I have to turn wood and cork in the same room (garage) I wrap in. Since getting a wood lathe dust has gotten to be a bigger problem than ever. Looking at Dust Collectors and Air Cleaners and wondering which would be the best solution. Space is at a premium so the ceiling mounted Air Cleaner sure looks like the better solution. Am I right? Would a ceiling hung Air Cleaner take care of that fine dust that covers everything after shaping wood or cork?

Thank you

They do work good. I have not used one, do it all out side.
Other things maybe a fan in a window, better with the motor away from the fan but with a belt to run it so it does not get dusty.
Or maybe a vacumn cleaner with a large cup shaped attachment fixed under the cork and wood to grab the dust.

I've tried part of you suggestion Bill - stuck my Shop Vac hose right underneath the lathe but it just doesn't seems to catch everything... still a coating of dust over everything in there. The shop vac does get the bulk of it thou. And, if an air cleaner would get that minute stuff out of the air it'd sure help as far as wrapping.

If only I lived someplace where I Could do that outside all year! Course, then I'd be fishing more though!

Thank you

It gets cold as he__ her also. Some times I stick the lath out side, shape a little then get inside to try and get warm??
If you do the fan thing, it will take the heat out in the winter! That celling cleaner sounds better to keep it warm. Maybe use the vacumn for the bulk and the cleaner for the rest.
At least you got a garage. You should see my living room rug??!!(&^%$#

Neil,
The solution to your problem is two-fold. First you'll need a dust/debris collector. I have a Penn State DC250SE 2Hp Dual Stage collector that is amazingly good for the price. It is however about 8 feet tall, but with two 4" hoses attached it'll suck up everything in a 12" radius that comes off a lathe. This however will not eliminate the fine coating of dust that tends to settle on everything. For that you'll need some sort of ambient air cleaner like the JDS750ER or the Penn State equivilent. This will recycle the air in the room about 8 times per hour and capture everything down to 1 micron.


Andy Dear
Lamar Manf.

Andy's right on the money. An air cleaner by itself will clog quickly on that much debris. A dust/debris collector will never really take care of the very finest airborne dust.

The best solution is a good heavy collector right at the source and a dust collector for general room air cleaning.

Here's something else you might try - it's inexpensive and easy to make and works very well, but you will need to clean it often and/or replace the filter often. (You'll also get a sneak preview of the new photo site) Look for the cheap box fan with furnace filter taped to it. Remarkably effective for at the source collection. Don't rely on it for heavy duty chip collection, however.

www.rodbuilding.org/photopost


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Then also maybe you can set up some ducting to send it out side

I had once rigged my big Jet two-stage dust collector to take the debris outdoors instead of using the supplied bag filter. That way, I figured it would all just go on out and there we be no filter bag to clean or leak. Once I got all the hoses rigged, it occured to me that it would also take all my heated air right outside in a matter of about 3 minutes. So this is a problem when working in a cold winter or hot summer and you've got heated or cooled air in your shop.

Seriously, try the el-cheapo box fan dust collector. It will do more than you might think. Those fans are about $10 and the really good 3M Filtrette filters are about another $10 to $15. You can reverse the filter to the front of the fan, take it outside and turn it on, and you blow the stuff back off the filter and you're ready to use it again.

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Well, now all I have to do is convince my wife that I *Need* these two pieces of equipment, rearrange the garage, decide whether the boat or the Jeep loose a stall... gracious sakes...one thing leads to another...

Thanks kindly for the suggestions.. my wife thanks you too.

Neil Toland

Once she finds out you got the info for all that from here, I guess we will not be hearing from you for a while - good luck

afraid she knows.... she was standing behind me looking over my shoulder as I typed... It all is working out smoothly tho.... she was wanting a new vacum cleaner... told her if I got the dust collection equipment she could use the Shop Vac anytime she wanted.

When I recovered consciousness from the blow to the back of my head the book mark for this site was gone from my favorites list.

Now that's funny!!!

And people wonder why I am still single.......To avoid all of the concussions....LOL

It is all about the process of negotiation I am told by my parents (46 years of marriage to each other BTW). If I get this you get that.

Example: My mother sold me her Nissan Maxima for $1 in exchange for that years new model.

There are some REALLY nice new vacuum cleaners out there and they are cheaper than Dr. visits for double vision.

Derek

I use the box fan that Tom talks about (Got the idea from him) and it does a surprizingly good job (not perfect but adequate for my needs) I use a GOOD high micron furnace filter and tape it over the exhaust side of the fan so it is pulling the air into it and place the fan right up against the back of the lathe with the filter against the lathe. I usually let the fan run for awhile after I'm done to clean the air for awhile. I just vacuum the filter of with my shop vac periodically. I'm not a real heavy user and it may not be as good as a real system, but works pretty good for me

Mike

My main hobby is woodworking and I am sensitive to dust. Therefore proper dust collection is not an option in my shop. I use a 2hp Oneida commercial cyclone that filters 99.5% of particles > 1 micron. This unit provides enough effective CFM to my lathe to make sanding wood or cork a hassle free operation. To keep your lungs healthy and your room dust free you must collect dust at the source. The air filtration units will do absolutly nothing to protect your lungs while you are making dust. Although they will extract some of the airborne dust eventually, they will not give you a dust free environment. They are good for cleaning up the air prior to finishing. If you go the air filter route then you will need to wear a NIOSH approved respirator. I have an airmate helmet that I use when things get real hairy on the lathe (i.e. a DC unit isn't so good on clearing out a hollow form vessel). If your main concern is capturing dust from a small lathe, especially sanding dust from spindle turning operations then there are few lower cost units that will do a fairly decent job. You could use a Jet DC650C(canister model, not bag) or a Jet DC1100C (canister model) with a fairly short piece of flex and then work up your own dust hood. an 6"x18" rectangle that slopes to a 4",5", or 6" circular opening works fairly well as a dust hood for sanding operations on a lathe. I had one made that I mounted on a swing arm from the ceiling that works well. A microphone stand also makes a good mount for these. The trick to all of this is to have the dust collector close to the lathe and to keep the amount of flex hose to an absolute minimum. If you want to learn more look up Bill Pentz in google and visit his site.

I have tried everything in my shop, and I can honestly say that using anything less than a cyclone when recycling the air inside is futile--it is the dust that you cannot see (< 1 micron) that will kill you. Trust me, if you are serious about keeping your garage dust free, you have two choices; namely, work outside or buy a cyclone. Thankfully, Bill Pentz spent years and thousands of dollars to research the issue well enough to publish it on the Internet (see: [billpentz.com]).

Well, I ordered a PennState Industries dust collector. Hopefully, between it and an "El-Cheapo" air cleaner, I'll make some dent in the dust. Working outside isn't a viable option in the wintertime and the Cyclone dust collectors are out of my price range.

I did find an interesting article on making improvements to a dust collecting system I may try. Spoze it can't hurt.

[www.woodcraft.com]

"A mini-cyclone Yet another “trash can” pre-separator, this pre-separator is quite different from the drop box shown on page 91. Instead of using an internal baffle to “knock down” heavy chips, this pre-separator uses a combination of PVC pipe and fittings and a round trash can to create sort of a mini-cyclone."