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Thread: Dust

  1. #1

    Dust

    I appreciate the help you guys have given me on another question. I was hoping I could ask another. I come from the wood turning world but I've tired of having sawdust and wood chips thrown in my face and body. Even with masks and goggles every night my eyes are very red, nose stuffed up and cough a fair amount. Possible have developed allergies.

    So, I was hoping to try CNC routing but I was wondering about dust levels in the air and shop. I've read about how good the Kent dust shoes are. With one of those on all the time would there still be a fair amount of dust being thrown everywhere and especially in the air? I now it's probably hard to quantify but if you could do your best it would be appreciated and help me make up my mind whether to forget about it and just take up golf. Thanks again.

  2. #2
    Its completely dependant on the work your doing. If your doing deeply carved 3D work where the shoe/bristles are far from the work or you have a lot of work off the edge of the part (shoe out in mid air) your never going to have any pickup. That will be amplified if your going to try to pickup from any sort of reasonable machine with a cheap collector. We pull from our machine with a single 3HP cyclone with perhaps 10' of run. It wont touch the pickup if the shoe is off the part. If your doing deep 3D work (long tool) your going to have coarse chips tossed off the machine.

    A big part of your allergy issue is the super fines which will be picked up by the DC unless you budget. The heavy chips that get tossed out are not the ones that land in your lungs. Our shop is clear air but when we are off the part and the shoe is not tight to the work there are chips. The only option is an industrial machine with a house around your spindle. Dust dock from SS a little bit but I woulndt run one for the work we do.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    What Mark said. A good dust shoe can help a whole lot with chip/dust collection but the type of material you work with as well as variances in tooling length combined with the shoe extending beyond the workpiece at some extremes is still going to allow material to escape. that latter one isn't dissimilar to the challenge of collection at your lathe....for sanding, it's great, but when you're cutting, the chips are going to multiple directions, almost never toward a port mounted behind the lathe. You'll also find yourself blowing out kerfs with compressed air which, um...distributes dust/chips.

    Nature of the beast.

    And please, don't take up golf. It causes a lot more bad language than woodworking!
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  4. #4
    Love it, ha ha, Thanks

  5. #5
    " Even with masks and goggles every night my eyes are very red, nose stuffed up and cough a fair amount"

    Have you tried a powered air purifying respirator like the Airstream helmet? That might help keep you in the woodworking game.

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Kevin Jenness View Post
    " Even with masks and goggles every night my eyes are very red, nose stuffed up and cough a fair amount"

    Have you tried a powered air purifying respirator like the Airstream helmet? That might help keep you in the woodworking game.
    Thx for the suggestion. I haven't, but I've seen a lot written about them. Some good and some say they are heavy and unbalanced and can be hard on you neck. Not interested in spending the money to find out and besides that, if I have to wear a powered helmet to participate in a hobby then I think it's time for me to move on. Although some do, I'm just speaking for myself. Thx again.

  7. #7
    I would imagine if you heavily focused on aggressive dust collection everywhere possible you may salvage your hobby. Whether the cost and effort is worth it is of course your call. But aggressive dust pickup especially the fines is worth every penny if your going to stick with it. Cyclones and hoses on all your sanders, perhaps add a down draft table for any hand sanding, and the best pickup you can on stationary tools especially things like bandsaws and so on will make your time much more pleasant not to mention less shop cleaning. But its a lot of time and money which is why you see a lot of shops with a fine coat of wood flour on every surface in the shop, piled under benches, and so on. Not good allergies or not.

  8. #8
    Thank you. Where there is wood being cut there is saw dust, no doubt. I'm done with turning. You just can't control where the shavings and dust goes. Different cuts and angles and gouges different directions. It's just part of the game. Sanding finished turnings is different, very easy to control with a well placed vacuum. But are you suggesting that with cnc routing the dust flies too, even with a good dust boot? That's what I'm trying to learn before I buy and find out my eyes and lungs are affected similarly. Thanks again.

  9. #9
    With pretty much any shoe and a decent collector you should collect all the fines regardless. But as already stated with most any type of fixed dust shoe some large chips are bound to get loose. No different than your turning scenario. In my experience the fine dust is where the problem is. Be great to catch every single chip but likely not possible with most fixed shoe arrangements. Then of course you still have all the pre and post processing dust to contend with. As I said, there are pretty much no fine particles floating in the air when we are cutting and very little fines cleaning but we stay on top of cleaning.

  10. #10
    If you are just carving and cutting 2d stuff a good show will collect most of the chips except at the very edge at times. It is going to be nothing like wood turning. Like was said before even though chips might escape, the fine dust is going to be sucked up by the dc even though you might have a few chips to vacuum up.

    The biggest thing would be the filter on the dc. Get a good one that the very fine particles won't escape and get back in the air. Regardless it will be nothing like what you have going on in your turning wood. You can probably find some videos on youtube to give you an idea. Most of the time my work piece comes out just as clean as when I started

  11. #11
    Join Date
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    Iowa USA
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    You can put the entire room under negative pressure with the proper sized exhaust fan. Of course then you need to bring in fresh air make up and dump it close by your main shop area. True it gets expensive to heat or cool that room and you can not have a gas fired appliance in that area as it will downdraft CO and kill you. But its done in commercial work without issues. You can seal off just your shop with gaskets on the doors. Yes you will still need a direct connect dust collector for your table saw and such. Gets slightly complicated and takes time to set up.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Ottawa, ON Canada
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    How large is the CNC you are contemplating? As others have said, even with a good dust shoe, there will be dust in the air. You can contain it by building an enclosure to surround your CNC table. Although there will still be dust, it will all be contained and much easier to vacuum up. The enclosure will cut down on noise, too.
    Grant
    Ottawa ON

  13. #13
    What kind of mask are you using? I use a 3m half mask under a face shield. I sometimes wear a hooded wind breaker under all this to keep things out of my hair. But I have never had the kind of breathing issues you’ve had. I would say don’t throw out the lathe for the cnc if your only issue is dust... that is a very solvable problem.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
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    SE PA - Central Bucks County
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    What Prashun just said. I'll also add that you need to consider if there are specific species/materials that you are sensitive to and avoid them regardless of the tool involved. I can't do bubinga at all...as I learned the hard way while doing a magnificent turned and carved platter many years ago. In addition to almost immediate breathing concerns, it also affected my skin. I have not touched a piece of that since. A locksmith I used a number of years ago was a long time, serious carver that had to give it up...he first became sensitive to black walnut (which is common in this area) and that sensitivity grew to span many wood species. He has to wear gloves and a mask when drilling a door for a lockset...
    --

    The most expensive tool is the one you buy "cheaply" and often...

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Grant Wilkinson View Post
    How large is the CNC you are contemplating? As others have said, even with a good dust shoe, there will be dust in the air. You can contain it by building an enclosure to surround your CNC table. Although there will still be dust, it will all be contained and much easier to vacuum up. The enclosure will cut down on noise, too.
    Thank you. I'm anywhere from a Stinger 2, 3x4 SS 23. To big for my area to build an enclosure

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