I hate joining a forum on a new hobby or craft and soaking up all sorts of knowledge and having nothing to give. I’d like to give back best I can with a topic that might be of help to the craftsmen here; dust control.
If you’re like me, your money goes towards tools that help you make things as you can afford it. In a wood shop, a lot of these tools generate dust and lots of it. Dust control now becomes an item that you want to get a handle on, but dust collection tools can cost even more than the tools you’ve already bought, especially if you begin to go by the old adage of “you get what you pay for”. I don’t have handy pictures for the size limits of this forum, so you’ll have to excuse the links to my FB page.
Dust Collection First thing I tried was hooking up my trusty dusty Craftsman shop-vac to the tools I was using. That works pretty good for about 5-10 minutes; the filter gets clogged up and the system quits moving air. Air movement is what clears dust.
So I got online and found this device called a Dust Deputy. It‘s a cone shaped device that uses a vortex action to suck sawdust down into a 5 gallon bucket before it can go into your shop-vac. Pretty cool idea and lots of testimonials. I was about to pull the trigger on this when I thought that I could make my own and be using it before the day was done. I bought three different sized plastic round planters, made my own vortex shape and had it dumping into a five gallon bucket. And it worked.
Mark 1 But having a tippy 5 gallon bucket in between the shop-vac and whatever I was working on meant lots of start and stop interruptions because the bucket had fallen over. I then made a little cart for the bucket and secured it to the shop-vac with bungees.
Mark II Better, but still had one major problem; static electricity that really got my attention. I don’t know how many times before I tazed myself before I finally figured out that I’d either have to get the wife to start emptying the bucket for me or find a better solution. Coupled with the fact that I can fill a 5 gallon bucket with sawdust in just an hour told me the solution needed to happen sooner rather than later.
So I was in the hardware store one afternoon and they had these metal 35 gallon trashcans for sale for like $15. Light goes off. I buy one, bring it home, re-enforce the lid with 1/2” plywood, cut two holes in the top, and attach the plumbing from the Mark 1 version, and find out it works just fine without any fancy vortex action going on. I can now collect about 17-18 gallons of sawdust before I have to empty the can. Further, I find that I can move to the fine dust filter for my shop vac (not the HEPA) and still move sufficient air to make it work.
Mark III Air Cleaning Next problem I encountered was that no matter how well I was collecting dust, it still ends up coating everything in the shop. The dust collector was keeping big piles from forming up on the floor with the major cutting tools, but sanding was creating too much fine dust and making it airborne.
I found an old swamp cooler that had seen better days. It was a window unit (big one too) that had a relatively new motor, perfect looking squirrel cage and decent looking front grill where the air comes out. I pulled these items off the frame and built a new frame on wheels around it. I finished everything up with a box of oak laminate flooring I had bought for $2 at a garage sale. I setup two sets of grooves to accept two different types of filters, one course for big stuff and one fine for dust. This contraption can move some serious air. I see a considerable difference if I do all my sanding in front of the intake of this and I also have a new surface to work on that is considerably higher than workbenches.
Air Cleaner Exposed Sanding Dust Collection My latest device is simply a box that has pegboard on the top with a hole in the bottom that allows me to put my dust collection hose into. I can now hand-sand, Dremel-sand, or use any other hand tool that doesn’t accept a hose for dust collection.
Sanding box Not bad for a bunch of items that cost well south of $100. Are they better than the stuff you'd get from Jet or Grizzly? Nope. But until I have enough disposable income to buy these things from Jet or Grizzly, they work great!
Hope this helps out!
Topic: Dust Control (Read 516 times)
