Thread: Newbie Vacuum/Dust Extractor

Welcome to the forum.

G'Day Mr Brettles and welcome to the Forum. Others can recommend a shop vac that can connect to the belt sander which will help. The dust leakage you mentioned could be a blockage in the dust pickup on the belt sander. I know from time to time I have to pull the covers off my Ryobi belt sanders and clear what ever has built up to make them less dusty

First thing to do with something like this is to suss out the MSDS.
e.g. https://artdec.ca/media/catalog/msds...iller-0512.pdf

Then you have to understand the MSDS which in this is primarily about the bulk solid product and there's buggers all in there about the dangers involved with using it.

There do have a catch all that says " If there is a significant chance that dusts are likely to build up incleanup area, we recommend that you use a suitable Dust Mask. "
Not that I think that much of dust masks.

The ingredients are all mineral based and because there is no know risks they don't have to say what they are.
I suspect that they a simple plaster based materials so nothing too hazardous about them and the wood you are sanding is more risky to sand than the Timbermate.

Just seeing a bunch of fine dust is usually only half the story. The stuff you can see might make you sneeze but that's about it. It's the stuff you cannot see that we should be concerning yourself with.

If you really want to catch this very fine (i.e. invisible) dust then there is no way to do this other than with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Arrestance) filtered vacuum cleaner. The problem with this is that there are no set standards so manufacturers can claim something has a HEPA in it when it might well just have a piece of hessian.

The Key performace indicator (KPA) for a HEPA filter is its efficiency rating. It should say something like "captures 99.97% of all particles greater than 0.3 microns". Anything that says only the micron rating or only the efficiency is not worth considering. I would expect to pay in the vicinity of $500+ for such a device. Anything in the $100 - $200 range will let those fine dust particles straight through their filters.

If all you can afford is a cheap vacuum cleaner then they are all pretty much the same, perhaps go for the most physically robust one. Provided they don't leak (which they all will eventually), within minutes of use the filters partially block up so that the dust itself acts as a filter that is better than the actual filter so the cheap ones all have a similar (mediocre) performance.

If you are going to spend $500+, before buying a vacuum cleaner I would recommend purchasing a high volume dust extractor and located it either outside the shed or in a sealed chamber inside the shed so that it vents outside the shed. Then if you have the readies buy a vacuum cleaner and vent that outside the shed as well.

I don't recommend any Vacuum cleaners for workshop use because even the most expensive or industrial strength ones are all too flimsy and within a year or so of use they all start leaking Their motor cooling loops also mince any fine dust they take in to even finer dust, so unless the vacuum cleaner is ALWAYS used in a clean shed to begin with, it becomes a fine dust generator.

I was expecting to pay around the $100-200 mark (long term unemployed) so the $500 ideas will unfortunately just get stored in the back of my head for now.

When it comes to wood shavings and dust I havent had a huge problem yet.... just sweep up after myself when im done, but yesterday after sanding down some of this wood and filler the fine dust was just bellowing out of our shed all over the neighbourhood. Really looked liked our shed was on fire.

Needless to say the people who own the place where I am staying and our neighbours are less than impressed with the results.

Originally Posted by Brettles

I was expecting to pay around the $100-200 mark (long term unemployed) so the $500 ideas will unfortunately just get stored in the back of my head for now..

In that case I would get some P2 rated masks. They're far from a complete solution but they are better than nothing.

When it comes to wood shavings and dust I havent had a huge problem yet.... just sweep up after myself when im done, but yesterday after sanding down some of this wood and filler the fine dust was just bellowing out of our shed all over the neighbourhood. Really looked liked our shed was on fire.

Unfortunately wood dust effects don't show themselves slowly over time. You won't feel a thing until either you go for testing for something else's and a wood dust related something will show up OR suddenly you become allergic to wood dust.

right now I use a 3M half mask
http://www.bunnings.com.au/3m-tekk-p...ator-_p5820584

its more that I am trying to cut down the amount of dust flying around the shed

Originally Posted by Brettles

right now I use a 3M half mask
http://www.bunnings.com.au/3m-tekk-p...ator-_p5820584

That's a P2 rated mask

its more that I am trying to cut down the amount of dust flying around the shed

Yep that's why it's important to capture it at source because all the dust (especially the stuff that can't seen) that escapes fills the shed and eventually settles out and every time you move, or move something, or open the door etc that fine dust is fluffed up into the air. The human eye can't see it so most folks wouldn't know it's there. Unfortunately, rather than solving the problem, DCs and VCs used inside a shed end up contributing to it.