Shop dust management

[Robin Barrows]

I have a large Powermatic dust collector in its own air tight room with ductwork running to all my shop tools. The air pressure from that room is vented through a 2 foot square box filter back into the shop. The result is a very fine dust that is re-introduced to the shop that I'd like to contain. I've thought about hanging a sheet or piece of plastic in front of the filter but would like to do a better job of capturing that dust. Has anyone else dealt with this issue?

Thanks,

Robin

[Larry Frank]

Why is there dust coming out of the dust collector??? With my dust collector which has a HEPA filter there is no visible dust coming from the filter.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

The air pressure from that room is vented through a 2 foot square box filter back into the shop.

We had a similar situation. Our return air came through a much larger opening that housed several layers of washable filter media. That system used a row of needle felt bags. We eventually replaced the bags with an Oneida pleated filter. The Oneida is much cleaner.

https://www.grainger.com/category/hvac-and-refrigeration/air-filters/air-filter-pads-and-rolls/air-filter-rolls?analytics=PLAPDP
Our filter box was 24" X 72"

[Myles Moran]

Given that a good dust collector filter (not a filter bag) would be looking at 200+ square feet of filter area, I'd be apprehensive about trying to better filter that air through a 4 square foot opening without significant reducing performance. Any chance you can upgrade the dust collector filter itself to something with a finer filter?

[Jim Becker]

I agree with the assessment of others that the issue is largely about the filter media on the collector. Improve that as a first step. Also, as and aside, if the vent back to the shop is a direct pathway, for better sound isolation, get it more toward a non-direct pathway...one or more direction changes before exiting into the larger space.

[Tom Bender]

Definitely do something. The fine dust is the hazardous dust.