Grinding Steel Dust Free?

[Bill Dindner]

I’ve been inculcating metal fabrication into my woodworking projects recently. Specifically making stands and legs out of metal, to clean up the welds I’ve been using an angle grinder.

It creates a ton of hazardous metal dust, and I would like to work outside, but due to certain circumstances that is not possible to work outdoors, so I need to be able to grind allot of Steel in an inclosed Small Garrage, I have a Festool CT and a traditional dust collector, are there any angle grinders with good dust collection? Can I use my Festool CT with them? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much.

[Bohdan Drozdowskyj]

Have a look at this Festool sander (https://www.festoolusa.com/products/sanding-and-brushing/rotary-sanders/570789---ras-115-e-set-usa#Overview).

[Wayne Lomman]

Please DON'T use an angle grinder with dust collection. You are feeding sparks directly into a dusty environment with a forced air flow. This is a fire waiting to happen. Wear a P2 dust respirator, and have good general air flow. Use any common pedestal fan for this. Use it when welding especially. Cheers

[Bill Dindner]

Have a look at this Festool sander (https://www.festoolusa.com/products/sanding-and-brushing/rotary-sanders/570789---ras-115-e-set-usa#Overview).

This looks to be good maybe for a final surface prep, or to remove some surface rust, but I don’t think it can grind any significant amount of steel, plus you can’t use cut off wheels, grinding disks, am I missing something?

[Bill Dindner]

Please DON'T use an angle grinder with dust collection. You are feeding sparks directly into a dusty environment with a forced air flow. This is a fire waiting to happen. Wear a P2 dust respirator, and have good general air flow. Use any common pedestal fan for this. Use it when welding especially. Cheers


I always wear a respirator in the shop, have a fan going along with an overhead air filter as well. But my grinder makes a real mess, the metal dust gets on everything. Wish there was a grinder setup that I could use with a vacuum, even if I had to purchase a new vacuum for it.

[Wayne Lomman]

It's difficult using the same shop for both timber and steel work. It better to have some form of separation between the two. If you don't have space, separate the tasks so you minimise clean up.

Working with steel is always dirty. You would think my cnc shop at work would stay spotless as everything is machined with coolant. It doesn't. Every machine has a broom and shovel so that we can keep slightly ahead of the dust and dirt.

By the way, full marks for the use of other materials it timber and doing it yourself. Cheers

[Ryan J Carpenter]

I have a dedicated grinding/welding workbench enclosed on all but one side with fire retardant material. I also drape harbor freight welding blankets behind to keep any sparks from hitting the woodworking part of my small garage shop. This keeps most of the large sparks contained and a fan blows most of the fine dust out.

At work I have expiimented with diamond grinding and cut off wheels to reduce dust. If you are grinding with the right technique, most of your sparks are large enough so they will drop out of the air and not float around. Put a diamond wheel on that and you are not contributing as much dust from the constantly shrinking abrasive wheel.

[Mike Cutler]

We have "dust arrestor" pickup hoods at work for grinding. I can't imagine they would be any where close to affordable for an individual. They're big $$$$, made of 100% stainless steel, and have all kinds of safety features to them.
If the welds aren't too bad, a nice sharp mill file will knock them down. Time consuming though.

[John C Bush]

Die grinder with carbide bits. Noisy, takes good cfm and good bits can be pricy but no caborundum dust,

[Bill Dindner]

I have a dedicated grinding/welding workbench enclosed on all but one side with fire retardant material. I also drape harbor freight welding blankets behind to keep any sparks from hitting the woodworking part of my small garage shop. This keeps most of the large sparks contained and a fan blows most of the fine dust out.

At work I have expiimented with diamond grinding and cut off wheels to reduce dust. If you are grinding with the right technique, most of your sparks are large enough so they will drop out of the air and not float around. Put a diamond wheel on that and you are not contributing as much dust from the constantly shrinking abrasive wheel.

Would like to see a pic of the setup, maybe I can fassion a small "booth, that I can take down when not in use.


We have "dust arrestor" pickup hoods at work for grinding. I can't imagine they would be any where close to affordable for an individual. They're big $$$$, made of 100% stainless steel, and have all kinds of safety features to them.
If the welds aren't too bad, a nice sharp mill file will knock them down. Time consuming though.

Cool item, but looks to be only intended for an industrial enviroments


Die grinder with carbide bits. Noisy, takes good cfm and good bits can be pricy but no caborundum dust,

I have a die grinder, any way to hook up dust collection? or is it just to not have the abrasives floating about?

[Tom Bender]

Your problem is similar to spraying paint. Look at the temporary paint booths people set up. Maybe post in the finishing forum.

[Bill Dindner]

Your problem is similar to spraying paint. Look at the temporary paint booths people set up. Maybe post in the finishing forum.

Thats a good idea, wish there was a fireproof collapsible grinding booth.

[Tom Bender]

Welding screens are made of plastic. You should be able to make something that rolls up.

[Mark Lawrence]

similiar issues. I'm thinking of getting welding drapes I can hang up and open and close as needed. See what McMasters and Carr sell.

[Malcolm Schweizer]

I'm about to take a 200 pound chunk of 5/8" thick 316 stainless steel and shape it like an airplane wing (foil shape) for a centerboard for a boat. I have the same concerns. I have a space outside where I can do mine. Indoors would be a lot of mess. I agree with the person who said do not use dust collection with an angle grinder. Hot metal and sparks, mixed with high volume airflow is asking for a fire. I am going to use a 3M full face mask respirator, which protects my face and ensures I'm not breathing anything in. Since I'm doing my work outside, I don't have as much issue as you do. I wish I had better news. I think this is one that's just messy no matter what. All you can do is use drop cloths and curtains to minimize where the dust goes, and wear a really good respirator.

[Bill Dindner]

Thanks so much everyone for the advice, I picked up a few welding tarps and put them around the area. I used a die grinder with a carbide burr instead of and angle grinder with a grinding wheel to clean up the welds, made it much easier mess to clean up, as there is no abrasive dust and the die grinder makes larger shavings instead of metal dust. Still messy, but much better than with an angle grinder and abrasive disc.

I still needed to use some flap discs to blend everything together and that's not great, but the bulk of the metal removed is somewhat contained.