Dustiest power tool in my shed.

**BobL** · 11th October 2021, 09:52 PM

Finally my ankle has improved where I can spend some time back in the shed. Hooray!

This morning I decided to cut (8) slots for 4 biscuits in some 100 year old jarrah fence pickets so I got out the old Ozito biscuit cutter which I haven't used for more than 12 months and I was immediately reminded of how useless the 20mm dust extraction port is on this thing as most of the dust ends up squirting out of the sides of the cut. Anyway I thought 8 cuts - not much dust - so I won't even bother with the shop vac.

After the second cut I noticed a definite fogging of the shed air and took two steps towards the "permanently on" dust detector about half a meter above my head and was surprised to see a PM2.5 reading of close to 400 µg/m^3

(ie well above recommended levels)

Turn on squirrel cage ventilator and it came down to about PM2.5 of 60 µg/m^3 after about 5 minutes which I put down to the dust level being much higher down at bench level and the fine dust was taking its time to diffuse into the rest of the shed.

Make another two cuts and go back and look and now its about 250 µg/m^3 and then I realised I had the squirrel cage ventilator running at only 35Hz so upped it to 70Hz which managed to bring it down to <60 squirrel cage ventilator in just tw0 minutes and also hold the dust levels to <60 squirrel cage ventilator for the remaining cuts.

It then took about 10 minutes to bring the PM2.5 levelsdown to <10 µg/m^3 which was the same as outside the shed.

This is the first time I have tested the biscuit cutter as a dust maker. I must do the same experiment some time with the shop vac attached and see what difference it makes.

**Lappa** · 11th October 2021, 10:16 PM

I have a Makita Biscuit joiner and I have always been impressed with how good it’s dust/chip collection is. I’ve rarely had to vacuum up after it. I wonder why the difference? I will take some measurements next time I use it re fine particles,

**BobL** · 11th October 2021, 10:38 PM

Originally Posted by Lappa

I have a Makita Biscuit joiner and I have always been impressed with how good it’s dust/chip collection is. I’ve rarely had to vacuum up after it. I wonder why the difference? I will take some measurements next time I use it re fine particles,

Good to hear this as I've decided the Ozito might be getting to the end of its days. Its not just the dust, but some of the adjustment knobs are broken/missing. It could also be blunt although it didn't seen to have trouble cutting the slots in the jarrah pickets. The only other power tool that comes close to this level of dust generation (without extraction) seems to be my routers. I also cut a full length 6 x 10 mm rebates into the same pickets with the particle detector being almost above the router wing/table but the detector didn't see a thing almost certainly because I had both under and over dust collection happening

**DJ’s Timber** · 12th October 2021, 12:21 AM

Originally Posted by Lappa

I wonder why the difference?

Originally Posted by BobL

- so I won't even bother with the shop vac.

He did say no Vac

**QC Inspector** · 12th October 2021, 01:00 AM

I have a Lamello that I bought when they were relatively new in the 80's. I bought the vacuum attachment because it made a lot of dust. With the shop vac attached it is almost dust free. Gets everything visible as long as the business end of the machine is covering the wood, some escapes otherwise. I wish all portable tools were as effective at capturing dust.

Pete

**elanjacobs** · 12th October 2021, 05:29 PM

I have to saw the dewalt at my old work had excellent extraction; near enough to 100% on the visible stuff when using the supplied vac adapter and festool midi. It did sometimes clog up with the stringy stuff like pine if you plunged too hard though

**Lappa** · 12th October 2021, 07:20 PM

Originally Posted by DJ’s Timber

He did say no Vac

Yes. No vacuum attached just excellent collection straight into its dust bag.

**Mountain Ash** · 19th October 2021, 06:48 AM

Hi L. Same experience for me with same machine. Admittedly mostly used on messmate so other timbers may give different results but.....

**draconus** · 5th November 2021, 05:43 PM

Hi Bob,

Do you have any info on the dust detector you mentioned ?

TIA

**BobL** · 5th November 2021, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by draconus

Hi Bob,

Do you have any info on the dust detector you mentioned ?

TIA

That dust detector is home made using a Plantower 7003 sensor.
Details of this and a number of other sensors are in this thread.
Developments in Dust Sensor tech

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