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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
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    lower eyre peninsular
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    Default dust and hand held power tools.

    Making blast gate today out of MDF, and the wife thought the snowman had arrived.
    But I was thinking earlier how can hand held routers, drills, sanders have their dust collection improved. Yes I have 3 various quality vacuum cleaners.
    I would love to grow my own food, but I can not find bacon seeds

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Location
    se Melbourne
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    Default

    To reduce the dust problem I spent a few dollars to get a dedicated vacuum cleaner / dust extractor to connect up to my plunge saw, router, sander and planer. Also have an adapter for the impact drill.
    Does it make a difference. You bet it does.
    With the router a lot depends on what you are doing, and how big a cut you are making. If doing a trench or mortice dust removal is excellent, however when rounding over sometimes you wonder if it is worth connecting up the hose.
    The first time I used the planer was to trim a door. It was done inside the room the door was for and I did not need to clean up. Wow.
    Same thing with the sander. Connect it up and bugger all dust. Just wipe the surface down before staining or painting or oiling.

    Yes, most of my stuff is Festool, but you forget the price for a clean work atmosphere.
    I also have this Makita kit, https://makita.com.au/products/power...specifications and it cuts down the amount of dust made. I have more problems with dust when I bang a rawlplug in the hole than actually drilling the hole. No more dust lines down brick walls.

    I am pretty sure that FenceFurniture has also done a lot of adaptations to reduce free dust in his workshop.

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Posts
    383

    Default

    Hi,
    I have a WAP Alto (now Nilfish) dust extractor (=workshop vacuum cleaner) with a long hose for connecting to portable power tools and a mains power socket for the power tool - with the latter, starting and stopping the tool will automatically start and stop the dust extractor.
    I found that if the power tool is already designed for dust extraction (e.g. anything by Bosch, Festool) then there is no dust problem. I use mine for sanding work inside on window sills and frames and my wife is happy that there is minimal dust generated - very little and easily cleaned up.
    I have some Makita power tools and I had to do research on the internet to find their dust collection adaptors (+ part numbers) for my jigsaw, router and sander.
    Then often there is some extra work with short lengths of plastic pipe + duct tape to make an connection piece to the hose end and the tool.
    Doing power sanding with the tool connected to the dust extractor is now a good experience; also the sandpaper lasts much longer as it is not being clogged up with dust.

    PS the guys in power tool shops often don't know there are dust adaptor kits for Makita tools - that's why I had to do my own research.
    New Zealand

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
    Posts
    27,757

    Default

    Most of you will know my views on vacs. I do have a wet and dry shop vac but I use it in my shed mainly for vacuuming metal or plastic swarf from my metal working machines or the floor. I use it outside the shed eg in the house if I'm sanding something in situ like a door frame but I attach a hose to the outlet and feed that outside the nearest window

    For hand held power tools with built in fans like sanders, in the shed I connect these direct to my DE system and have several 4" ports in the 6" DE ducting with 2" reducers available for this. On most power tools the fans are actually pi$$ poor at extracting the dust and are the limiting factor with these tools. so as long as your DE can extract faster than the tool fan can deliver you are not going to get any better than this. This means using 2" hose which can be a PITA hanging behind a power tool but there are ways of suspending the hose so it doesn't get in the way too much. For extra DE lay or hang a 6" flex connected to the DE near to where you are sanding OR if you have ventilation run that at Max. Sometimes I do both.

    Unless you are drilling hundreds of holes, drills don't actually make a lot of fine dust which is why a 4" extraction port is all that is needed for a DP. If I am drilling g a few holes I just lay a 4" flex line connected to the DE system close to the holes and that is more than enough. Then when I finish I vacuum up the visible sawdust.

    Routers are PITA - the big Trioton I use most often is in a router table which has under and over table DE which is about as good as you can get for a router. For freehand work there's no doubt a vacuum works better on the visible dust but not so well on fine dust. I have done some testing while folks were freehand using (insert very expensive brand name here) routers and (insert same very expensive brand name here) vacs and compared to when they were not using these vacs the fine dust collection was no more than ~1/2 to 1/3rd of the usual fine dust generated. I don't do this often but when I freehand inside the shed I hang a 6" flex connected to the DE near to where I'm routing OR just ventilation for short job s or boith.


    If you are a high user of hand held power tools there's a good case for reticulated PVC ducting network for a Shop vac something like 2" PVC ducting and fittings are dirt cheap. This then means the shop vac can be located outside the shed which is the best place for it.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
    Posts
    1,436

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by BobL View Post
    ....I have done some testing while folks were freehand using (insert very expensive brand name here) routers and (insert same very expensive brand name here) vacs and compared to when they were not using these vacs the fine dust collection was no more than ~1/2 to 1/3rd of the usual fine dust generated.....
    Thanks Bob I was hoping someone with the sanders, routers and saws that were matched to their vacuums would make them available to do with an without the vacuum on tests to see how effective they were as I had always suspected they were over rated. Your statement above basically tells the tail. I would love to see actual tests and the results someday but I know it would involve a bunch of time to do a detailed test.

    Pete

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by QC Inspector View Post
    Thanks Bob I was hoping someone with the sanders, routers and saws that were matched to their vacuums would make them available to do with an without the vacuum on tests to see how effective they were as I had always suspected they were over rated. Your statement above basically tells the tail. I would love to see actual tests and the results someday but I know it would involve a bunch of time to do a detailed test.

    Pete
    It's very difficult to do these tests because it invariably ends up contaminating a workspace and then how to get it clean again to perform repeat trails, and it takes time time . I can only really do this sort of thing in my shed where I have massive ventilation (relative to the side of my shed) and a better than hospital grade RAF. I've had it I my todo list for some time. One day . . . . . .

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
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    Default

    I was wondering if a family size camping tent would work as a controlled space? Do a test, open it up and blow it out with a leaf blower, another test and so on until done. Still take a lot of time but the shop wouldn't get messed up. Now to find someone dumb enough to lend a tent. Or maybe a cube truck or a box trailer.

    Pete

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2006
    Location
    Perth
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    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by QC Inspector View Post
    I was wondering if a family size camping tent would work as a controlled space? Do a test, open it up and blow it out with a leaf blower, another test and so on until done. Still take a lot of time but the shop wouldn't get messed up. Now to find someone dumb enough to lend a tent. Or maybe a cube truck or a box trailer.

    Pete
    We have such a tent and it has not been used in (15?) years - not sure it will ever be used again either. The main issue is do I have the interest to pursue it.
    Too many project sand not enough time.

  10. #9
    Join Date
    Apr 2001
    Location
    Perth
    Posts
    10,810

    Default

    My preference to a power router for dados is this ...





    Keep in mind that even hand sanding produces a great of fine dust. Use a hand sander connected to a vacuum cleaner ...





    HEPA filter, Bob ..?

    Maximise dust extraction with Abranet ...


    Regards from Perth

    Derek
    Visit www.inthewoodshop.com for tutorials on constructing handtools, handtool reviews, and my trials and tribulations with furniture builds.

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