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Hi everyone, I thought it might be good to have a place for people to share ideas about dust collection. Perhaps you've added collection to a jig that worked well or found that a product you bought worked well, or didn't. If you're like me it can be a challenge to feel confident you are spending your time and money wisely, but when you do boy does it feel great. Hopefully here's here's a place to share.

I'll start by saying that after some time deliberating and coming up with the courage to open the wallet, I purchased a Bosch Airsweep and added hepa filters and a dust collection port to my dynabrade sander. I have a downdraft table hooked up to a dust collector and, to my amazement, never needed to turn it on. I sanded spruce/cocobolo body tonight and there was nothing this setup wasn't getting. I always get stuffed up sanding spruce even with a mask, and well we all know cocobolo has that peppery smell as you sand... with this there was not even odor! It is a pricey outfit, but it might be the best money I've spent on a tool in my life.

I'm going after the mortise and tenon jig next.

Cheers,
Pete

I'm pulling up a chair and ready to listen!

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Situation: Too much suction from shopvac for half sheet and 6"sanders resulting in poor abrasive life due to heating of finish and pilling of melted finish on abrasive.
Solution: Buy a new Vac with adjustable power. Nope No spare money, current vac (Fein Turbo II) broke the bank and is in good (albeit dusty) condition.
Solution: Buy a $5 'Y' and drill a half inch hole in the cap. Sander mode:


Full power mode:

Great thinking . I dont quite see the connection between to much suction and the abrasive getting clogged like that , but if it works , I never claimed I knew it all anyway ! Learn somthing new everyday

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I've worked hard on my dust collection with the main goal of having very good to excellent breathing air quality. That means collecting the really fine dust that is most dangerous to my health. I have been successful. Here are a few observations:

1. If dust can be seen in the air, the air quality is obviously poor.

2. If dust can not be seen, the air quality is unknown unless an air quality meter is present.

3. If a bag system starts up and inflates with a puff of dust, it is a chip collector and a dust blower. (see #1) The poor choice of instead using a broom will likely be an improvement to air qualtiy.

4. Often the air quality is worse after a sawing or sanding operation than it is during the operation as the air in the shop circulates. Wearing a mask during the operation and removing it immediately is therefore a poor idea.

5. Fine dust settles in the shop and just walking around in the shop stirs it up enough to cause poor air quality (but I can't see it). The strategy I used to successfully solve this was to a) Install a ceiling fan and run it 24/7 to stir the air more than me and b) install a small HEPA air filter and run it 24/7.

6. To effectively collect dust off a band saw the open area under the table around the blade must be closed and aspirated. This can be done with foam rubber or plastic or whatever. Here's one way viewtopic.php?f=10117&t=34557 I've also done this effectively with just foam rubber.

7. The dust collector exhaust must be HEPA or near-HEPA to have healthy air quality.

Full suction from the Fein pulls the sander pad tight against the workpiece. The tighter fit results in lower airflow across the pad and increases the temperature of the surface and abrasive. Net is less actual dust collection and increased formation of finish pills on the abrasive.