Thread: Full Boar Dust Extractor

Unfortunately it is very difficult to obtain "cheap and efficient" dust collection.

Small, so called dust extractors, like the one you refer to are very efficient at one thing, and that is filling a shed with fine dust.

Two key aspects of dust collection are
a) making sure as much of the dust as possible is collected from the vicinity where it is made and
b) making sure the collected dust does not get back into the shed.

The best way to to deal with
a) is to have a flow rate of ~1000 CFM (the 600 or so CFM is fanciful, in reality it will be more like <300 CFM
b) is to locate or vent a DC outside a shed.

Unfortunately these small DCs do not have he power to drive air over the sorts of distances and through large enough ducting required to do either of these.

Before we can can comment further we would need to know a bit more about the situation in which you are working.

JD you can't have both, cheap yes efficient no. The trade off here is your health.
BobL is the man when it comes to this subject and you can find lots of relevant info, a lot of it from BobL, on this forum if you search "Dust extraction" which will give you a better insight into the problems and the solutions.

I was in your position as a newbie and wasted far too much time, effort and money trying to achieve a good dust extraction situation in my shed.
Don't waste your time on cheap systems but work out what you need first and go from there.

It all depends on your shed/work area setup and how much equipment you have or will have. If you are going to set up a full workshop for instance you should go straight to a 6" system and save yourself the grief when you realise what you have started with is useless. For a small area or only limited tools look to Personal safety protection and sweep up the chips

"Dust extraction" is not the same thing as chip or sawdust extraction.
Good luck,
cheers, Ian

The risk of death from wood dust is very low but the risk of developing an allergy to wood dust is not.
Sometimes the allergy is wood specific but this can lead to a full blown wood allergy.

A survey done on these forums some time ago indicated that 63% of respondents were affected by wood dust in one way or another.
48 % said the were slightly affected and 15% said moderately or significantly affected.

Now there is every chance that we're preaching to the choir here but 10% of woodworkers being affected to the point that they had to do something about it is typical of what has been found in other surveys so it does not seem that far out.

The saddest situation is where someone has to give up wood working completely because o dust issues.
While there is still a chance that some woodworkers would have been affected anyway, a decent DC then seems like a small price to pay to maintain such a pleasurable pastime.

My situation is that my fiancée has started a small business in our garage giving old(ish) furniture a new life, and as a side job I make tables and stools and things out of pallets. She makes a lot of sanding dust which we limit with a wet and dry vacuum with a dust deputy linked in. Before the dust deputy I was for ever cleaning filters and we still had a fair amount of dust particles floating about.

The Full boar thing was mostly to be used outdoors where I do most of the cutting, planing and routing. Sawdust mainly. We are limited as to what we can use as the house is a rental and they frown on holes in walls and floors. Eventually as things get more serious I will be investing in upmarket tools and extraction and filtration equipment.

Originally Posted by jdritchie

My situation is that my fiancée has started a small business in our garage giving old(ish) furniture a new life, and as a side job I make tables and stools and things out of pallets. .

- most honourable indeed!

.

She makes a lot of sanding dust which we limit with a wet and dry vacuum with a dust deputy linked in. Before the dust deputy I was for ever cleaning filters and we still had a fair amount of dust particles floating about. .

Unfortunately even though you see less dust it's unlikely that the fine dust problem is solved because it is invisible. iIt's probably better I don't tell you about my vacuum cleaner testing. I suggest getting some dusts masks and ventilating the rooms you work in with a cross air flow if you can. Even a room fan poking out a window or door is better than nothing.

The Full boar thing was mostly to be used outdoors where I do most of the cutting, planing and routing. Sawdust mainly. We are limited as to what we can use as the house is a rental and they frown on holes in walls and floors. Eventually as things get more serious I will be investing in upmarket tools and extraction and filtration equipment.

OK so it sounds like you will be using it more as a chip collector which is fine.

Would a air filtration system be a useful addition? Granted money is tight but it (the workshop) is only a double garage and health to me is far more important than money.

Originally Posted by jdritchie

Would a air filtration system be a useful addition? Granted money is tight but it (the workshop) is only a double garage and health to me is far more important than money.

If you have any spare cash I would put it first towards capturing the dust at source and removing it from a shed. This means a better DC.

Air filter units are not very effective at capturing dust at source.
They cannot be used to move dust outside a shed do rely on capture only but unfortunately the woodworking filters have relatively inefficient filters so they don't filter out very fine dust quickly and hence take longer to scrub the air in a shed. The hospital grade filters will filter even down to very small particles but they more expensive and clog up quickly and cannot be cleaned.

Romn air filters are best used as secondary scrubbers of dust from air after the bulk has been removed by a DC.

Remember when a DC is used to vent a shed of wood dust it draws freh air from the outside into the shed and this air will have dust in it. Air filter units are very good at removing the large dust particles from this air prior to applying finishes that may be affected by dust.

Originally Posted by jdritchie

I am in the market for a cheap but effective dust extraction system and spotted the Full Boar Dust Extractor at Bunnings. Has anyone had any experience with this product that could give me a heads up on whether to spend $230 odd on it.

Cheers

I have this extractor and it has a fault. When under load the plastic body underneath the fan tends to concave causing it rub against the blades which then seizes the motor. I believe this item should be recalled if others are experiencing this issue also.

Originally Posted by efly

I have this extractor and it has a fault. When under load the plastic body underneath the fan tends to concave causing it rub against the blades which then seizes the motor. I believe this item should be recalled if others are experiencing this issue also.

After pulling the extractor apart the fault lay with the tensioning screw on the fan blades. Tightening this (left-hand thread) has fixed the issue but only time will tell if this lossens again.

Originally Posted by efly

I have this extractor...

Hi,

I'm interested in how this is going for you. Does it work OK as a chip extractor?

I bought this unit, I felt $100 was worth the risk if only to learn something about these kind of units (HVLP), having previously only used the shop vac style of chip and dust extraction.

The unit works great (much much better than the shop vac) on my thicknesser - for a while..., and then the chips back up against the intake grates (both at the supplied hose nozzle and the fan intake).

Now I am thinking of removing these grates but, of course, the risk is then in damaging the impeller, but unclogging the intakes after every use is a PITA.

This appears to be a general problem with this style of DC when you generate sizeable chips as a thicknesser does with softwood (which is all I can afford).

As an aside, I have this same problem at the outlet port of my DeWalt 745 TS which has a shop vac attached - I think I need a zero clearance plate. In fact I am sure I do LOL.

I would say if you're serious about what you're doing starting off with solid dust extraction will not only save you time and money.

A good dust extraction system not only will capture dust at the source which significantly reduces clean up time, but also improves the overall finish of your projects as dust in the air takes hours to settle and can/will ruin your finishes.

Plus i would say dust collection in your case is particularly important, as those working with un-finished wood generally only needs to deal with wood dust, re-finishing old furniture you also have to deal with whatever chemical/finish was used to finish the project previously.

Originally Posted by garym

I bought this unit, I felt $100 was worth the risk if only to learn something about these kind of units (HVLP), having previously only used the shop vac style of chip and dust extraction.

The unit works great (much much better than the shop vac) on my thicknesser - for a while..., and then the chips back up against the intake grates (both at the supplied hose nozzle and the fan intake).

Now I am thinking of removing these grates but, of course, the risk is then in damaging the impeller, but unclogging the intakes after every use is a PITA.

This appears to be a general problem with this style of DC when you generate sizeable chips as a thicknesser does with softwood (which is all I can afford).

As an aside, I have this same problem at the outlet port of my DeWalt 745 TS which has a shop vac attached - I think I need a zero clearance plate. In fact I am sure I do LOL.

I decided to do that today as I checked and it was an easy mod to the bottom of the impeller unit - it seems to have done the trick nicely, but I would need to use it a bit more than I did today to be absolutely sure.

(On the other end I simply took the nozzle off.)

Every shop is different, and we all have different priorities and budgets. However, if you are, or are planning to, spend a fair bit of time woodworking, please consider a good dust extraction system for the sake of your health.

About 5 years ago my shop was a dust disaster. I had dust settling not only on the horizontal surfaces, but also on the vertical surfaces. Usually, a shower was necessary before going into the house after working in the shop. I was sliding towards semi-retirement and spending a fair bit of time in my dust trap. What concerned me most was the superfine dust that is invisible at first, but as it builds up on surfaces becomes visible ... and I had a lot of this nasty stuff in my shop. It was the invisible dust that was building up on the vertical surfaces until it became a clearly visible superfine powder build-up.

The decision was made to upgrade dust collection, and as a new member of this forum, I came here and asked for guidance. It was a very good move. Quite a few people gave advice and guidance, especially BobL.

Please consider effective dust control carefully. We have had members of this forum give away their cherished hobby and sell all their tools because the wood dust had made them quite ill or because they had become allergic to it.