Thread: Bandsaw ..Improved Dust Extraction

BTW, out of respect to the original poster, because this thread is moving off from his original topic, I will open a post about these best-practice issues. So that Paddy can have a bit of peace. Paddy, keep inventing, mate. A man who makes his own tools is a man to admire.

We're (except Bob) missing the point. The primary reason for dust extraction in the workplace is not to make it look pretty and tidy (which is a great byproduct, especially if you do your finishing in the same workspace as your dimensioning), it's to keep you alive and healthy for longer. Silicosis is what leads to a shortened and much less pleasant life. 2 of my uncles died from miner's lung - and their deaths were not at all dignified. We just dont cough up black soot - but the particle size is similar. Buzzer chips won't kill you. What will kill you are millions of .5 to 3 micron particles of sharp edged silica lodging in your pulmonary tissue. Invisible wood dust in your lungs. If you can't see it, it doesn't exist? Get an air quality meter and be prepared to be afraid. Be very afraid. So 6" ducting and 4000fpm and 1000 cfm should be gospel to us, because it's been PROVEN to reduce the above risks by orders of magnitude. That's what science is for.

And yes there is life after woodworking.

Originally Posted by veloaficionado

. . . . If you can't see it, it doesn't exist? Get an air quality meter and be prepared to be afraid. Be very afraid. . . . .

Getting a particle counter is in most cases a waste of money. It's the same with the thousands of people that paid way too much for cheap geiger counters after Fukushima. The natural background counts just confuse people no end.

Normal urban air contains between 1 and 10 million particles of dust per cubic ft of 0.3 microns or bigger. Its a mix of combustion products, skin flakes, natural and man made fibre, mineral dust, car tyre rubber, some wood dust, paint flakes etc, The problem with using a particle counter in a shed is that this dust is always present and a particle counter cannot distinguishing it from wood dust. To dd this requires the use of an electron microscope. To do any sort of testing about a specific dust like wood dust requires a completely dust free room to start with.

A few years back cheap particle counters became available in the US. Many wood workers bought these counters and confused the heck out of each other. Some were finding higher levels of dust inside their house than their sheds (carpets and curtains are terrible dust traps and generators). Others were taking the read from of their cheap counter as gospel. The counters were reading zero so they assumed the particle counts were zero whereas the counter had reached it's small particle count limit - cheap counters have a limit of ~ 100 small particles per cubic ft . However, using some common sense, cheap particle counters still have a few good uses such as checking for leaks in ducting and filters and the comparative quality of filters.

Why on earth have you people hijacked this thread.
The original subject was Bandsaw - improved dust extraction I repeat improved not completely eliminated. The poster never claimed he had removed all dust particles from his workshop, he simply posts an improvement that he has made to his bandsaw dust collection so that others who may be interested can see what he has done and you guys turn it into a royal commission on air purity.
I have to wonder if it is to or attempt to show which one of you knows more on the subject.
Give us mere mortals some credit that we are intelligent enough to know that there are health concerns involved in what we do.
If you must take the subject to a different level then do it in you own thread and then if we are interested we join in.

Cheers
Rumnut

Originally Posted by tdrumnut

Why on earth have you people hijacked this thread.
The original subject was Bandsaw - improved dust extraction I repeat improved not completely eliminated. The poster never claimed he had removed all dust particles from his workshop, he simply posts an improvement that he has made to his bandsaw dust collection so that others who may be interested can see what he has done and you guys turn it into a royal commission on air purity.
I have to wonder if it is to or attempt to show which one of you knows more on the subject.
Give us mere mortals some credit that we are intelligent enough to know that there are health concerns involved in what we do.
If you must take the subject to a different level then do it in you own thread and then if we are interested we join in.

Cheers
Rumnut

Originally Posted by tdrumnut

Why on earth have you people hijacked this thread.

The original OPs claim was

However with this modification, am now getting almost 100% dust collection.

A key word missing here is "visible". What is happening is the setup is collecting 100% of the "visible" dust. If this is what the OP had stated I would have left this alone. If the OP has used the word "chips" instead of dust I would have done likewise.

While I admit it useful to remove chips from the vicinity of a machine as it gets in the way, from a health perspective his setup will not be collecting anywhere near 100% of the invisible dust. Worse still the arrangement shown will be spraying the invisible dust all over his shed. So aesthetically and practically 10/10, from a health perspective 0/10.

The OP may have indeed been referring to chip rather than dust collection but this needs to be explicitly stated otherwise newbies and many oldies will read posts like this and think it is a "total dust solution".

Here is a link to a thread I started a while ago when improving the collection of dust from my old Leda machine

Originally Posted by Superbunny

if we put a 4" or 6" pipe in the same place but connected to a dusty and not a vacuum cleaner?

SB

So any idea if it will work BobL or worth giving it a try?

SB

Bugger it all. I give up woodwork.

BobL

As you are inclined to be rather pedantic about minute details, a small correction to your statement is required.

In Fact The original OPs quote was

However with this modification, am now getting almost 100% dust collection. There is virtually no dust deposited in either the lower or upper sections of the bandsaw and no dust landing on the table.

I deliberately included Almost and Virtually in the text in case some bright spark might take issue with the comment and suggest that i was claiming All dust was being collected !!

This mod does a great job keeping the workshop clean ( of visible dust). Which was not previously possible with a Vacuum Cleaner. The result greatly exceed my expectations and I no longer have to clean out the interior of the saw or have large amounts of dust being carried back to the table by the blade. Previously the band saw was the biggest problem in my workshop now it is not.

I thought that there might be a few other people who were experiencing problems with the popular Carbatec saw and might be interested in the mod and a low cost vacuum cleaner that does a good job.

I'll post some pics of my bandsaw extraction setup, but I use 2 x 4" flex hose off a 6" branch that is the first down-drop in line from the cyclone (2HP JET DC1900 blower) One hose goes into a shroud directly under the table, placed around the blade, the other goes into the bottom wheel guard/frame area. I had to blank off a fair few gaps in this bottom assembly to get air to flow around the lower wheel. I still get some visible dust on top of the table.