I built a new 350 sq bow shop. It is really dry in it, plus I have electric baseboard heat. I bought a humidifier and that helps a bit. But every time I go out there, I end up getting really stuffy for days. I am looking for a good dust collection system to clean the air. You guys have any suggestions? Thanks, Roy

I bought a Delta dust collector, it will only take care of one machine at a time.  I am very pleased with it so far.  Hope that helps.

I use my shop vac on my sander and bandsaw, works good. I am looking for a unit to clean all the dust out of the air in the shop. Thanks Jess.

If you can find an old furnace blower you can build a nice one pretty cheap.

Here are some pictures:    Air Cleaner  

Use a HEPA filter in the inlet instead of the cheap pleated filter shown, and hang it from the ceiling.  The filter on the inlet keeps the dust from getting into the blower and motor.

The most expensive part would be the HEPA filter.

Whatever you decide to use it must be designed so the return air passes through hepa filtration. This can be a bank of flat filters in a wall if  the unit is in a "doghouse", or using cylinders. The dust that is of concern remains airborn almost forever- ultra fine particles that get into the lungs and are very difficult/impossible for your system to clear. Not to mention many aspects of bowyerism uses synthetics like epoxy, glass and phenolics.

One problem with being casual about taking care with your respitory system is the damage won't always appear until later in life. See those guys wearing oxygen? That was my uncle too. A life in woolen mills-he hit 65 and his system just collapsed.  The Dr said thats typical. The lungs just couldn't handle what he had already put into them anymore, even though it had been years since he'd left that occupation.

The worst systems are the bag types directly returning air into the room when only being filtered by the bags. The dust that is put back into the space is the smallest and most dangerous size. I'm a woodworker, and believe me, once you set up a good system using and maintaining it is essentially hassle free. And your shop is much nicer to work in.

I consider a good dust collection system to be as important in my line of work as any of my machines.

I would think building bows, with all the sanding and other operations that make dust, to be on par with what I do in that regard.

Try to collect it as close to  source as you can.

Joshua

Thanks Joshua. Some good info there.

Roy, I have saw dust alergy's and had to put in a Jet 1000 air filter above my work bench.  My home shop is around 500 s.f..  I'm also installing a shop vac.
Some times I also use a face resperator when using my edge sander.

I have a pretty elaborate dust collection system with a 2hp Giz collector. I put the dust collector in an adjacent room to my shop and run the piping through the wall.

My dust collector sounds like a B-52 taking off so I positioned it outside my shop to keep the noise level down in my shop.

I use a powematic dust collection system, but I found that wasn't adequate for the more fine particulates floating unseen, the kind that makes you 'stuffy'.  I then got a refurbished delta air purifier that will completely filter 1200 sq ft an hour down to one micron.  It does work pretty good but you have to clean the screen and shake out the filters pretty often.  It has a guage on the side to notify you when the filters are struggling with air flow.  Good quality piece of equipment.

Thanks guys. Dan you have a picture of your delta?

What do you guys think about this unit?

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5489&cookietest=1

Roy, I have a 2 horse Griz AND on of the Jet hanging air cleaners (picked up off Craig's for 1/2  price used). The Griz gets the main source dust and the Jet cleans the tiny stuff out of the air. My system is use a paper dust mask, do the sawing/sanding type work and get out for an hour while the air cleaner does its thing. Then go back and enjoy a clean air shop.

I use a three or four different things:

1) I always wear a mask.  Even though it doesn't do a great job, it is another barrier of sorts for the particles to get through.  

2)  I use a shop vac at the source of the dust.  Sometimes it takes some rigging with clamps, but it's worth the effort.

3)  I built a hanging dust filtration system out of an old furnace blower.  It's full uncased, uses two filters to pull air in, and has a filter over the outflow.  (Someday soon I'm going to run the outflow outside, much like a dryer vent.)

4)  I use a 20X20 box fan with a pleated furnace filter on the back to catch sanding dust and particles set loose by my rasps.  I have one workbench near a window, so I often will open the window and face the box fan outflow directly out the window.

5)  I try to use hand tools for the bulk of my work.

Good luck!

Another vote here for using two systems, I have a Jet dust collector and JDS air filtration. I am still putting the finishing touches on my new shop so I have yet to use two together but have used the JDS for quite some time and very impressed with it. Especially when it comes time to clean the filter, that's when you really see what it's doing for you.

Roy from Pa, I thought this would be easier than downloading a pic.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?hl=en&source=hp&q=delta+air+purifier&rlz=1R2GPEA_en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=14294140492961019411&ei=u_xBS4SIKNOflAf2xdSYBw&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_ result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CBsQ8wIwAg#ps-sellers

Thanks Dan and others. I settled on a Grizzly.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Remote-Controlled-Heavy-Duty-Double-Air-Filter/G9956

That looks like a nice unit, I like the remote. I like Grizzly's stuff!!

All good advice.  Capturing dust at the source is important...and the shop air cleaners are nice.   I use both.

One thing I might suggest is that a lot of dust is generated performing tasks that your dust collectors and air cleaners won't help with.   This means a respirator of some sort.  I'm like most people and hate to wear them, but started using one of these years ago and now can't imagine being without it.  Way more comfortable and I believe effective then a basic respirator.   Spendy, but until the Walmart starts carrying new lungs I think worth considering.

http://www.mcfeelys.com/product.aspx?itemNo=TR-2000&s_kwcid=TC|4266|trend%20airshield%20pro||S|p|4391255425

Very good point John, and this time not on the top of your head.  

Got the Grizzly yesterday. Have it sitting on the bench for now, plan on hanging it in the ceiling. Things works great..

http://www.motionbox.com/videos/4c97d6b8151be4c3c3