whole-shop dust collection vs respirator

[Wes Ramsey]

I'm planning to upgrade to a whole-shop dust collection system in the next couple of years and I'm wondering how well it will work for collecting chips and dust created by the lathe. I figure the shavings that have a good deal of velocity in my direction are probably flying fast enough already to not be sucked up into the hood, but maybe it will help some there. What I'd really like to know is if I install the dust collector is there really a need to still wear a respirator?

[Doug Herzberg]

Wes,

1. I don't think most DC systems will get the shavings. If you get some, you'll want a cyclone separator to keep them out of the blower.
2. Reed Gray has a nice post about a DC hood he built for his lathe. Maybe a Youtube as well.
3. I would wear a respirator in addition to any DC system, especially when sanding, especially if the wood in question is an irritant.
4. My DC is cobbled together with a bunch of HVAC ductwork. With some research of the threads here and some math, you can probably come up with a much better system, but I think 1-3 will still apply.
Good luck.

[David Gilbert]

I have an Oneida Dust Gorilla that does a wonderful job of sucking up the dust. I bought it because my old 1 HP dust collector (without a cyclone) didn't do a good job of collecting my sanding dust and my new system does. Whenever I sand I always wear a 3M respirator (7503 with P100 filters) and have started using it when I turn as well. It is surprising how much dust is generated when you turn, especially with dry wood. I often run the gorilla while I turn. My guess is that it collects less than 5% of the chips but it does get a lot more of the dust. Since your lungs are the most import asset that you want to protect, having an effective filter directly in front of them is a very worthwhile investment so my answer is YES, you should always wear a respirator whenever you are generating dust either while turning or sanding.

Cheers,
David

[James Combs]

Wes,
1. I don't think most DC systems will get the shavings. If you get some, you'll want a cyclone separator to keep them out of the blower.
2. Reed Gray has a nice post about a DC hood he built for his lathe. Maybe a Youtube as well.
3. I would wear a respirator in addition to any DC system, especially when sanding, especially if the wood in question is an irritant.
4. My DC is cobbled together with a bunch of HVAC ductwork. With some research of the threads here and some math, you can probably come up with a much better system, but I think 1-3 will still apply.
Good luck.


I have an Oneida Dust Gorilla that does a wonderful job of sucking up the dust. I bought it because my old 1 HP dust collector (without a cyclone) didn't do a good job of collecting my sanding dust and my new system does. Whenever I sand I always wear a 3M respirator (7503 with P100 filters) and have started using it when I turn as well. It is surprising how much dust is generated when you turn, especially with dry wood. I often run the gorilla while I turn. My guess is that it collects less than 5% of the chips but it does get a lot more of the dust. Since your lungs are the most import asset that you want to protect, having an effective filter directly in front of them is a very worthwhile investment so my answer is YES, you should always wear a respirator whenever you are generating dust either while turning or sanding.
Cheers,
David
Ditto on what Doug & Dave said. I have both and overhead shop-air dust filter unit and a 1.5hp DC unit piped to all my equipment plus I also have a downdraft sanding and paint booth with 4 layers of filters. Even if all of them are running(most of the time) I still wear a 3m respirator and in my experience I have to replace the respirator frequently because it starts showing dust staining fairly quickly.

[Terry Vaughan]

Hand turning sends dust in different directions from different positions at the lathe depending on the job being done. The spinning wood and sander tend to disperse it. A good dust extractor can get all the dust in a situation that it is properly set up for. But that is not easy to achieve because the tools have to work within a small volume close to the inlet where the air flow is rapid, and it is hard to keep the hood positioned correctly all the time. An extractor can be very effective when turning small spindles and you might choose not to wear a respirator then. But no ordinary extractor will get all the dust from all the variety of operations that turners carry out. The fine dust that escapes will hang in the air for hours. So if you don't want to breathe dust you really need both. Even then you will still breathe some. But make sure the extractor will move lots of air, has a good filter, and a hood that can be moved and set easily.

How much dust you might have to breathe and how dangerous it will be is harder to say.

Terry

[Dennis Peacock]

Wes,
The true key to dust collection is how much air a blower can move in a minute....CFM...Cubic Feet per Minute. Without getting into a lot of science and math...let's just keep it all simple. If you have a 6" pipe attached to a dust hood near your lathe, you will get most of the dust while turning. Chips and curls will still hit the lathe and the floor and even a few can make it to the dust hood. I've long since surrendered to cleaning up curls and chips with a shovel from around the lathe and just work on dust control.

[Dok Yager]

Wes,
I agree with Dennis and others about shavings. I have a dust collector as well as an overhead dust filter and use a respirator when sanding. After a day of turning I notice the dust is Much less than before. However there will always be a small amount of fine dust you Don`t want to breathe. I also get out my leaf blower once a week and blow out my shop just to be safe. As far as chips and curls and frass on the floor I use a sweep connected to the dust collector.

[Fred Belknap]

Wes I have a fan in the wall blowing outside on the headstock end of my lathe and a smaller fan at the tailstock blowing on my face. I also have a 6" DC close to the turning. I seems to keep most of the dust away from me but chips and curlies go everwhere. This time of year I wear a coat and gloves when turning. Still gets a little cool.

[Reed Gray]

Well, the dust collector is pretty good for getting most of the dust from turning or when using other machines. It does not get ALL of the dust. When I am turning bowls, I am turning wet wood, so no dust gets into the air. After the shavings have sat on the floor for a day or five, then when I do pick them up, it stirs up a lot of dust. When I do turn dry wood, I have the hose right by where I am turning. This still gets 'most' of the dust, but not all of it. If you have a shop with flow through ventilation (open doors on both ends) and fans blowing it away from you, then you would be okay, probably. Still, having some sort of dust protection is probably a good idea. A side note, with a centralized dust collector, you want a FM frequency on/off switch. I think mine is the 'Lone Ranger' from Penn State. I can turn it on from anywhere in the shop. The alternative is one like your TV remote where you have to point it to the DC. I also have 2 of them. One in my turning room which is up on a clip, and not on a work bench as my first one seemed to vanish one day. The one out with my flat work tools floats around. A third choice is a blast gate that activates the DC when ever you turn on any machine.

I have a number of clips up on You Tube if you type in robo hippy.

robo hippy

[Ron Rutter]

Wes. If you want to do some research go to the Bill Pentz website. Mega info on dust collection including cyclones & how to build. I built a cyclone c/w drop box for our seniors WW shop. It is mounted before the 3HP DC. The drop box saves you having to empty bags all the time. ( just remember to MT the drop box!!)
At my lathe I have a 6x 10 heating vent & 6" duct to a small squirrel cage fan in the outside wall 4 feet away. It pulls the sanding dust very well. I do have 1/2" screen over the vent. It gets matted when turning but definitely pulls the fines away. Ron.
PS. I think it is a good plan to have some make-up air introduced where it will pull across the lathe to the pick-up. R.

[Terry Vaughan]

Ron, I'm not sure about the make up air. Yes, it could work well if there is enough air flow across the lathe and into the outlet to get all or nearly all the dust. But some (or a lot of) dust is likely to get into the surrounding shop atmosphere. If most of the air flow is coming straight from the make up source you could be short-circuiting the general air movement and any dust in the rest of the shop is going to stay there. So it might be best to have the make up source behind you. Clearly there has to be make up air from somewhere.

Terry

[Sparky Paessler]

Wes. I have one of the Bill Pentz designed dust collectors. 5 HP with 6" ducts. Moves a tremendous amount of air and does a good job with the dust off the lathe but does not collect the chips (unless they just happen to fly that way). I use curtains around the lathe to contain the chips and then just shovel them into a trash can for getting rid of. Not sure there would be anything that would collect the chips as they are made! My collector has sucked up quite a few sheet of sandpaper and some rags though!:o

[Justin Stephen]

I run a DC connected to a "Dust Hood With Stand" (sold by Wood River on Amazon) which I keep parked close to the object being turned and typically keep turned on when I am using the lathe. I generally do not wear a dust mask when I am turning unless the wood is very dusty (e.g., turned it on when making a bowl from dry Sapele yesterday) but I pretty much always where one while sanding. You can see the hood getting huge amounts of the dust while sanding but it doesn't get all of it, even if the hood is just a few inches away. I use a 3M 7500 mask with the appropriate filters.

[roger wiegand]

Both, but at the lathe the DC is of minimal value, plus it seems just as easy to sweep up the bushels of shavings rather than having to empty them out of the DC bin. I use an old Airmate PAPR that both handles the dust problem perfectly and provides a face shield and hard hat that have saved me from a face full of wood on at least a few occasions.

[Justin Stephen]

Both, but at the lathe the DC is of minimal value...

I'm not sure how you intended this statement but, as written, it is patently false. DC at the lathe provides substantial value in removing dust, most especially while sanding but even when turning. If you mean in terms of getting rid of woodchips only, then yes, it doesn't pull too many of them in.

Since you mentioned sweeping up chips, I'll also add that it is a good idea to run the DC and wear a dusk mask while sweeping as the very act of sweeping puts a lot of additional fine dust in the air.

[Ron Rutter]

Terry. My idea of make-up air is an attempt to by-pass short circuiting, by introducing air on my side of the work. I know it seeps in from the wall behind my lathe.
To those who only use a respirator when sanding I say do yourselves a BIG FAVOUR and wear one at all times!!
Cheers. Ron.

[roger wiegand]

I'm not sure how you intended this statement but, as written, it is patently false. DC at the lathe provides substantial value in removing dust, most especially while sanding but even when turning. If you mean in terms of getting rid of woodchips only, then yes, it doesn't pull too many of them in.

Since you mentioned sweeping up chips, I'll also add that it is a good idea to run the DC and wear a dusk mask while sweeping as the very act of sweeping puts a lot of additional fine dust in the air.

Well in my experience the DC may catch half the dust from sanding and a much smaller fraction of chips, in large part because you'd have to put a collection hood between the work and your body to be more effective at catching chips coming off the tool, and I at least, couldn't work that way. Half of the fine dust is better than nothing (hence "use both"), but not by much from a health perspective, certainly not enough to go without a respirator. I can imagine that a big fan as some described might work well to move sanding dust away from you, but the amount of air my "1800 cfm" DC can move down a six inch pipe doesn't cut it. I'd want to be catching fine dust at a 99% level before taking the respirator off-- and that's only because I'm not very worried about it at my age.

Sweeping may indeed be one of the most hazardous activities from a dust perspective. I wear my HEPA PAPR and only gather the macro shavings before using a HEPA vacuum cleaner to get the finer stuff.

[Rick Gibson]

Yes to the respirator. I have a shop air cleaner, a 1 hp dust collector that I added the oneida cyclone and a pleated filter to as well as a shop vac with the oneida dust deputy and HEPA filter. Using the air cleaner and dust collector after a few hours of work I can sometimes still see dust particles floating in the air. I use the Trend air shield nearly all the time in the shop. About the only time I don't use it is when doing pens on the small lathe. Here I have the inlet to the shop vac an inch or less from the turning and being that close it happily sucks up everything.