Dust control in a workshop

[Tim Brennan]

I just watched this video by Peter Parfitt all about dust control.

It got me thinking.

I don't have one of those amazing dust monitoring tools, but instead I turned all the lights off and turned on the torch on my phone. It shows up any dust floating about in the air. Not very scientific but still useful I think to see what is going into your lungs.

I have a CTL 26 which mostly works great, but this week I had to shave a couple of mm off some mdf with the TS55 and this made a lot of dust in the air.

I think Peter said on one of his videos never to clean a workshop with compressed air as this sends all that dust into the air. I am wondering if that if this dusting with air was done last thing at night before leaving a workshop wearing a respirator and then running a 2 stage air filter for an hour or so at the same time, would that be a great way to keep a workshop clean?

I guess it would still get on your clothes and hair but maybe a bunny suit could be used to deal with that.

Also,  do beards defeat the object of respirators? I have a 3M one with a silicone face piece. I am wondering how good a seal it makes.

 

[ChuckM]

How big is your shop? It took an hour for my 2 garage shop to clean its air from fair to good. I have no access to the photos of my furnace-fan turned air filtration system and a box-fan turned air filter. I'll add then when I can do so.

I didn't watch the video, bu you can find a decent air quality monitor on Amazon for under $50 Cdn. I'll find the link later.

Masks or respirators need a tight fit to be effective. So beards may or may not affect their effectiveness.

Extracting dust at source should be the first line of defense. In general, I don't need a mask when I use the table saw, miter saw, disc sander, and router table as my air quality monitor has consistently shown that the air quality in my shop stays clean. Certain cuts, e.g , edge cuts require additional dust collection or prevention measures.

 

[Tim Brennan]

My shed is 8'x16' so not too much air to filter. Ceiling is only 7'3 high. The smaller the filter the better for me as space is a little limited.

That $50 fan sounds interesting. I had my eye on this one
https://www.datapowertools.co.uk/Pr...NWuIEWbAdvVj3URiGwPFucw-YKhv-wUxoCW1sQAvD_BwE

as it can be set to automatically turn off after a set time. costs ~4x that other one though

 

[Steve1]

I think Peter said on one of his videos never to clean a workshop with compressed air as this sends all that dust into the air. I am wondering if that if this dusting with air was done last thing at night before leaving a workshop wearing a respirator and then running a 2 stage air filter for an hour or so at the same time, would that be a great way to keep a workshop clean?

I have a 3/4 HP air cleaner (kinda like the one you linked to, but a lot bigger- check sizing independently, not from the guy selling it), that I put on casters so I could roll it closer to the point of use.
Every once in a while, I turn on the air cleaner, put on my dust mask, grab my leaf blower, and blow out the shop.  (then leave the shop for a couple hours) The fine dust gets suspended in the air and some of it passes through the air cleaner and collects in the filters.  Need to repeat that maybe 4 times during a day, but still it doesn't get all of it.

I have been using my CT-36 as my dust collection, but decided I'm fighting a losing battle.  My last big project was sapele, which is a very dusty wood.

So I got a Laguna P Flux 1.  I'm in the process of setting it up right now.

 

[Michael Kellough]

Trimming a couple mm’s off an mdf edge is the worst case scenario. The simple way to adhere to the “capture the dust at the source” mantra is to place an equal thickness board next to the piece being trimmed. Huge difference.

The idea of clearing dust from the shop by blowing it all into the air via compressed air only works if you have a high cfm exhaust fan with plenty of clean makeup air provided. Powered dust filters are too slow.

 

[ChuckM]

Michael is right. But each time we need to find a strip of similar thickness.
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...s-topics/scratching-my-head-about-this-chute-(3-d-printed)/#msg707680

 

[Tim Brennan]

The idea of clearing dust from the shop by blowing it all into the air via compressed air only works if you have a high cfm exhaust fan with plenty of clean makeup air provided. Powered dust filters are too slow.

I don’t know if it would work, but how about waiting for a windy day (above 50mph), opening the doors and windows and then blasting everything with compressed air or a leaf blower?

 

[Michael Kellough]

The idea of clearing dust from the shop by blowing it all into the air via compressed air only works if you have a high cfm exhaust fan with plenty of clean makeup air provided. Powered dust filters are too slow.

I don’t know if it would work, but how about waiting for a windy day (above 50mph), opening the doors and windows and then blasting everything with compressed air or a leaf blower?

That is the old school way to reduce the dust in the shop. Back before shop vacs and dust collectors and filters.

 

[squall_line]

The idea of clearing dust from the shop by blowing it all into the air via compressed air only works if you have a high cfm exhaust fan with plenty of clean makeup air provided. Powered dust filters are too slow.

I don’t know if it would work, but how about waiting for a windy day (above 50mph), opening the doors and windows and then blasting everything with compressed air or a leaf blower?

That is the old school way to reduce the dust in the shop. Back before shop vacs and dust collectors and filters.

Not to mention the fact that, if the winds outside are consistently 40-50mph, you probably don't want to be out there, and it's also quite likely that far more and worse stuff will be floating on the breeze and getting into the shop than the wood dust you're trying to blow out.

 

[Cheese]

I don’t know if it would work, but how about waiting for a windy day (above 50mph), opening the doors and windows and then blasting everything with compressed air or a leaf blower?

Well, waiting for a windy day above 50 mph in Minnesota would be the equivalent of waiting around for a tornado...I'd have a whole lot of different shop concerns at that point.  [smile]

 

[semenza]

Nothing like a leaf blower ...........................

 

Seth

 

[ChuckM]

Wasn't TBR just being playful with his question?

 

[ChuckM]

My shed is 8'x16' so not too much air to filter. Ceiling is only 7'3 high. The smaller the filter the better for me as space is a little limited.

That $50 fan sounds interesting. I had my eye on this one
https://www.datapowertools.co.uk/Pr...NWuIEWbAdvVj3URiGwPFucw-YKhv-wUxoCW1sQAvD_BwE

as it can be set to automatically turn off after a set time. costs ~4x that other one though

This is the monitor (similar model - mine S1 instead S1 Up(graded); the difference is cosmetic) I use to guard my shop:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C73WW244?ref=emc_p_m_5_mob_i_atc

The PM 2.5 for my shop is usually 5 or less (good). The worst (with no air filtration systems turned on) was close to 15 (fair).

 

[woodbutcherbower]

Anyone remember this thread about the air scrubber built into a Systainer?
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/festool-and-tanos-systainers/systainer-air-scrubber/

Great idea, and the product videos looked good. I was ready to pull the trigger despite the high price - but it didn’t end well for the OP and he disappeared off the radar.

Any update [member=76944]mcfal12[/member] ?

 

[ChuckM]

How big is your shop? It took an hour for my 2 garage shop to clean its air from fair to good. I have no access to the photos of my furnace-fan turned air filtration system and a box-fan turned air filter. I'll add then when I can do so.

Snip

Thx to Woodbutcherbower, here are the photos of my box fan and furnace blower air filtration systems.
https://www.festoolownersgroup.com/...s/systainer-air-scrubber/msg691581/#msg691581