I took several approaches to the issue of dust management.
First I did build a separate room for all my more dust producing pursuits involving grinders, sanders and buffers.
This is a nice option if you can do it. I just walled in a portion of my shop and added a door.
At each grinder I use a water trough filled with water and a few drops of dish soap to break the surface tension. This catches most of my dust, and stops almost all sparks. I use plastic or metal dry-wall trays.
I also went the route of dust evacuation to outside using metal ducting, metal gates and a two stage cyclone machine resting on a 50 gallon plastic-lined steel drum, with a few inches of water in the bottom. From this the duct work goes outside behind my shop.
When grinding, I close the well sealed door to the grinding room and open the sliding window in front of the grinder about 3 or 4 inches.
Opening the window draws the air from outside, to the grinder and then through the dust evac system.
This can make the grinding room a little cooler in the winter, but I don’t mind. The room is small and I am usually kind of warm with layers, a lab over coat, billed cap with dust cape, respirator, etc. anyway.
For hand sanding, which I do in the main area of the shop, I set up a box fan with furnace filters on the bench or my stool, a few feet away from where I am working and that draws away almost all that dust. I would like to improve this setup, but it works. I have a large air cleaner in my wood shop mounted to the ceiling, and it does a great job in there, but probably not much of a better a job; just looks nicer.
You can see some slightly older photos here. Old in that they show a much cleaner and less crowded shop…and they show my mock ups for dust shrouds made from wood.
http://www.stoneandsteel.net/dust-management/
I am pretty happy with my set up so far. After running several tests with observers, I just could not get any sparks to make it to the drum, let alone outside even when hogging off steel. But I am still very careful to be aware of the risk.
Be safe,
Brome
First I did build a separate room for all my more dust producing pursuits involving grinders, sanders and buffers.
This is a nice option if you can do it. I just walled in a portion of my shop and added a door.
At each grinder I use a water trough filled with water and a few drops of dish soap to break the surface tension. This catches most of my dust, and stops almost all sparks. I use plastic or metal dry-wall trays.
I also went the route of dust evacuation to outside using metal ducting, metal gates and a two stage cyclone machine resting on a 50 gallon plastic-lined steel drum, with a few inches of water in the bottom. From this the duct work goes outside behind my shop.
When grinding, I close the well sealed door to the grinding room and open the sliding window in front of the grinder about 3 or 4 inches.
Opening the window draws the air from outside, to the grinder and then through the dust evac system.
This can make the grinding room a little cooler in the winter, but I don’t mind. The room is small and I am usually kind of warm with layers, a lab over coat, billed cap with dust cape, respirator, etc. anyway.
For hand sanding, which I do in the main area of the shop, I set up a box fan with furnace filters on the bench or my stool, a few feet away from where I am working and that draws away almost all that dust. I would like to improve this setup, but it works. I have a large air cleaner in my wood shop mounted to the ceiling, and it does a great job in there, but probably not much of a better a job; just looks nicer.
You can see some slightly older photos here. Old in that they show a much cleaner and less crowded shop…and they show my mock ups for dust shrouds made from wood.
http://www.stoneandsteel.net/dust-management/
I am pretty happy with my set up so far. After running several tests with observers, I just could not get any sparks to make it to the drum, let alone outside even when hogging off steel. But I am still very careful to be aware of the risk.
Be safe,
Brome
