# Dust collection for a theater scene shop



## dpak (12 mo ago)

Hi everyone! My first post here. I’m a high school drama teacher and that includes teaching tech theater. I have a decent shop but no dust collection other than shop vacs. Whenever possible, we cut things outside, but on rainy or cold days we have to cut in the shop. When we use tools, I have shop vacs connected to them, but that doesn’t get all of the sawdust. The shop is roughly 50 x 30. Would something like two of these be useful? WEN 4.2 Amp 3-Speed Remote-Controlled Industrial-Strength Air Filtration System (750/950/1270 CFM) 3416T - The Home Depot I am on a budget - $1000 or less, with less being better.

If this isn’t enough information to go on, please let me know. Thanks in advance!


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## BigCountry79 (Jun 2, 2021)

What sort of tools are you using?

Dust collection on table saws and bandsaw are different than collecting on routers or sanders.


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## dpak (12 mo ago)

We mainly use the miter saw, circular saws, table saw, sanders and occasionally the router. We have a handful of other tools that are used infrequently, such as a drill press, band saw, blade runner. They are all on carts so we can move them outside when the weather is decent I'm in Georgia, so that is often). The shop vacs take care of a lot of dust, but I'm worried about all the stuff that still gets in the air.


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## jdonhowe (Jul 25, 2014)

If not already in your budget, have respirator masks (and eye protection) for all your students. And yes, the Wen air cleaner you propose would help.


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## Tom-G (Nov 11, 2012)

Grizzly has a good selection under $1000.

www.grizzly.com

Don’t forget the hoses, adapters, and gates to connect the tools and machines to the dust collector. Also, the collectors with cartridge filters will trap more particles than the fabric bag filters.


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## nbk13nw1 (12 mo ago)

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Sent from my SM-G988U using Tapatalk


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

You have a tough task. Typically the larger machines make larger size chips and dust. These require full size dust collctors 1.5 HP or 2 HP with bags or better yet, cannister filters. Smaller hand held sanders and saws will do fine with shop vacs attached. When the fine dust gets in the air, your overhead WEN air filtration will work, but cheaper yet, is a box fan or several, with furnace filters taped on the intake side.
You Tube will have a zillion ideas and methods that you can use in this application. Use it like a Google search in the title bar.


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## dbhost (Jan 28, 2008)

Since you are in an educational setting, your shop falls under OSHA and undoubtedly myriad other legal restrictions. Your dust collection / protection should be more along the lines of those of a commercial shop than a home hobbyist. I would not expect that to be inexpensive. 

Oddly enough, when I was in school and our shop class was in full swing, we did NOT have any sort of dust colleciton aside form those long soft bristled brushes, brooms and dust pans. Not evena shop vac in sight! Although I am certain at the end of the day the machines were cleaned out via shop vac from the tool room. But things have changed wildly since the 1980s.


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## BigCountry79 (Jun 2, 2021)

FWIW, I got better dust collection on my dewalt jobsite saw with a shop vac than with a 2hp DC.


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## Terry Q (Jul 28, 2016)

dpak said:


> Hi everyone! My first post here. I’m a high school drama teacher and that includes teaching tech theater. I have a decent shop but no dust collection other than shop vacs. Whenever possible, we cut things outside, but on rainy or cold days we have to cut in the shop. When we use tools, I have shop vacs connected to them, but that doesn’t get all of the sawdust. The shop is roughly 50 x 30. Would something like two of these be useful? WEN 4.2 Amp 3-Speed Remote-Controlled Industrial-Strength Air Filtration System (750/950/1270 CFM) 3416T - The Home Depot I am on a budget - $1000 or less, with less being better.
> 
> If this isn’t enough information to go on, please let me know. Thanks in advance!


The item you linked to is an air filtration system for removing fine dust circulating around the room. A great addition to any shop to protect your lungs, but absolutely not useful for collection of dust and wood chips from your machinery.


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## dpak (12 mo ago)

Thank you for all of the responses! I will probably get the air filtration system, but I'll look into getting either more shop vacs (along with the filters and bags) for the tools, or buying a specifically made dust collector.


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## Biotec (Mar 14, 2021)

my questions are.
Is it a roll around contractor saw or a fixed based cabinet saw?

CENTRAL MACHINERY 70 Gallon 2 HP High Flow High Capacity Dust Collector about $250 they they have %20 off moat of the time. also talk to the store manager about what it is for. they do have school programs for reduced pricing. and get spare filters then.

are you trying to run multiple tools at the same time?
Shop-Vac with dust separators like from Home Depot or others are a good choice it keeps the vacuum from seeing very much of the course dust and some of the fine dust. 

whole shop filtration is a good idea but you need to stop the dust at the source.

there is a lot of YouTube videos showing how to do local dust collection.

.


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## dpak (12 mo ago)

It is a contractor saw, so when possible we move it outside. Everything else is either handheld or movable, so we can work outside when weather allows. I went ahead and bought the air filtration system. I've also bought filters and dust bags for the shop vacs and bought a third and fourth shop vac along with adapters so they will fit the other tools, like the routers.

Only one class uses the tools (the other classes are acting classes). There are weeks in which the main focus is building sets, and times in which no one is in the shop because that class is working on other aspects of technical theater, like design or lights.


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## B Coll (Nov 2, 2019)

dpak said:


> Hi everyone! My first post here. I’m a high school drama teacher and that includes teaching tech theater. I have a decent shop but no dust collection other than shop vacs. Whenever possible, we cut things outside, but on rainy or cold days we have to cut in the shop. When we use tools, I have shop vacs connected to them, but that doesn’t get all of the sawdust. The shop is roughly 50 x 30. Would something like two of these be useful? WEN 4.2 Amp 3-Speed Remote-Controlled Industrial-Strength Air Filtration System (750/950/1270 CFM) 3416T - The Home Depot I am on a budget - $1000 or less, with less being better.
> 
> If this isn’t enough information to go on, please let me know. Thanks in advance!


The WEN you show is more of an air filtration than dust collection. I would assume that if you are doing stage props then you are likely working with quite a bit of MDF (mucho dust flying). Much depends on how many machines you are running at one time. If there is only one machine going at a time then there are movable dust collectors that you can hoop up to each machine, or tool. If multiple machines are run at one time then you will likely need at least a 2 hp, piped, with blast gates so you can open and close the multiple lines. The WEN would be an excellent addition to compliment a dust collection system to help trap particles in the air, but it is not a dust collection system.


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