Dust Collection – Burn down the house or get lung cancer, which should I choose?

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Originally Posted by Alan Lightstone

... I really think that the Dylos meter was money incredibly well spent. They are impressively accurate. Mine picked up a weird anomaly a few months ago that I was stumped by. My ambient air became roughly 6 times worse than I had ever seen. I took it outside - same readings. Very bizarre. It turns out, my local paper wrote an article I saw a week later about a sandstorm from Lake Mali in Africa that was dumping sand out of the atmosphere on Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. My Dylos actually picked this up. Truly amazing. ..

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Wow, that is amazing. I'll have to get a Dylos to see how everything's doing. Thanks for your advice.

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Originally Posted by Alan Lightstone

Dylos meter was money incredibly well spent.

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Is everyone talking about the Dylose DC1100 Pro Air Quality Monitor for $260 on Amazon? It says it measures down to 0.5 micron.

Yes, I believe that’s the one you want. The small particles go much deeper in your pulmonary tree and are more harmful. Those are the ones you want to measure.

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Originally Posted by Maureen Ragan

I've read a bunch of complaints on Amazon that the filters clog up really fast and the little air meter alarm goes off. The replacement filters cost a ton, so people were disappointed. Have you done any really dirty work like sanding yet?

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No real dirty work, plus the sanding, I have done, is all done using Festool sanders connected to a Festool CT26, there is usually no sign that you've been sanding.

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Originally Posted by Ole Anderson

Please define "garbage". Off by 20%, off by 100%, off by a factor of ten? Have you or others done a side by side comparison of numbers for you to make this claim? If so could you provide or reference the comparison? When someone trashes a tool, I expect more than just what appears to be an opinion. I would never pay over $200 to get particle counts, but I might spend $30. I don't doubt that a more expensive tool will generally do a better job, the question is how much better and is the tool worthless for the use intended?

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All I can say it that it reads 0.00 for PM 2.5 when the government says its 34 right now in my area. It always reads 0.00 for PM 2.5.

Anyone can buy what they want. This is my $0.02. Personally, the one I bought is useless. And it's a replacement from the first non-working unit. And it alarms, and has multiple other user issues. It's in a drawer, and won't be used, probably need to remember to throw it out.

The meter I bought works fine for me. I have been using it to better understand the effectiveness of my dust collection. It is interesting to see how much fine dust sanders, spindle sanders, drill press press sanders and belt sanders put out. I want to try to decrease the dust from those. I am trying some different pickups including some bell mouth hoods.

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Originally Posted by Alan Lightstone

All I can say it that it reads 0.00 for PM 2.5 when the government says its 34 right now in my area. It always reads 0.00 for PM 2.5.

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Thanks Alan, that info in your first post would have been good. Do you have a Dylos, if so how does it compare to the government PM 2.5 numbers?

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Originally Posted by ChrisA Edwards

No real dirty work, plus the sanding, I have done, is all done using Festool sanders connected to a Festool CT26, there is usually no sign that you've been sanding.

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Thanks! I'd love to know how long before you have to replace those filters on the Trend Airshield. It's a lot of money to spend, but if it worked well and didn't require replacement filters too often (at $69 a pop) it would be worth it.

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Originally Posted by Alan Lightstone

My thoughts. Both as an cardiothoracic anesthesiologist and an avid woodworker. So I think about my lungs and other people's lungs a lot.

1.) Buy the best dust collector you can afford / fit in your shop. Buy once, cry once.

2.) I went with 7" dropped down to 6" for most runs with my 5HP Oneida. Worked well on tools that have good design for dust collection.

3.) Overhead air filters make a huge difference. I have 2 Jet units (overkill), but with my Dylos unit I can see that they make an unbelievable difference.

4.) Buy a good P100 respirator (I use the 3M ones. Reasonably comfortable).

5.) My rule is that I don't take off the respirator mask until the Dylos reads back to ambient levels. 500 particles in my case.

6.) I really think that the Dylos meter was money incredibly well spent. They are impressively accurate. Mine picked up a weird anomaly a few months ago that I was stumped by. My ambient air became roughly 6 times worse than I had ever seen. I took it outside - same readings. Very bizarre. It turns out, my local paper wrote an article I saw a week later about a sandstorm from Lake Mali in Africa that was dumping sand out of the atmosphere on Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. My Dylos actually picked this up. Truly amazing.

7.) If you think sanding is bad, try using a hammer drill on cinder block walls and measure the particles in the air. Easily 5-10 times worse than sanding.

8.) Seeing patients with bad COPD - it's pretty terrible. Do everything you can to avoid breathing this stuff. The small particles are really bad for you.

9.) SCMS dust collection is terrible. Even with my Festool Kapex hooked up to a HEPA festool vac. Nature of the beast / designs.

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Just to echo what Dr. Lightstone mentioned about COPD: my mom suffered with it for many years before it finally killed her. I can’t begin to describe the misery she experienced but will say if I ever develop it, I won’t go through what she did knowing it’s going to kill me.

If you did wanted to have your cake and eat it too. couldnt you use the wastegates to increase velocity to pull fines out of duct in a short run(to a certain extent anyways)

But mask/filtration unit is a must. 1 cfm per square feet of shop is a good starting point

I was using 95n swapped for razor mask didnt love it so swapped again for the elipse and its comfortable not too big and I breath easy after a long garage day. Just have to wipe out the moisture every 45 min or so