A few days ago I bumped into a new Grizzly 1531 edge sander on Craigslist for $360. Couldn't pass up a deal like that, but it certainly amplifies the need for dust collection in my small shop. The fine stuff will kill you!
I suspect some of the pros among us also work in small spaces and take dust collection pretty seriously. What have y'all got, are you happy with your choice, and why did you choose it?
I picked up a,good dust collector off craigs list for about 1/2 price.
Made a tremendous difference. Each major machine is hooked up.
Next I'd like to get one of the hanging air cleaners.
I use a shop vac on each tool and put an air cleaner in the ceiling. The air cleaner really made a big difference. I got this one.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Hanging-Air-Filter-w-Remote/G0572
And you stole that edge sander:)
Seems my nose hairs filter good enough :)
QuoteOriginally posted by Bowjunkie:
Seems my nose hairs filter good enough :)
:biglaugh: :biglaugh:
My nose isn't that hairy. I bought a 1 1/2 HP dust collector. It can easily handle the output from a 20 inch planer. One thing I discovered; my machines have 4 inch dust ports, so I always used a 4 inch hose. My dust collector has a 5 inch intake with a 4 inch adapter. I recently started using a 5 inch hose that is necked down to 4 inches right at the machines and I noticed a big improvement in pulling power. Now what I need to do is change the dust ports on the machines to 5 inch. I also use a shopvac hose that I attach to the big hose to clean sawdust off the walls, machines, etc. It's a lot quieter and more powerful than the shopvac.
Dave.
I've got three different vac systems in my small shop and use different vacs for different machines. Still the super fine dust gets everywhere. Maybe one of those air cleaners is the final setup I need.
It's really amazing how much fine dust can slip out into the air.
They make a huge difference, Troy.
Hey, Roy. I regret that the edge sander is part of a very sad story. The sale included $11,000 of brand new woodworking power tools and was the result of a personal tragedy. The seller, to say the least, is in my prayers.
Troy, I have a Jet ambient air filter. It is indeed very helpful, but I am going to upgrade the internal bag and external filter. Wynn Environmental sells aftermarket upgrade filters.
Others who are contemplating ambient filters should be aware that they don't substitute for collection at the tool. Once the stuff is in the air, it takes awhile to filter and the really fine dust (which is most dangerous and too small to even be visible) may not be captured. In the meantime, it's going in your lungs.
The question of how to catch the stuff at the tool is a contentious issue among woodworkers. The best solution clearly is a cyclone. Unfortunately, woodworkers squabble so much about various cyclones and filters that it gets pretty hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. Views are so polarized and suggest so much personal animosity that is hard to know who to trust.
We work with toxic woods and I know several professional bowyers have developed serious problems from exposure. OSHA must be an issue, too, for those who have employees. Do we have any pros or DIYers who have addressed these issues? Anyone running a cyclone system who can report on performance? Anyone who has evaluated results by checking their shop air with a particle counter?
I thought I might have to give up bow making a few years back. I had a single stage collector that I thought was good, and it was. When my symptoms became so bad that I couldn't enter my shop for weeks at a time I knew I had to do something.
I bought an onieda cyclone, made strong efforts to catch the dust at the tool, used my jet ambient filter and made a serious effort to KEEP THE SHOP CLEAN. I run the shop vac(w/bags installed) very often and I wear my respirator. during times of heavy dust making work(such as ruffing a bow out on the edge sander) I will run the overhead filter on high for an hour while I eat lunch. It don't always work out that way but I try. my symptoms have really cleared up and if they do return, it is usually a sign that I need to clean.
I like Onieda. Made in USA and they work great.
Also, pay attention to what may be a bad wood or finish for you. Cocobola and super glue is bad news for me. I use it but very carefully.
Been working on a few pieces of furniture for the past several weeks and I thought I had been doing my best to keep all the dust under control.
Anyway, last week I was ready to start applying the finish to several of the pieces. After a closer look I could easily see that what I thought was a great attempt to control the dust was less that close.
I spent most of the next day with doors and windows open blowing with the leaf blower and running over everything with the mid-sized shop vac to get the shop clean enough for finish work.
Looks like my next purchase will be some sort of fine dust collector.
Got to do something, winter is close at hand. That means lamination and veneer building time will be here before I know it.
Which Oneida do you have? I've been looking at the 2 and 3HP Gorilla as well as the ClearVue. 2HP would be nice because it could run on 110V and might be doable. My shop is not very large.
I have used a home made downdraft table for sanding with a hand sander. I connect it to my dust collector or shop vac. It picks up a lot of the finer dust right at the source before it gets in the air. I made an overhead air cleaner from a small squirrel cage fan and use a very good furnace filter on it. I also added a garbage can separator on my dust collector to make it more efficient. Yes, I am cheap but plans/ideas for all of the items were found in wood working magazines or online.
I have a large 3hp Oneida, 220v. But I think any collector will do the job if used properly. Just collect from one machine at a time and try to catch as much dust as you can. I built some plywood shoots/funnels/boxes to do the job I needed them to do. the big thing is this, pay attention to the air that you blow back into the shop. Meaning get the upgraded filter bag for a smaller single stage collector. or the better filters for the fine air filter.
Even running the paper filter bags in the shop vac made a huge difference in my clean up.
My cyclone has the big canister filter for the return air. It hardly ever needs to be cleaned because the cyclone does such a good job. I get barley a hand full of dust from it.
I used a standard delta bag dust collector but have it in a seprate room and piping to each of my tools with blast gates. Made a huge difference. If you leave a bag collector in the same room you will get very fine paricles coming from the bag.
I want a air filter also just havent bought one yet.
I use a shop vac ,with a drywall filter bag inside, on each tool. Works pretty well for me.
Thanks for sharing your experience with the Oneida. How much ducting and what sort do you run with your 3HP? Do you keep more than one blast gate open at a time?
I settled on an Oneida V-3000 3hp cyclone. It's still in a pile of boxes in my garage. Hope to get it put together next weekend if the weather cooperates.
Shop vac on power tools and a hepa filter to take the fine stuff out of the air. A couple years ago I also started wearing a respirator during all sanding which I never use to. Now that I got use to wearing that respirator, I simply can not tolerate any dust. Don't know how I did it before.
Anyone put their dust collection units outside? You end up sucking out some of your conditioned air if you're warming or cooling your shop, but filtration becomes a non-issue. Growing up in a cabinet shop, all the dust collection was outside the main work areas. Heck the main system was just a big blower on top of an enclosed trailer. No filtration at all, but kept the shop air clean.
I have a little 1hp unit and am looking to upgrade. I have a ceiling unit that helps a lot. I'm seriously considering putting whatever I upgrade to outside the shop to free up space and reduce filtration requirements.
Putting the main unit outside the shop is the best way. Having a little trouble talking myself into cutting a hole in the wall.
Another note. If you use PVC pipe for your system be sure to,add the ground strap through out.
I've got it all. 2 hp Onida Dust Gorilla cyclone, 4" tubing and blast gates to all machines. Celing hung airborne dust collector. Sanding downdraft table connected to the cyclone and I still wear a dust mask at all times in the shop. I also make it a practice to shower right after my work day is over. You can become sensitised to wood dust, epoxy etc. and I believe that leaving it on your skin etc. overnight is not good. Bob
Main unit outside would be ideal, but the inside/outside temperature gradient and shop volume are important considerations. Would work best for a large shop and low temperature gradient.
My shop is worst-case: about 2100 cubic feet with temperature differentials of up to 80 degrees (-20 outside, 60 inside). Under those conditions it is pretty hard to make up for losing 800 to 1000 cubic feet of air per minute! I'm pretty much stuck returning filtered air to the shop.
I have my unit inside my shop and the big paper filter works real good. I have the warm inside cold outside problem here in BC. 700 square foot shop. Bob
Ahh, you made me do the calculation, I'm only about 4000 ft^3 in my shop. Temp differential is usually within 30 degrees, but still I think I don't want to imagine all my warm air being cycled out of my shop in mere minutes the last couple of evenings.
You can make a "closet" for the dust collector. Just make sure you have a way for the air to flow between the closet and the shop. That will also give you a place for another filter.
We use evaporative cooling units (swamp coolers) as make-up air units. They are easy to size for the cfm loss created by the filter system,and easy to install. If you live in an arid climate it can double as a cooling unit. If not, don't hook up the water. You really do need to provide some make up air system matching the cfm loss or you'll create an imbalance that can cause you problems.
Good luck
I took the plunge and hooked up an Oneida V-3000 (3hp, HEPA filter). After using it for awhile, I'm tickled with the choice. I'd do it again.
It makes quite a bit of noise in my small shop, but it gets almost everything from my table saw, band saw, and thickness planer. I need to come up with a better hood for my edge sander, but that's due to sander design, not the collector.
Fit and finish are excellent. Assembly was easy, with good instructions.
One thing I notice is that even when it was undisturbed, my shop smelled dusty. Not so much that you really noticed... but when I run the collector, the place smells noticeably fresh, more like outdoor air than indoor air.
When I built a new shop (really an additon on my old shop) I purchased an oneida 5 hp dust gorilla. I loved it, but If I were to do it again, I would get a bigger one.
Originally I had it inside the shop so as not to suck all the AC out. This was so noisy that I just hated to turn on the collector. I have since moved it into a closet with the return blowing in to the wood room (adjoining the main shop and cooled by the same AC). What a relief! I still have issues with collection at many machines, but none more than two of my edge sanders. My wide belt sander could use some help too. Really, I could correct some of this, but there never seems to be time.
When there is time to fix, I would rather go hunting!
BigJIm