perched on an open windowsill or in a doorway can provide enough ventilation to remove the lion's share of fine sanding dust generated in a small wood shop. Passive Collection You may choose to collect dust and chips from some tools and machines passively-that is, by using the bag, bin, or box that's built into the machine to collect dust from it. Portable power tools and bench top tools, such as compound miter saws usually have built-in bags that at least make a dent in the collection. Jointers often have chip chutes built into their bases. Adding a box or bag under the chute provides a perfectly acceptable way of catching the large-size shavings produced by that machine. Table saws with enclosed bases will collect sawdust, and they can be cleaned out occasionally. You can add passive collection to a contractor's saw with an open base by fitting it with an aftermarket collection bag. The basic canvas dust bags that come standard with many portable benchtop power tools, such as the Bosch compound miter saw shown here, do a pretty good job of abating the plume of chips thrown out during cutting. Suspended from ceiling joists or mounted on a high shelf, an air-filtration device uses a fan and two or more filters to remove fine dust particles from the air, as the air circulates around the shop. Adding this simple, snap-on canvas bag to the underside of a contractor's table saw prevents dust and chips from dropping through the saw's open base and collecting on the floor. Portable Shop Vacuums For flexibility in small-scale dust collection in a shop of any size, nothing beats a simple portable shop vacuum. Available in a wide range of sizes (both in terms of power and collection capacity), these versatile vacs can be temporarily connected to whichever small machine in the shop is currently in use (see the photo at right) or dedicated to collect dust and chips from just one or two machines. However, for most full-size woodworking machines, even a large unit might not be up to complete chip removal. Also, be prepared to empty the canister every few minutes unless you add an extra pre-separator can to catch the bulk of the shavings ahead of the vacuum. The greatest virtue of shop vacuums is their portability: They unhook readily and can be pulled around the shop for sucking up chips below the workbench or during your regular shop cleanup regimen. Shop vacuums also make great collectors for chips and dust generated by portable power tools. You can fit an electronic sensor switch to turn the vac on or off automatically along with the tool, or buy a model that comes with a sensor switch already built in. Portable and Central Dust Collector Built essentially like a very large, powerful vacuum with ductwork connected to machines around the shop, a central dust-collection system provides the heavy artillery needed to keep a busy woodshop from overflowing with shavings and chips. A central collection system is a virtual necessity in shops that have the standard complement of full-size stationary machinery: thickness planer, table saw, jointer, shaper (and/or router table), cutoff saw, stationary belt and /or disk sander, etc. Unless you like to clean up around each tool every day, a central collector provides just about the only convenient way to stay one step ahead of the mountains of chips and sawdust you're likely to generate during an average day's work. All your dust and shavings end up in a bag or bin where they're convenient to dispose of. The size of the central collection system you need depends on the size of your shop, the number of machines you want to connect, the volume of sawdust your shop generates, and the number of people operating machines at the same time. At the lower end of the scale are portable collectors with induction motor-powered blowers, such as the Delta 50-179 shown in the photo. The limited power and capacity of these units is enough to handle a couple of the major sawdust-producing tools in a small workshop (table saw, thickness planer, shaper), as long as you keep all hoses short and collect from only one or two tools at a time. In a small hobby shop, a portable collector can be centrally mounted, with a system of ductwork and blast gates connecting a number of small machines to the unit. The versatile, portable shop vacuum is ideal for small-shop cleanup tasks and dust collection from tools and machines that don't generate tremendous amounts of chips, including portable power tools and benchtop machines. Shop Vacuums Are Versatile Cleaning Machines If you're sharing your workshop with the family automobile or your shop is tiny, you can't go wrong in buying a good shop vacuum. Even if your next shop will be as large as a dirigible factory, you'll still end up using your portable vac for all manner of shop cleanup. On the job site, it will help you tidy up after cabinet installations or trimwork. Portable collectors, such as the canister-top Delta 50-179 shown here, are a step up from shop vacuums, both in terms of power and chip-gathering capacity. A central dust-collection system hooked up to all the machines in the woods hop conveys chips and sawdust to collection bags or canisters for convenient disposal. Further up the ladder of power and performance for larger shops are full-blown central dust-collection systems, such as the collector shown above right. These systems feature large-capacity fans and permanently mounted rigid ductwork that serves all the machines in the shop (as well as inlets for floor sweeps, cleanup hoses, and possibly hose connections for portable power tools). Most central collection systems have large-capacity canisters or bags-for gathering and disposing of large shavings and sawdust-and sizable filter bags that thoroughly strain the finer dust out of the sucked-up air before exhausting it. If you run a production cabinet shop or produce architectural millwork and do a lot of thickness planing, sawing, and shaping, you'll want to consider installing a collector with a cyclonic separator, or "cyclone" for short. For small and medium shops, these units are smaller versions of the cyclones found atop sawmills and large high-school woodshops. A cyclone separates out chips, shavings, and dust from the air used to transport them to the collector. Debris is deposited in a large drum or bin where it's easy to empty; only the really fine dust makes it to the filters, so they aren't impacted by larger particles and they don't need to be cleaned as frequently. Combining Dust-Control Measures Ideally, a central collection system, portable collector, or shop vacuum captures dust and chips at their source-such as a machine, portable power tool, or work area-a practice known as primary collection. In reality, some dust always finds a way of escaping and ending up on the floor or, in the case of fine wood powder, in the air. Thus, even with the best systems, you'll need to capture and clean up this elusive shop dust. Vacuuming floors and bench tops will take care of chips and shavings, but fine airborne dust is better dealt with by some form of secondary collection, such as ventilation or air filtration. Although they don't capture fleeing dust, masks and respirators augment primary collection by preventing airborne particles from getting into your lungs. The particular blend of primary and secondary collection and control strategies you choose and implement depends greatly on the scale and type of woodworking you do. If you're building miniature furniture in a closet-size shop, the amount of dust you create is probably minute as well; a dust mask might be the only form of dust control you need. A shop producing period-style furniture with traditional hand tools may only need a large push broom to sweep up shavings-more than adequate in that particular situation. At the other extreme, shops that do a lot of abrasive work-shaping parts using belt and disk sanders, grinders, and such-produce volumes of dust that require serious abatement measures, including a well-designed collection system and air-filtration devices. Persons with allergies or those who have experienced adverse reactions to wood dust are likely to need a respirator, in addition to other measures of dust collection/control implemented in their shops. Shops where several people are working at one time will need different dust-control strategies than one-person operations. For example, central collection systems in multiple-worker shops-where several machines may be operating at once-are far more complicated to design than smaller systems that need serve only one machine at a time. The larger amounts of fine dust created by more frequent machine operations requires a high-volume air-filtration system or the extensive use of masks or respirators. Alternative Means of Controlling Dust For every problem you're likely to encounter in the woodshop, there's some handy device you can buy through a catalog or at the hardware store that will solve it. But if dust is the problem, there are a few simple alter natives to going out and buying an expensive collection system. These include keeping the shop clean, generating less dust, and limiting your exposure to dust. Floor-Vacuuming Pickup: The pickup is made from regular 2-in. ABS plastic pipe and fittings. Coupler provides connection for standard 2½-in. shop vacuum hose. ½-in. slots are routed into bottom. 3-in.-dia. plywood disks screwed through of pickup oversize holes provide wheels on ends of pickup. Each end sealed with an end cap. GOOD HOUSEKEEPING Keeping the shop clean is the first and foremost way that you can control the accumulation of dust and debris in the woodshop. Not only is it harder to work efficiently in a space that's filled with sawdust and debris, but just walking around can raise a hazy cloud of fine dust that subsequently lights on tools and work in progress. If your shop adjoins your home, fine dust always seems to find its way inside your living space. Worse, a furnace in a basement shop can suck up fine dust and blow it all over the house. As we've seen, fine dust also pollutes the air with breathable fine powder that's deleterious to respiratory health. When its time for your daily cleaning regimen, leave the broom in the closet. You'll surely churn up as much fine dust as the amount of shavings and sawdust you capture by whisking a broom around the floor. Cleaning up floors is a job much better left to a portable shop vacuum or a hose connected to a central dust-collection system. To save time cleaning up large floor spaces, build your own floor vacuuming pickup from a few lengths of 2-in. ABS (a crylonitrile-butadiene styrene) plastic pipe and a few pipe fittings (see the drawing on the facing page). A pair of shop-made wheels, cut from Masonite or plywood with a circle cutter or hole saw, helps the pickup glide easily along the floor. Slots sawn or routed into the bottom of the device allow dust pickup while preventing larger scraps from clogging the rig. If you have large expanses of shop floor that need cleanup daily, it's worthwhile to invest in a specialized tool, such as the Shop-Vac Shop Sweep. Basically a powerful blower mounted atop a wide-mouth floor pickup, the Shop Sweep sucks up dust, fine chips, and debris with a vengeance, blowing it all into a large, 8-gal. capacity bag that has a rear zipper for easy emptying. Large wheels make the tool easy to maneuver around the floor and under bench tops and machine stands; it even has a kickstand, so it doesn't fall over backward when not in use. For collecting large shavings (from hand-planing, cutting dovetails, etc.), try using a small foxtail brush to sweep the shavings from bench tops and machine tables onto the floor where they can be vacuumed up. A snow shovel or a large plastic shovel, such as a grain scoop (available from feed and farm-supply stores), is a terrific tool for scooping up large quantities of shavings off the floor-and it raises far less dust than sweeping. A specialized tool designed for cleaning up large shop floors, the Shop-Vac Shop Sweep uses a wide-mouth floor pickup and powerful blower to whisk chips and debris up and into a zippered fabric bag that's easy to empty. ++ Coveralls Keep the House Clean: If your shop is at home and you often find yourself making trips inside the house, a good alternative to cleaning up before each jaunt is to wear coveralls in the shop. A quick peel and you're clean as a whistle-and no one can accuse you of depositing that thick film of dust on the family piano. ++ Rather than raising clouds of dust with a push broom, use a lightweight plastic grain scoop to shovel up mounds of shavings quickly and cleanly. Since dust clings easily to hair, clothing, and the soles of shoes, you need to clean yourself off at the end of every work session to get rid of the dust before it ends up on your living-room couch. If you use a blow gun on a compressed-air line to accomplish this, make sure to blow off outside to avoid jet-propelling fine dust all over the shop. and wear a mask so you don't end up breathing all the dust you blow off. I prefer to give myself a quick cleaning at the end of the day with a vacuum hose fitted with a brush attachment. To extract the small chips trapped in my hair (they sometimes end up in my eyes when I remove my goggles), I run the vacuum brush through my hair as well. It's actually kind of pleasant-like a vacuum scalp massage.
I had problems tracking in dust and chips on the bottoms of my shoes, so I made my own work-shoe scrubber, modeling it after shoe-cleaning devices I've seen in trendy home-improvement catalogs. The device consists of three hardwood-backed stiff-bristle scrub brushes (from the housewares section of a department or hardware store) mounted to a plywood base, as shown in the drawing above. I keep my scrubber by the back door and take a second to brush each shoe through it before each trip into the house. GENERATING LESS DUST If you're attracted to the idea of simplifying your complex lifestyle, try this strategy in your shop before you go out and buy lots of new dust-control equipment: Generate less dust. Less dust in the air and on the shop floor means having less dust to collect and dispose of. Here are a couple of ways to reduce sawdust production without having to significantly change the way you work. An easy way to pare down chip production is to fit your circular saws (table saw, circular saw, and cutoff saw) with thin-kerf blades. Modern blades, such as Freud's LU87 and LU88 and Forrest's excellent Wood worker II, are as smooth cutting as their standard-thickness counterparts. You can cut a table saw's dust production by as much as 25 percent simply by mounting a thin-kerf sawblade. Adding a pair of stabilizer washers helps keep the blade running true during heavy cuts. By reducing the kerf on a 10-in.-dia. blade to between 0.086 in. and 0.096 in. (as compared to 0.126 in.-about 1/8 in. for a standard blade), the amount of wood rendered as sawdust is reduced by up to 25 percent. If you plan to do any heavy ripping or precise crosscutting of thick hardwoods, it's a good idea to use these blades with a stabilizer-a precisely ground steel plate that bears against the sawblade on the saw arbor, reducing vibration and stiffening the body of the blade. Because the thickness planer is the major chip producer in most shops, one way to reduce shavings is to purchase lumber already surfaced "S2S" (surfaced both sides). Also, many larger lumberyards are more than happy to custom-surface and dress lumber to your specifications for a price that is usually reasonable, considering the cost of buying a planer (and the drudgery of collecting and disposing of chips). A well-tuned cabinet scraper is a clean and quiet alternative to using a dust-churning power sander to smooth the surface of a wood panel, plank, or part. (below) The disposable paper bags on these portable power sanders do a better job of filtering out fine dust than most cloth bags. They also make it easier to dispose of the fine dust they collect. Here are some ideas for ways to reduce dust by working a little differently: On days when you've been grinding the gears on all the big machines in the shop and your ears are ringing, take a break from the power stuff and make a little sawdust the old-fashioned way. In many cases, you'll accomplish your task just as quickly and not owe the power company a cent for the job. For example, if you're handy with a handsaw, mallet, and chisel, it makes more sense to bang out those few odd tenons and mortises by hand than to take the time to set up and adjust the fences and stops on the table saw and hollow-chisel mortiser. You'll be making big chips and shavings that are easy to brush off the bench and scoop up, generating very little fine dust in the bargain. The next time you need to clean up an area of tom grain on the face of a cabinet-door panel, don't reach for a belt sander; pull out a well-tuned cabinet scraper instead. You might work up a sweat, but you won't kick up a cloud-and you'll get the job done as well or better than that dust-spewing belted brute of a sander. One way to avoid eating dust inside the shop is to move operations to an outdoor driveway, deck, or patio. That's a good place to run portable tools that spit dust and /or chips in all directions, like belt sanders and routers. Another way to make less dust is to change the kinds of power tools or machines you use. Many of the newer power sanders feature built-in dust collection that's much more efficient than similar models of just a few years ago. For example, modern machines like the Bosch 3725DVS random-orbit sander and Metabo Sr 358 half-sheet orbital sander (shown in the bottom photo on p. 35) use built-in fans to suck dust through their perforated sanding disks. These units also sport disposable paper dust bags, which trap more fine dust than cloth bags do. When full, paper bags are detached and disposed of-a much cleaner job than unzipping and emptying a cloth bag. LIMITING YOUR EXPOSURE TO DUST You can reduce the amount of time that you breathe dust in the shop by spending less time working in a shop that has a lot of airborne dust wafting around in it. If you're a full-time professional or happen to do a lot of power sanding, here are two strategies for limiting your exposure to fine wood dust. First, set up your machine tools and power-sanding bench in a different room than your workbench, assembly, and glue-up areas. That way, you'll have a clean place to retreat to, where you don't have to keep wearing a respirator to keep from eating the cloud of dust you've just created. If your current shop is one big open space, you don't have to build a permanent wall to create separate machine and bench rooms: A floor-to-ceiling divider built by stretching sheets of thin (4-mil to 6-mil) clear polyethylene plastic over a lightweight framework of 1x2s can do the trick nicely. You can incorporate doors and pass-throughs wherever needed. By using clear plastic, light will travel from existing windows and light fixtures into your new, clean room. Second, if you live in a temperate area, you might consider doing what I did before I set up a good dust-collection system in my shop: Set up your workbench outside the dusty confines of the shop whenever the weather permits (see the photo above). Working outside on a deck, patio, or driveway is especially desirable when power sanding or using a portable tool that spews tons of small chips, such as a router. You'll not only breathe more easily-unless you live in a smog zone, such as downtown Los Angeles. but you'll get a tan as well (just don't forget to wear sunscreen). === Prev.: Fundamentals of Woodshop Dust (and How to Control
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