advice on how to approach dust when turning

[Brian Deakin]

I would like to know what approaches turners take to collecting dust

Can member please give advice on the following points



(1) Is it worth placing a screen around the lathe and what have members tried

(2) What are members thoughts on a ceiling dust collector for the fine dust or could I simply put a large fan on my work bench open the garage doors a blow out the fine dust at the end of turning

(3)When collecting the dust using the dust extractor which dust hoods/approaches have members found best

(4) Please note I do where a 3m 6000 dust mask

regards Brian

[Reed Gray]

Short version is to collect as much as you can before it gets into the air.

Slightly longer version here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lvwCKfL7Uo

robo hippy

[Edward Weingarden]

Brian:
1. I'm not sure what you mean by a "screen" around the lathe, but if you're referring to some kind of hanging barrier, I have shower curtains hung around my lathe area. They definitely help keep the shavings in a relatively confined area. This is a matter of containing the mess, and not dust collection.

2. I've only recently put up a ceiling hung dust collector; I'm not sure how effective it is yet. I put mine on a timer so it runs for awhile after I leave the shop (in addition to when I'm in the shop). I'm hoping it will help with those very fine dust particles that remain suspended in the air.

3. I use a Big Gulp Dust Hood which I place as close to the piece on the lathe (behind it) as possible. I don't run my dust collector when turning green wood since the wet shavings are not going to get sucked up. During the infrequent times that I turn dry wood, I always have it on, and always run it while sanding.

4. I put my dust mask on upon entering the shop, and leave it on until I'm ready to leave. As soon as I turn the lathe on, I always see dust being kicked up so I know I would be exposing my lungs to injury if I didn't have it on all the time.

Hope that helps.

[Roger Chandler]

I have a 3 pronged strategy for dust collection. That being said first of all, you most likely will NEVER be able to collect the curlees/shavings from the gouge in a dust collector as you make the cuts......they just fly everywhere!

I use an overhead air cleaner to collect airborne dust in the shop........it runs when I am in the shop, period. I have mine fairly close to the side of the shop where the lathe is because that is where I generate the most dust.

Second, I use a 4" dust collector hose attached to either the lathe bed by a bungee cord, or a big gulp hood that has a tongue & grove mount on a stand where I can adjust in/out and side to side for the size turning I am doing. I use this for collecting the sanding dust that comes from both power sanding and hand sanding turnings. Sanding dust is the really bad stuff that can quickly mess up your lungs and sinuses. I use a 1 micron canister filter on my dust collector.

Third, I use a Trend Airshield pro at all times when turning.....both when using the gouges and sanding operations. Turning itself throws off copious amounts of wood dust, and I have had enough respiratory issues and sinus infections, that I wised up and figured out I had better get serious about my health. One hospital stay of about a month back in 2006 did the trick, cause I almost died. :eek: You do not want to play around with your health...you have one set of lungs and one life.....they are worth protecting!!! In my present shop this is about as good as I can do, and it has made a huge difference for me.

Anytime you can blow dust away from you and outside is a plus, but in the dead of winter that might be problematic to keep a door open.

[Steve Peterson]

This is my setup. The upper left corner shows a 6" pipe coming from my Clearvue cyclone using a 6" blast gate. The shroud encloses most of the top and left sides of the lathe. The back wall is closed off and there is a flat piece of plywood behind the lathe. The airstream travels from the lathe bed up to the pipe. You can visibly see around 95% of the dust get sucked up while sanding.

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Steve

[William C Rogers]

For my Powermatic 90 I have a 6" X 12" heat register box connected to a 6" duct to my D.C. I need to I prove on this, but still does well when sanding. For the small lathes I have the big gulps behind them. Overall for sanding the DC does a good job capturing the dust as I can see a stream going into the DC. As Roger said chips are another story. I always wear a disposable style N95 mask under a face shield when turning. The disposables are just more comfortable with the bionic face shield. When sanding I use a half mask respirator and safety glasses. I also run my Jet air filter.

[John K Jordan]

(4) Please note I do where a 3m 6000 dust mask


Good! Me too.

I try to minimize dust creation. As I got better at turning I found I needed less sanding and with finer grits. I never sand anymore with a rotating disk but instead use a small Grex pneumatic random orbital sander - makes much less dust than the clouds the angle drill made. I also often use small hand-held curved scrapers to remove tool marks, usually needing only 400-grit or so depending on the wood and piece.

That said, when I sand I use a 4" hose connected to my dust collector (5 hp cyclone). (The second 4" hose on the splitter box goes to a shop vac hose.) The yellow thing on in the picture is on the end of the hose and can be positioned just behind the work. I use a length of one of those flex hoses that will keep its shape (available from WoodCraft) This setup works amazingly well. I've watched it suck up a stream of dust some inches from the nozzle.

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One thing, with the suction from the cyclone the air entering the nozzle makes a deafening noise. So in addition to eye protection and dust mask, I have to wear hearing protection! It will also instantly dispose of pieces of sandpaper, whether you are through with them or not. :-)

JKJ

[Michael Mills]

1. I don't have a screen around the lathe but I do have fine netting which contains the chips and still allows light and air.
2. I have a fine dust collector (made from a whole house air circulator squirrel cage). I also have the outdoor unit fan mounted in a window. After turning I open the door, turn on the window unit, and go around the shop with the air compressor wand.
During turning I use a dust collector at the lathe. My fine dust collector is easily movable and I sit it on a work bench; maybe it should be mounted on the ceiling but I assume dust falls/settles so I leave it running for about an hour when I leave.
3. My dust hood is similar to Williams, a floor register (about $5). When the outer lip is trimmed off it goes from rectangle to oval. My collector is only 1.5 hp so I need the pickup close, the bag/filter for it is 5 micron. I made a large hood to start with but my vac was not strong enough.
My pickup articulates in all three planes so I can get it an inch away from almost anything. It mounts either in my existing banjo or in another wood banjo which I made.
4. Mask. I use the 3M 100p disposable mask at 0.3 microns. They are rated for 160 hours use but I normally trash them after probably 40 - hours. That is still a lot of sanding. They run about $7, I don't know how much replacement filters run for other mask. The same type in 95p run about $2; for not much more I opt with the 100% efficiency over the 95% efficiency.

[Brian Deakin]

A huge thank you to Michael,John,William,steve,Roger ,Edward and Reed for your posts

The emphasis on collecting the dust a source is key as Reed states A ceiling dust collector may be a purchase for the future When reading about the ceiling dust collectors the Wood whisperer suggests only switching it on after you have left the shop As I have a one car garage I had thought could I use a fan mounted on my work bench with the doors open and just run the for 10 minutes at the end of working and remove fine dust that way or mount a extraction fan high on an external wall and vent the fine dust outside

I do have both a 3M 6000 mask and a Trend Airshield I will use both of these dependant on the project

[John K Jordan]

A huge thank you to Michael,John,William,steve,Roger ,Edward and Reed for your posts

The emphasis on collecting the dust a source is key as Reed states A ceiling dust collector may be a purchase for the future When reading about the ceiling dust collectors the Wood whisperer suggests only switching it on after you have left the shop As I have a one car garage I had thought could I use a fan mounted on my work bench with the doors open and just run the for 10 minutes at the end of working and remove fine dust that way or mount a extraction fan high on an external wall and vent the fine dust outside

I do have both a 3M 6000 mask and a Trend Airshield I will use both of these dependant on the project


Just to be clear, the boxy ceiling mounted units are not generally considered "dust collectors" but air filters. They only catch fine dust floating through the air, not dust which has already settled. I've heard of people using an air hose or leaf blower to stir up the settled dust. This, with a big exhaust fan can be effective. If a ceiling-mounted air cleaner is your only method prepare to replace filters often.

To paraphrase the sign in the dentist's office, only protect those lungs you want to use! With an air cleaner you just have to wear a good respirator from the time you start sanding until you leave the shop and give the cleaner time to work. It still won't get rid of fine dust that settles on surfaces that gets stirred up when you come back into the shop.

A big, powerful exhaust fan right behind a lathe set close to the wall will get rid of most of the dust as you work as long as you have a window or door open elsewhere. A friend of mine does that. Unfortunately, he can't do any turning in the winter.

For all woodworkers who want to keep breathing as the age Bill Pentz recommends always venting outside. He shows how impotrant it is to pick up the fine dust at the source. A shop vac is not good at this, even with a seperator added since the airflow is insufficient. A good cyclone does have a good airflow. Even then, he recommends venting outside for safest breathing. I don't vent my cyclone outside but compromise with good sub-micron filters, similar to what Robo Reed showed at the end of his video.

You can google Bill Pentz and read the details (allow a few hours!) Bill got real interested in this after he developed serious lung problems. I know two people who had to quit turning because of the same thing. When I studied Pentz's writings it was depressing since implementing his plan would be expensive and I didn't want to think about it. But I finally broke down and designed the 5hp cyclone into my new shop and I'm SO glad I did.

If you can swing it an air quality monitor will remove all the guesswork - this Dylos is the one I use, a laser measures ite number and sizes of the particles so you can evaluate what works and when you need to wear the respirator. For example, I found it took and hour or so for a ceiling-mounted Jet air filter get the fine dust down to safe levels.
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004AWEG0Y

JKJ

[Ed Morgano]

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This shows my setup. I have a 5 hp Clear Vue dust collector. I built a clear Plastic enclosure around the back, sides and top of the lathe and there is a 6" pickup coming into the top of the enclosure. That creates enough air flow to pull dust away from me when I'm in front of the lathe. Basically the air comes in from the front of the lathe and moves to the back and up to the pipe. As to the large chips, that is what the curtain is for.

[Justin Stephen]

I use this:

https://www.amazon.com/WoodRiver-Dust-Hood-With-Stand/dp/B0035Y97DO/

It is basically a heavy-duty music stand with a dust hood on it. I like it because the hood is quite massive compared to most of the hoods on the on-lathe equivalents I have seen. My 4" hose stays on quite nicely without a clamp and I position it as close to the work as possible. It does a great job of sucking the medium to small stuff right into the DC. The downside of a floorstand like this is that it gets in the way when I am sweeping up around the lathe, but this is a fairly minor annoyance.

This and a 3M mask are my precautions. I have considered a ceiling mounted unit from time to time over the past couple of years but haven't pulled the trigger on one yet.