# Dust collection



## mjadams61 (Jan 1, 2016)

Having a small shop, dust collection is my main concern in staying healthy especially with COPD. I do wear a mask but dust collection for my power tools like my tablesaw, planer, jointer and my router and sanders was being handle by my rigid wet dry vac HD1200T. It does a good job but found the filters are a bit expensive. So I did a little research and got me a a dustopper that fits a 5 gal. bucket from home depot. Well instead of mounting side by side on my wet dry vac I kinda went vertical to have a smaller foot print. So here in the next few days I will be giving the dustopper a workout and see how it holds up. I mounted coasters to move it around easily.


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## DrRobert (Apr 27, 2015)

No matter what you do, 100% dust collection is impossible in the real world. The fact remains that ww'ing has some inherent risks besides, physical injury. Certain wood species (for me, cedar), certain products (MDF) and certain tasks (sanding) are have more potential for harm than others.



A couple things to consider is shop ventilation and an air filtration unit.


Something I've thought about is we don the respirator, make the cuts, and immediately take the respirator off, and we forget about all the dust still suspended in the air! 



I believe this is a real issue especially for those who live in colder climates who have to heat and seal up the shop during winter times. Think about cutting a bunch of MDF in a sealed up shop. Long after the particulates are gone from the air, dust is covering everything. Little clouds of dust you can't see are billowing up from air currents everytime you walk by or move something.


This is where I think the air filtration unit is a must.


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## redeared (Feb 7, 2019)

In my basement shop after ripping a lot 2" oak there was enough dust to set off the smoke detector, I installed a 440 CFM inline ventilation fan and ducted it outside. I move the standard 4" dryer hose around to where I'm working to suit my needs, and it works great for voc's which my wife hates. Just a poor mans solution that works for me.


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## red68mgb (Aug 21, 2019)

redeared said:


> In my basement shop after ripping a lot 2" oak there was enough dust to set off the smoke detector, I installed a 440 CFM inline ventilation fan and ducted it outside. I move the standard 4" dryer hose around to where I'm working to suit my needs, and it works great for voc's which my wife hates. Just a poor mans solution that works for me.


Redeared - I'm planning now for a basement shop and was wondering about an exhuast fan as you described.
If you don't mind, I would love to hear about your basement shop - size, noise/dust abatement, as much as you care to share as well as what you'd do differently. My space is about 13' x 20', no windows, and I'm located in central NY.
Thank you.


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## redeared (Feb 7, 2019)

Wow I'm sorry I missed replying sooner. my basement is about 30' x 40' with a 4' wide door opening to my driveway. Which is nice moving things in an out, also when planing boards I shoot it outside then blow it into the yard. My only regret is that 45 years ago when we brought the house we upgraded the electric from 30 amp to 100 amp instead of 200 amp as it limits a lot of tools I would like to have.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*Be very careful here ......*



red68mgb said:


> Redeared - I'm planning now for a basement shop and was wondering about an exhuast fan as you described.
> If you don't mind, I would love to hear about your basement shop - size, noise/dust abatement, as much as you care to share as well as what you'd do differently. My space is about 13' x 20', no windows, and I'm located in central NY.
> Thank you.



You can't draw the air out of the basement unless you open a window. It will draw fumes from the furnace and water heater back into the basement, which contain CO and are poisonous.


You have a difficult situation where there is no cross ventilation. You must recycle and filter all the room air within the work space. That means an very efficient "point source" dust collector like a good shop vac and an overhead filtration unit like a furnace fan and filters. 



Read as much of this as you can absorb:
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm#index.cfm
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/beginnnerscorner.cfm

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/staticcalc_faqs.cfm#AirFlowRequirements


:vs_cool:


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