Extractor recommendations for very, very fine exotic hardwood dust

[mcooley]

Looking for an extractor from Festool or a different brand which can handle long hours of very, very fine sanding to 7000 grit of exotic hardwoods. The caking is the issue in the bags. And possibly the self-cleaning function if it is running all the time. The caking really bogs the machine down after some time.

Thanks

 

[Mini Me]

If it is a commercial operation you need a commercial answer. I was given this specific problem where a sanding operation was needed for a chair manufacturer and we built a special sanding room as small as we could use to keep the air volume down and designed it to be updraught with the air entering at the base and extracted higher up and it worked. We used a Clearvue cyclone now not available and exhausted it to the atmosphere and the Clearvue extracted 99% of the fine sanding dust. The airflow needed to be strong enough that air movement could be detected by anyone in the room who wore suitable PPE and that needs to be both for breathing and skin protection because the skin is an organ and constant exposure to certain wood species will (not if) cause massive reaction problems. The big advantage is that using a room prevents dust escape, keeps others not involved out of danger and the work area light micro dust free. In short more information is needed but a simple vac is not the answer.

 

[mcooley]

It is for jewelry which employs exotic hardwood but the pieces are being sanding on a very small sanding wheel at high speed and thus polishing. The caking is very, very fine. I have thought about running a separator before it goes into the extractor but wasn't sure how fine a dust those can accommodate. I started looking into vacs for silica removal as well.

 

[Mini Me]

All that presents huge health dangers especially silica. I would construct a cabinet along the lines of a blasting cabinet so the sanding is isolated and that would negate the PPE need to a large extent the hands of the operator being the exception. Keep in mind that any separator will reduce the airflow so larger is better. I would make sure that the extractor of any type is isolated in another area to prevent dust affecting the work area. Silicosis is not a pleasant way to leave this world.

 

[mcooley]

I only meant the silica vacs might do well with the exotic wood dust but no silica is being extracted.

 

[Vondawg]

A friend of mine does simular operations…with bone, partial petrified woods, and such. She works on a downdraft table, 4” hose at point of work like a drill press and it is 2 staged…first pulled into a wet bath (5 gallon bucket) half full like what you catch drywall dust with….and of course hooked to an extractor, in this case just a Midi
Edit; don’t know anything about silica

 

[luvmytoolz]

I find with the Dust Deputy cyclonic separators I use the really ultra fine dust ends up mostly in the extractor's bag, but having said that, I do a massive amount of resin/wood sanding for hours on end that similarly produces very fine dust that cakes, and have never had trouble with the extractors, from my 45 year old SR5E to my CT36 and the midi's. Even if the bag is caked full of dust if keeps chugging along.

There's been many times with my ad-hoc Midi I've had to empty a solid brick as the unit just stopped moving sawdust being completely full, but the suction was still going, quite amazing how well they still work when full.

 

[mcooley]

Thanks for both approaches. luvmytoolz are you using the regular dust bags or the reusable? I read the latter might not do well for the very fine dust.

​

 

[luvmytoolz]

In my SR5E I'm using one of the pack of 5 original paper bags that I've sliced the end open and fitted a clamp so they can be emptied and re-used, many, many, many times!

But in the CT36 which mainly gets wood shavings and a real lot of MDF dust it's the long life, and in the Midi which I use for just about everything it's the longlife as well. My prior post shows the long life completely bricked.

Once they get full, they still keep on sucking up dust and actually really start to compact it all, so it's hard as a rock on the outside!

The other cheap dusties you can instantly tell when they're getting close to full as the suction completely drops off and the noise gets incredibly loud, not so easy to tell with the Festool's.

 

[Cheese]

Once they (Festool) get full, they still keep on sucking up dust and actually really start to compact it all, so it's hard as a rock on the outside!

The other cheap dusties you can instantly tell when they're getting close to full as the suction completely drops off and the noise gets incredibly loud, not so easy to tell with the Festool's.

That's been my experience as well. The Festool vacs I own CT 22, CT 36 AC, MIDI, MIDI I & MINI I will all continue to run and will literally "brick" the dust bag, The old Milwaukee stainless 8925 will also brick the bag but then again it will also suck the chrome off of a bumper.

My old Shop Vac and Fein vacs gave up the ghost long before they bricked the bags.

 

[Steve1]

Belt and suspenders.
When doing prolonged sanding, I connect my random orbit to my CT-36 dust extractor, roll my 3/4 HP air cleaner to beside my work area, and then put on a mask.

 

[woodferret]

It is for jewelry which employs exotic hardwood

I wouldn't be looking at Festool TBH. There are plenty like Quatro and Foredom that are specifically tailored to that sort of stuff. Along with the enclosures if you don't already have one. I'd probably start with the Foredom Lighted Work Chamber and pair it with the benchtop DC (MADC20) that comes with a cyclone.

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* Gesswein also has a US site - This is just for illustration purposes, I'm just linking to CA because I'm lazy
** Move up to the pedestal Quatros if your production run dictates.

 

[mcooley]

Thanks for the input. I have many Festool extractors but I rarely have them get as full as the suction does diminish. But all in all they are very good. For the very, very fine dust like in exotics I am not sure I would recommend them etc. Still on the fence about it. Unless I maybe try the "wet bath" solution with a small intermediary container.

 

[mcooley]

Woodferret that Foredom DC (MADC20) looks like it is the way to go. Thanks