Is dust collection it's own sub hobby now?

[jeff norris 2011]

'Woodworking' seems to have lots of sub hobbies, like guys who spend more time restoring hand planes than using them or guys that prefer making shop projects over producing something in their shop. All good with me.

But have we reached a point where dust collection is not about practicality, but rather a hobby in itself?

[Mike Cutler]

Sometimes I think it has reached cult status.
Seriously though,it is an important topic, and aspect of wood working.

[jeff norris 2011]

Yes dust collection is very important, but people are designing and building their DC systems for pleasure now in many instances . It is kind of a neat evolution of a task that once was a necessary but unpleasant part of woodworking.

[John K Jordan]

But have we reached a point where dust collection is not about practicality, but rather a hobby in itself?

My opinion: I don't think so, no more than lighting, HVAC, electrical wiring or air compressor plumbing. I think of all these things as important infrastructure for the shop. All of them may take a lot of research, money, and effort to put into place and do it right. But once in place they are just used and and never touched again unless broken or for maintenance (changing bulbs, filters, draining tank, emptying bin) Those who don't get them right the first time may spend more time and money on them later but by necessity. I can't imagine anyone enjoying working on these things like a hobby.

JKJ

[Larry Frank]

There are some who enjoy trying to improve dust collector. It seems that there are a lot of people who spend a lot of time and money with the Harbor Freight dust collector.

Not me, I got a powerful cyclone and just enjoy how well it works.

[Frank Pratt]

For me, it's part of the WW hobby. I enjoyed the whole installation, although it mushroomed a LOT, now it's done I sure am glad I have it.

[Bill Jobe]

For me it is trying to become a career.....

[Andrew Seemann]

For some it is. Most people put in their collection set up and are done with it, but some folks like to tinker and keep finding ways to get that particle count down. Kind of like those that get into sharpening. Most people sharpen when they have to, but for some it is an end onto itself, rather than just a maintenance issue.

I would not be either of those people, although I need to consciously try to keep myself from doing nothing but shop improvement projects sometimes

[Mark Hennebury]

50 years in the workshop, full-time, long hours, long weeks, covered in dust every day. According to what i read on the current clean-room dust collection concept, i should have died within the first month. But then i also eat peanut butter everyday, and some people it would kill. I always wore a dust mask, ear plugs and safety glasses and occasionally used a small dust collector that didn't do much dust collecting, seemed to do okay for me.

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[Ted Reischl]

I had to chuckle reading through this thread.

IMHO it is sort of like "virtue signaling". SEE! MY air is cleaner than yours, so that makes me a better woodworker and person!

Then I think about the concept of "The area of diminishing returns" . Initial effort and investments pays large dividends, but getting the last little bit takes much more time, effort and investment with minimal improvement.

So, no, I do not think it has become a hobby, more like a quest. It provides a wind mill for the Don Quixote in some of us, LOL.

[glenn bradley]

Woodworkers in general seem to be a clever lot. Certainly there is a sampling of us who would rather talk numbers than real-world results. Others find "good enough" to be measured in 8ths while others use 128ths. Some of us like to build shops and are constantly rearranging and improving them but, never make anything more involved than a cutting board. It's all good.

I recall a thread, I think it was here . . . A store owner had a customer that came in regularly and bought all sorts of machines, supplies, accessories, etc. etc. Finally the store owner asked the guy what sort of furniture he made. The guy seemed a little embarrassed as he explained that he hadn't made anything yet. The store owner never saw him again.

I for one, am fine with any take on the craft you want to use your time and money on. Knock yourself out and have some fun.

[Andrew More]

Yeah, I think so. It definitely seems to dominate the discussion in this forum in a way that lighting, HVAC, and other workshop topics do not.

Part of it is the effect of Bill Pentz's site on the discussion, which has raised awareness of the issues. OTOH, I also think that the site has added an unnecessarily amount of FUD to it as well.

Further, unlike a lot of other shop projects it's a very complex subject. First you have all the information that's been made available by Mr. Pentz and others. Information that really take a while to read and fully digest. Then there is the specifications from the manufacturers, which may or may not be suspect, and according to Mr Pentz really matters in a way that it does not for things like a table saw, or drill. These specifications are then effected by a host of situations in the shop itself, some of which are simple (seal your ducts) some of which are more complex (when to narrow the duct, what length the drops, where to put the gates, which gates to use, etc.) to the downright byzantine (what is the air flow around a miter saw when it has such and such a shroud).

Further it is difficult to do a personal evaluation of dust collectors, since it's a major purchase. Most people are going to buy one, or maybe 2-3 in the course of their wood working. It's really the sort of thing you'd want done by an objective, professional organization, such as a magazine, just like they do with cars. To the best of my knowledge there has been one evaluation of dust collectors, by Wood magazine, about a decade ago, and it didn't cover cyclones.

Then you get into the health effects. For some people there are none, and it's not clear if they're like the granny who smoked and drank for years and lived to 99. For other people there are immediate effects, such as the ones Bill Pentz ran into, where he had an immediate reaction. This is before you start talking about the wildly varying sentization effects of various woods. If you work with Pine all day long, you can probably bath in the stuff. If you work with rosewood, you probably should wear a full tyvek suit or something. Add onto this the difficulty in assessing any sort of health problem. If I cut myself on the table saw, the chain of cause and effect is immediate. If I develop lung cancer or a breathing problem is it because of the wood I'm using, dust collector, the coal plant down the road, cars driving by, my chain smoking, or some other carcinogen I don't even know about?

Then there are the different goals associated with it. For some people it's just a nicety to keep them from having to clean the floor as much, or keeping tools from getting jammed with chips. For others, such as Bill Pentz it's a requirement to have the shop to near clean room specifications to avoid a serious health reaction.

Also there are nuances in measuring the efficiency of the collector. You need to buy additional tools and understand their use to evaluate the job done by the dust collector. Some of these have their own complex skills, such as reading and understanding a anemometer. Depending on the reading, your skill with the measuring tool, and a variety of other complex factors you may or may not be at risk for health problems.

Contrast this with just about any other tool in the shop. Generally you buy the tool, make a few minor adjustments, and you're done. The goal of the tool can easily assessed (did it cut/shape the wood? how clean is the cut?). Everybody can see and agree that the result is good, and generally they're going to be in agreement as to the goal of the tool.

[Ole Anderson]

I suppose for some that are uber detail oriented and cannot ever reach a final conclusion that may seem the case. For me, I did a lot of research, starting of course With the Bill Pentz website, then I designed and built my dust collection system including a downdraft table and hanging an ambient air cleaner. I loved building that setup as much as any woodworking project I have ever undertaken. Haven't really needed to tweak it since February 2011 when I built it. I will say that I do occasionally stop and admire it. Some of us enjoy the shop building journey as much as the end stop of making woodworking projects. I will spend an hour making a jig that will save me ten minutes. "God I love my shop" is a thought that often occurs to me as I enter it. But then it has been a 45 year journey. I just got a PC 20 volt grinder/jigsaw/recip saw combo and realized I have no space on my walls to hang them.

[Andrew More]

I loved building that setup as much as any woodworking project I have ever undertaken.

Ain't that the truth. As a weekend warrior I often joke with people I built a dust collector more for the challenge than the utility. It's often the thing I'm most proud of in the shop. It's also a lot of fun with the kids as I pretend to have it eat their fingers, hands and toes, or have them feed "Mr Chompy" some sawdust off the floor. (Not sure if I'm allowed to admit to playing with the dust collector to the Very Serious Cult of the Dust Collector )

[Bill Dufour]

I strongly suspect all the CFM and pressure data supplied with dc equipment made in China. I think they are all basically the same and made in the same factory. I assume as the motor gets bigger the dc becomes more powerful. But I think all these figures are inflated like sears vacuum power numbers.
I buy made in Sweden ear protectors because I believe their ratings but not the china stuff, which is rated lower anyway.
Do I really believe the appliance efficiency rating? The noise rating? The Mitsubishi quiet split system is more then twice as loud as mine at the lowest settings. I do think mine is quiet enough. Sound ratings are very easy to fudge by moving the micro phone a little bit further away.
Being taller probably reduces the sound by 20% or more for a hand held device like a sander. Think about that if my extra arm length and spine length moves my ears up 6" higher over say 2.5' that is like 20% more distance squared so 6.25 compared to 9 is about 30% reduction. Please check my math.
Bill D.