There have been several newspaper articles lately stating that wood dust is carcinogenic, and linking it to lung and sinus cancers among wood workers. This raises questions about the risks we take pursuing our avocation (or vocation, as the case may be), and what can be done to mitigate them.
Like many, if not most of us, I have central dust collection and ceiling mounted dust filtration. But just how effective are they? The bags and filters fill rapidly with chips and dust, yet there is a constant thin coating of fine dust on virtually all horizontal surfaces in the shop. I’ve read that the most hazardous particles are 3 microns or less in size, which is too small to be seen with the naked eye, so does the dust I see actually present a hazard?
The dust collector, which is equipped with bags rated at 3.0 microns, is located inside the shop. One-tenth the rating of the standard 30 micron bags, but still not good enough to capture the most hazardous dust. I’m thinking of constructing an enclosure on the outside of the shop to get the dust outside the building. I live in a cold climate area, though, and the shop is heated so I’ll need to provide a means of returning the heated air to the interior of the building. Does anyone know of a source for filters for very fine dust that can be mounted in openings cut into standard doors?
The most effective dust collection is at the source, e.g. the machines. But which machines create the highest levels of hazardous dust, and how best to capture it? For example, the planer and shaper seem to generate the highest volume of chips/dust, but the size appears to be large and the capture rate of the dust collection looks to be very high. The table saw is a different story. A high volume of dust is ejected above horizontal, and is of a smaller size than dust from the planer or shaper. But is it actually 3 microns or smaller in size? How effective are the blade guards with dust collection such as the Excalibur?
Is there an effective dust collection system for lathes?
There are many unanswered questions. Is there a publication that addresses the issues I have raised? If not, is there a burning interest on the part of a publisher to conduct the necessary research and present the conclusions? Are woodworkers interested enough to ask publishers to provide us with the information we need to maintain adequate air quality in our shops?
Jack
Replies
Hi Jack,
You have some really good questions and I'm also interested in reading the advice. It sounds to me like you have done all that can be done to control the dust and keep the heat in your shop. My set-up is identical to yours with one exception.
A local school district near me was going to throw away a ceiling mounted device that removes cigarette smoke from the air. They passed a no smoke policy for the school. I aquired this machine because it also places a electrical charge to the airborne particles and makes them fall to the floor. I don't know how this is accomplished and have no information as to the name of this device. I have to periodically remove the steel plate "filters" and wash them with soap and water. I am at work now and can't provide you with the name of this device. I really think outside collection is the key to your and my dust control. I also live in a cold climate and am very interested in affordable solutions.
Don
None, you really oughta check out the OSHA website. You've raised a lot of good issues, and they'll tell you more than you want to know.I wouldn't rely on private industry to publish this stuff,it's not exactly bestseller material.
Start here: http://cnets.net/~eclectic/woodworking/cyclone/Index.html
Read it all. It may take you a few nights, but it's worth it. There are a couple of other sites worth reading (which escape me at this time), but most of them are referenced on Bill's site (I think).
As far as putting it outside, you can do that, or enclose it inside, with return filters, but it's probably easier to retrofit you bag collector with a cannister filter or two (similar to a typical diesel truck air filter) and a lower bag made of plastic, similar to Jet's new dust collector. These can readily be had with 0.5 micron ratings.
Be seeing you...
>> ... need to provide a means of returning the heated air to the interior of the building.
Not really. You can recover the heat, or a large fraction of it, and let the air and the dust go. Do a web search for HRV or heat recovery ventilators. They use an air to air heat exchanger to transfer heat from the exhaust air to the intake air so you get fresh air in without having to pay to heat it.
There are also ERV's, energy recovery ventilators, which capture the water vapor in the exhaust air, but I think they are more complicated and expensive.
Let us know what you find out. I've been thinking about this but I haven't run the numbers yet.
I have the same problem here in Vermont in the Winter.
My Cyclone can easily suck all the heat out of my shop.
My simple solution was to put a large cannister filter in the shop
and put a Y off the DC output with 2 blast gates.
One goes to the filter in the shop and the other outside for warm days.
I looked at the exchangers and didn't want ot spend the money on
something I wasn't sure would work.
Jeff
Good idea Jeff. I'm gonna do what you have done.
Please describe the cannister filter. where do I get one?
Do ya think putting your outside located cyclone Dust Collector inside a homemade insulated "outhouse" type building would be an option?
Thaks,
Don
I planned to buy an truck canister from my local supplier, but broke
down and bought the cannister and an adapter to hook it up with from
Penn state.
Buy the largest you can, I put 2 large ones together to ease cleaning.
I had alot of options for the collector.
The best is a simple enclosure outside the shop, so all the dust can
remain outside and only the filtered air returned when I want it.
My shop has large enclosed overhangs for storage on both sides and I
simply mounted it there. I didn't bother to insulate it. I may this
summer for next winter (this one was bad!!!)
I put in a remote to save me bothering with the turn on's.
I might say that the large filters doesn't require much of any maintenance, just a vacumming once in a while (I reach thru the
blast gate with the vacuum, real easy.)
If you have any other questions, just ask.
Jeff
I got the dust collector out of the shop and forgot about the cannister filters. I put it into a closet outside of the garage (shop - no cars allowed!) I put dry wall inside the closet over the diagonal tongue and groove sheathing. Not only is the fine dust outside, it's very very quiet. I hear the subdued hissing of the air past homemade gate valves instead of the dust collector. With the dust collector muzzled, I can hear the table saw, router, etc much better!
I don't know much about heat exchange being in the great central valley of California where frost is the major water cooler topic four times a year. I use a boxwood heater wood stove ($150 stove, $400 chimney) and there's plenty of heat to spare.
I have asthma caused by a chronic sinus infection that's resistant to about every antibiotic I don't react to. I've had two sinus surguries in three years and the d__n infection is still there. By all means, use dust collection and a good mask. You might even wash your sinuses after wood working to keep them clean. I've worked wood avocationally for over 35 years and that is a good guess as the origin of my sinus problems.
The worst dust generators are sanders with fine sandpaper. You can dust collect the stationary belt sander pretty well, but portable sanders, especially the random orbits, are tough. The built in collection and any dust port don't remove enough dust to justify removing the mask.
I run the dust collector (2 hp older grizzly) on 220 and switch it with single pole single throw switches at 18 V ac. The low voltage circuit uses doorbell wire and switches a 220 V / 20 amp appliance relay. The 18 V ac comes from an appliance transformer, both are from the local appliance parts store. I use 4" co-extruded landscape drain pipe (polyethylene interior, PVC skin for gluing) and homemade plywood blast gates. The gates don't seal perfectly, but I bought an oversize dust collector to compensate.
Collect dust, but don't get sinus problems. Good luck and happy chatoyance.
Thanks, guys. Looks like some good info. I'll investigate the cannister filters. Looks like they may be the simplest solution.
Has anyone had experience with blade guard/dust collector attachments for tablesaws?
Jack
Dust collectors using cloth bags collect chips and fine dust, and blow the fine dust all over the shop.
As a full time woodworker, I use a blower with a 12" diameter inlet that collects just about everything. It dumps it all on the ground. (I have no neighbors.) I plan on using the dense mass of the large blower as a heat exchanger by bringing make up air into the shop around it. Meanwhile, I turn up the heat. I would rather be cold than breath dust.
I made a two stage dust collector out of a shop vac mounted outside, and a cannister inside. This is connected to a 3" hose that connects to a plastic wand mounted on the stock feeder on the table saw, which catches the fine spray of dust at its source. The bottom oy the wand sits 1/8" above the wood. Another help on the table saw is a chunk of plywood bolted to the fixture that used to hold the splitter. This is so close to the blade that the sawdust that comes around with the blade gets knocked off, to be collected by the 6" diameter hose to the blower. Most of the dust coming of the top of a table saw blade must have travelled all the way around the diameter, because the blade is cutting on the down portion of its diameter. If this dust can be removed from the blade before it comes back up and gets thrown in the operator's face, the shop would be less dusty. Does anyone know how th clean the dust out of a running saw blade?
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