Thread: Invisible Dust question....

I had the same thoughts as BobL when I "made" my very crappy dust port for the lathe.

We have a habit of lighting inscense at home. I grabbed a stick and with the DC and lathe on (to create disturbed air) waved it around near and far.

It was really dramatic at how far the little DC I have did suck air from. It allowed me to fine tune the port. It visualised the air movement exceedingly well.

I did it next to my table saw. I ended up covering many holes with duct tape. Hardly anything gets ejected from the top of the blade and the suction creates a Black Hole Of Doom to suck it all down.*

I've found that since then (and building a box to shroud the router) my dust has fallen to nearly zero....and this was with an $80 second hand DC (H+F 1hp, 600cfm with a pleated cartridge)


* zero clearance inserts restrict this dramatically and I was thinking of experimenting with putting suction holes in the insert (small near the blade and large towards the edge.... Swiss cheese)

Originally Posted by Evanism

We have a habit of lighting inscense at home. I grabbed a stick and with the DC and lathe on (to create disturbed air) waved it around near and far.

It was really dramatic at how far the little DC I have did suck air from. It allowed me to fine tune the port. It visualised the air movement exceedingly well.

As a smoker, I have the advantage over you . I can actually give the smoke some acceleration in a different direction to the DE air movement - thus replicating the vagueness of invisible particle movement. I can still punch out one of those breath strength meter tube thingies to off the scale, so there's plenty of acceleration available.


No?

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

As a smoker, ...

I wouldn't worry about invisible dust, the cigarette smoke will get you long before the invisible nasties. (Yes I am a reformed smoker and that gives me a mandate to berate and belittle smokers) (I sounded just like Tony Abbott then didn't I )

Originally Posted by NCArcher

I sounded just like Tony Abbott then didn't I

Nah.

Firstly, your lips were moving.

Second, you'd have to say "a new tax, isn't really a new tax" to sound like him.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Jake, I really don't know where you are coming from here. I think you are indicating that I'm fussing unnecessarily over invisible dust. Is that right?

If so, then best to note that invisible dust fools us into a false sense of security, and this has a double whammy. Because we can't see it we think the room is clear of dust, and therefore take off the mask, or otherwise don't worry about it. The big danger here is that invisible dust is more of a problem the the visible because it is finer and can penetrate into lung tissue more readily.

So the finer more deadly dust that can't be seen is given an open road by taking off the mask.

G'day Brett, I did some work some years back in a school woodwork class room and the teacher purchased two [2] big room filters which I mounted/hung from the ceiling to create a circular flow of air which was filtered through the large pleated filters on the units inlets.... may be an option for your shed??? Cheers, crowie

Yeah, I wouldn't mind putting in a microair (or whatever they are called) filter crowie.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

Yeah, I wouldn't mind putting in a microair (or whatever they are called) filter crowie.

....naaaa. get one of these MFP750_3.jpgPut it behind your work area and have it blowing out the door.
No inwisable dust or cats hangin round then.
Just rug up in winter.

Room filters are ineffective at keeping up with dust produced by machinery but they will help clean up a room after a dust making activity has ceased.

Axial fans are in fact pretty hopeless at collecting up and pushing fine dust out of an opening. They simply will no blow invisible dust out of a doorway. They create severe turbulence and end up sucking back and reticulating a lot of their own air. As they are designed to recirculate air and not push it in a specific direction for long distances they are one way of guaranteeing that you wlll distribute fine dust all over your shed. If all you can afford is an axial fan it is better to make two big holes in the shed on opposite walls and put the fan in one hole blowing outwards - definitely not inwards. Not everyone wants to or can put such a big holes in their shed wall.

I have seen a number of these axial fans used by turners who think it is OK to just dilute the fine dust generated by their lathe into the rest of the shed. Remember, all it takes to exceed the far from best practice Aussie, OHS dust level is 1/4 of a thimble of dust! The only way to prevent this level accumulated dust getting into the air of a shed is to capture as much of it as possible at source and to run a DC for some time after the last dust making activity..