Today I am sanding stair treads and thought I would see how well I could collect the dust and show some particle count readings from a Dylos 1100 Pro. I have everything I can reasonably think of and want to see how well it works. I have a large Oneida 5hp dust collector connected to a downdraft table, a vacuum hooked to the sander, and two air filters. This is the best I think I can do with hobbyist sanding equipment. So how well does it do? The answer is “decent but you still need a mask.” I got readings of 4300 on my Dylos meter while sanding at 120 grit. Here is the reading I got a picture of. When this picture was taken, the air filters had drawn the reading down while I took pictures of other things and was not sanding.
Dylos4.jpg
Without sanding and with only HVAC filtration, ie just walking in the door in the morning, the particle count rate is 500 this time of year in the shop. With air filtration and no work going on, the small particle reading can get down to 10.
For reference, Dylos DC 1100 Pro literature says
- Air Quality Chart-Small Count Readings
>3000 Very poor 1050-3000 Poor 300-1050 Fair 150-300 Good 75-150 Very good 0-75 Excellent
Here are the measures I took to collect dust.
I have the Rockler downdraft panels and made the box according to the plans.Attachment 480962
I arranged the stair tread with two rows of holes at the back and one row at the front. Even with a huge dust collector, air flow is modest. I think it would help a lot if I were to remake the box for a 6” port.
Downdraft.jpgStairtread.jpg
Attachment 480963
The Porter Cable sander is hooked to a shop vac with small Dust Deputy.
Attachment 480964
DustDeputy.jpg
I ran a JDS air filter (single speed) and a SuperMax air filter on its highest speed while sanding.
I also wore hearing protection for all the air noise.
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I tried to figure out what does the most good. I checked the bin of the Dust Deputy and the main Oneida dust collector. I think more was in the Dust Deputy but it was hard to tell because the dust collector bin was not empty to start with. The filter on the shop vac had been recently cleaned and still looked good.
DustDeputyBucket.jpgDustDeputyFilter.jpg
Attachment 480966Attachment 480967
Here is the bin on the main dust collector. It is 2/3 full of planer shavings. There is some light colored sanding dust on top if you look closely.
OneidaBin.jpg
I will have another batch of stair treads next week. I may try the same experiment with one or more of the mitigation measures turned off to see what does the most good.
Attachment 480968