Dust collection for hand tools?

[Mishkin Derakhshan]

I'm setting up shop in my garage. I have a cordless trim router that generates a lot of dust, a cordless circular saw I use only some of the time, a ROS sander, and the rest of the time I'm using hand tools - jack plane, smoothing plane, block plane, rabbet plane, chisels, and japanese pull saws.

I would like some sort of dust collection or vacuum, or at the least a way to suck up all the shavings at the end of the day.

I'm looking at the makita vc4710 (quiet, good suction, good reviews), but at that price point I wonder if I'm better off getting a real 1.5-2HP dust collection system. Advice?

What do other (mostly) hand tool workers use?

tia

[Nicholas Lawrence]

My shop is in the basement. I use a shop vac. The sort of medium sized Rigid from the line Home Depot carries. You need to go easy on the shavings, because thick shavings or long ones will will sometimes plug up in the hose. The power and suction is fine, but if they make one with a bigger canister that would probably be good. Mine is kind of a compromise between being big enough to use in the shop and small enough to move upstairs for vacuuming the cars, etc.

The only power tool I use inside is a drill. On the extremely rare occasions I use a skill saw, I use it outside. I have a couple of sanders I inherited, but cannot recall the last time I used them. If I needed to use them I would wait for a nice day and do it outside. The shop vac is good at picking up shavings and saw dust from hand tools, but I would not want the kind of fine dust you get with power tools floating around in my house.

[David Bassett]

Seems like LV has you covered: Veritas No-Fuss-Tool Shroud



Sorry, more seriously I think a broom, bench brush, and dust pan are underrated and often overlooked.

[Derek Cohen]

While it was an April Fool joke, the Lee Valley shroud actually bevame a reality for Mirka. They offer a hand sander (I have two) which is connected by 20mm hose to a vacuum cleaner (I use a Festool CT26E).





Here it is being used with the standard 27mm Festool hose ..



Why is this a sensible idea? Because there is a significant amount of dust coming from hand sanding, and it has been demonstrated that a good vacuum cleaner/power sander combination (I have a Mirka Ceros) produces a minimal amount of breathable dust .... no, I am not into sanding a lot, but this is an important tool for some applications.

For a Skil saw, the ideal hose would be the largest one you can connect to a vacuum cleaner. My largest hose is an antistatic 35mm Bosch. This is about half the price of a similar Festool, and appears to me to be the same hose with a different colour (blue vs green). I recently looked into hoses, and the Mirka 23mm antistatic is much cheaper than the Festool as well, and actually nicer (lighter and more flexible).

For cleanning up plane shavings, a 35mm hose is the minimum I would recommend. Anything smaller simply blocks up.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[William Fretwell]

I have three vacuums and a large dust collection system ‘plummed in’. The large system filter bag is poor and puts plenty of fine dust in the air. The medium Hilti vacuum has a range of filters up to HEPA and puts almost no dust in the air, it’s back flushing noise is rather annoying but it keeps the filter clean, also has great wheels.
My favourite however is from a floor cleaning store, quite large like the box stores sell but better made, much better wheels, quiet and filters air very well and less money! The floor accessories are also much better made and work very well. So my advice go to a good cleaning supply place and see what’s on offer, avoid the box stores.

[Phil Mueller]

For hand tools, I clean up with a bench brush and dust pan. For the ROS, I use a Festool dust extractor. Thickness planer is only used outside. For general floor clean up from time to time, I put on the ear muffs and pull out the big box shop vac. I do like the hand sanding shroud Derek posted...will have to look into that.

[Chris Schoenthal]

Seems like LV has you covered: Veritas No-Fuss-Tool Shroud

Shame that was an April Fool's joke. I was going to contact them to see if they had one with a 4" port for my #7 & 8 planes.

[Mark Gibney]

That Veritas dust attachment for hand planes is just hilarious.

I love how their jokes are just as well engineered as their physical products.

[Jim Matthews]

Working in your garage (with the door open) is your best defense against dust in your house.

Even with an attached vacuum, the finest particles will circulate in the air space where you breathe.

HEPA filters will capture particles larger than 0.3 micron, and pass the smaller ones, which cause lung troubles.

Open the door, run the vacuum, clean the filter and wear a disposable mask. Change clothes and shoes before entering the house.

*****

A good finish plane will reduce the sanding steps.

[chris carter]

For sweeping the floor and under the bench (and the rare power tool use) I have an Oneida dust deputy connected to a large shop vac. But for constant air cleaning I have a cheap 20" box fan ($20) with an air filter on the front held by a bike inner-tube. I run it on low speed and it DOES make a difference with my asthma just from sawing and whatnot (also keeps the fine stuff from landing on other things we keep in the basement). We use the really high quality 3M filters (I think they are 2200) for the house. When I swap for a new one every 2 months I take the old one and move it to the box fan. So essentially I get free air filtration in the basement for wood working. On rare occasion when I use the table saw (no dust port) I crank the box fan up to the high setting. Clears the air in no time flat.

[William Fretwell]

The smaller than 0.3um particles are the least likely to cause trouble. You can breath them in and out again, the mucus flow removes them also. It’s the 2 to 10 um particles that lodge in lung tissue and irritate, especially asbestos.
HEPA filters are the safest you can use, also the most expensive, not really necessary for wood work. I use them when I have done work in hospitals.
I used to formulate inhalation aerosols in the pharmaceutical industry, it’s not so easy getting medication in the lungs, the 1 to 2 um target range for particles is hard to achieve and also gets breathed out again without a holding time.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

What is the purpose of the dust deputy? It looks like it goes on the hose before the shop vac. If you are vacuuming up shavings and sawdust, does everything end up in the 5 gallon bucket or does it get separated out somehow?

[William Fretwell]

That was an excellent idea, very few woodworkers have constant air scrubbing. I have an industrial air scrubber hanging on chains 10 ft up in the middle of my shop as I have 20 ft ceilings.

[chris carter]

What is the purpose of the dust deputy? It looks like it goes on the hose before the shop vac. If you are vacuuming up shavings and sawdust, does everything end up in the 5 gallon bucket or does it get separated out somehow?

The long hose connects to the DD and then DD connects to the shop vac via a short hose. The DD separates everything out. Almost nothing winds up in the shop vac. It's crazy how effective it works (theoretically, the smaller the funnel, the better the separation). The container is a steel 10 gal drum and it doesn't tip over (like a 5 gal bucket might) so everything ends up there. Because I don't like emptying things, I will typically do a super rough 30 second sweep and put most of the big shavings in a bag and then suck up everything else. 10 gallons goes a lot further that way. Sucking is far more effective for cleaning the floor of dust than any broom, and I can get everything that fell through the dog holes easily. It's faster too. The shop vac is plugged into an outlet with a little 6" extension cord that is remote activated. The remote clips to my belt-loop and hangs in my pocket. When I first got the DD

Regarding the air filter. I used to think it wasn't needed for hand tool work. But I can feel the difference. Even if I'm not sawing anything and just planing, clearly invisible stuff is going in the air because I can tell the difference in my breathing after. Considering it was a one-time $20 investment for the fan, it has paid off in spades. I do however still use a mask when turning on the pole lathe because stuff is literally flying at your face.

[Jim Matthews]

The smaller than 0.3um particles are the least likely to cause trouble. You can breath them in and out again, the mucus flow removes them also. It’s the 2 to 10 um particles that lodge in lung tissue and irritate, especially asbestos.

100 years of "Black Lung" studies contradict you.


From the EPA -

What are the Harmful Effects of PM?
Particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Some particles less than 10 micrometers in diameter can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Of these, particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM2.5, pose the greatest risk to health.


https://www.epa.gov/pm-pollution/par...tter-pm-basics