Oneida Dust Seperator

[Rick Marchand]

I hung a 20 x 20 " box fan right over my grinder and have a 20 x 20 filter on it . It needs to be replace often as it catches the dust your are referring to Rick .

I stopped using my box fan as soon as I suspected it was causing more problems than it seemed to solve. The dust I am worried about was getting stirred up by the fan. Mine is hung from the ceiling. I stumbled into this realization one day when the sun was shining through the window. I walked into the room, turned the fan on and started putting on my work boots and apron. I glanced up to see a haze of dust particles glistening in the sunlight.

Mahoney talked about measuring airborne dust levels after simply walking through a room... imagine what the air flow of a decent sized box fan is doing. After doing my own testing, I try to avoid recirculating air flow. They do trap dust, I'll give them that. Perhaps, they can be put on a timer to run when nobody is in the shop.

 

[Mahoney]

Even if you have a HEPA filter in front of your fan, the fan is doing more harm than good. Even with "after hours" use, one problem with almost all of those hanging "air filter" units...The filters simply are not good enough, the fine dust is going right through. But the real problem is if you are trying to filter the air in the shop, that's the air you have already been breathing. It's much better to spend your money catching the dust at the source and getting it away from you, either outside or through a really good filter (MERV 15 or better). And be smart about sending the dust outside, is there a window or door or AC unit, etc., downwind that'll let the dust back in?

 

[Bill Siegle]

Just a quick update. I got my Oneida separator set up in the shop. Not too fancy a set up right now as far as the intake. I am running a two inch tube to the top of my water bucket currently until I get some time to fab up something better. Already loving the system though I have done a few heavily sculpted handles in micarta and G10 with very little dust in the air. To be sure I still wear my 3m mask with filters but I no longer have a standing cloud in whatever color material I was grinding. Very pleased with this investment and I highly recommend the Oneida system!