Dealing with Dust in a Garage Shop

[maskedbacon]

Hi everyone,

 

If you could be so kind, I'd like your opinion on how to best handle dust in a garage hobby shop (that also doubles as a laundry room). I have to completely scrub the area (and air) of dust when I'm not tinkering or my girlfriend will kill me. Any thoughts on my set-up or how you've discovered safe dust management would be really appreciated.

 

I've read a lot about the ideal set-up -- with a dust collector, a Bill Pentz cyclone, and a powered respirator, but I'm not in a place where I'm willing to put that kind of money down. 

 

Before getting more serious about the dust situation, I was wearing a 3M half-mask with P100 filters when doing any sanding, but took the mask off for cutting or when most of the visible floating dust disappeared. But that resulted in minor lung congestion, throat irritation, and a little wheezing in the days following, and did some research about the long-term health hazards (which are real and kind of scary). Then I realized how much dust was blowing into the house, and that wasn't too cool either. So what seemed like a fun hobby turned into a potentially expensive and dangerous thing, and I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.

 

My current thoughts are to keep the garage door open and have an air mover push out as much bad air as possible when working (I have the Rigid 1650 CFM blower), and always wear a P100 half mask when in the garage. Then shop-vac any large particles I can find once I'm done cutting, and leave the air mover on for a good hour to get anything else out that it can. I also just purchased a Winix 5500 HEPA air purifier to run once I'm in the purging stage of the process. I'd also have a second air purifier in the front room of the house and a third in the room connected to the garage.

 

I've spent hours and hours researching shop air filters, and common advice seems to be go big or give up (and just wear a mask). Most furnace filters are not rated below 1 micron, so cheap homemade set-ups seem like they are helping (due to large particle collection) but they aren't getting everything. The good furnace filters are super expensive, and the best set-up (ala Bill Pentz) costs $180 for the tube filter alone.

 

What surprises me is that I haven't seen much in regard to wood-workers using commercial HEPA purifiers. Many HEPA purifiers are rated down to 0.5 microns, so that should take care of the worst stuff, right? And a model like the Winix will handle purification for rooms up to 350 square feet and the whole unit is just $130. I can understand how they might not be heavy duty enough for when dust is flying while you are working, but if you are using it to purify the air before and after being in the shop I can't see why it would be a bad idea. 

 

I'm also thinking that any sanding will be done far away from the house, in a completely open area with a P100 mask. I've read about how that dust is the most dangerous and I'd rather not even deal with collecting it if I can help it.

 

So what do you think of this plan? Any suggestions that won't break the bank?

 

Thanks!

David

[..Kev]

Welcome to the forums!

 

First off, I'd be surprised if you could get a seal on a 1/2 mask with that beard 

 

There are less expensive dust collectors on the market that do a nice job..  

 

Any chance of moving the laundry area out of your shop area?

[maskedbacon]

Thanks for the welcome! I'm afraid that beard is connected to my face via Photoshop. I get some chin stubble at best.

 

I'm afraid there's no moving the laundry away. Are there some forum dust collection favorites?

[Coop]

You mentioned using the shop vac after the dust had settled. IMO, the very least you should be doing is using the shop vac to collect as much dust as possible connected to the tool you are using, before it gets a chance to go airborne. That will go a long way in keeping your girlfriend from killing you. Then, as you get the funds, go to a more serious dust collection system.

 

OBTW, welcome to the forum.

[maskedbacon]

Thanks Cooper!

 

It was mentioned somewhere else to get a good HEPA filter for the vacuum -- I realized the importance of this when I took it indoors and it sprayed micro particles of wood dust all over my room. Do you guys have any recommendations? The Home Depot HEPA filter for the Rigid 14 Gallon says "Made of HEPA material but not HEPA certified". Great.

 

Also, is there something like a dust collector bag for vacuum exhaust?

[Beechwood Chip]

When you say garage I picture big garage doors that you can open. 

 

In your situation, I'd do some combination of

• mobile bases and do as much dust producing work outside, in your driveway.
• a big fan blowing air from your work area out the garage door
• one or more box fans with HEPA furnace filters duct taped or bungie corded to them, to act as air cleaners
• shop vac hooked up to dust port on tools that have a dust port, or position the nozzle to pick up as much dust as possible
• HEPA filter in shop vac, filter bag in shop vac to keep the HEPA filter from getting clogged
• leaf blower for getting all the dust up and out when you are done working.  Turn all the air cleaner fans and exhaust fans up to 11, and use the leaf blower to get all the dust up where it can get sucked up by the fans.
• extra credit: seal the work area as much as you can, and rig an exhaust fan to pull the dusty air outside.  That way, clean air leaks in through all the gaps in your seal, and the dusty air goes out where you want it to.

That last bit is called "negative pressure", but if you have any combustion in the sealed area (gas dryer or hot water heater, boiler, furnace, propane heater, etc) then you have to make sure that the combustion gases are going up the chimney and not getting sucked into the room.

[Coop]

I changed to a HEPA filter, actually due to the ease of cleaning (it's made of something other than paper?). Since it was still apita to clean, I purchased the cyclone filter to catch the majority of the particles before they get to the vac filter. Recently, I purchased a dust collector from Harbor Freight and it makes all the difference in the world.

I don't know of a filter bag for the exhaust but it makes sense that one would help.

[wtnhighlander]

This is another good application of the "coarse, medium, fine" methodolgy. Catch the dust as close to the source as possible. A dust collector from Harbor Freight is a good, inexpensive start. Insert a cyclone or thein seperator to grab the big stuff (coarse) ahead of the filter bag (medium). Use a high volume fan/blower with small particulate filters to collect the floaties (fine). In your case, after the fine stage has run a while, turn on the HEPA air cleaner (extra-fine). If you try to use a HEPA air cleaner before the heavier stuff is collected or settled, you most likely just clog the filter.

[Beechwood Chip]

Also, is there something like a dust collector bag for vacuum exhaust?

I'd just get a HEPA filter for the shop vac so the exhaust air is clean, rather than using a coarse filter and then trying to put a post filter on it.

 

The ultimate setup is a mini-cyclone or Thein separator before the shop vac, then a filter bag in the shop vac, then the HEPA filter.

 

You can skip one or both pre-filter stages, but your filter will clog faster.

[ridnharley]

For sawdust you need an Oneida-Air cyclone for your shop vac.

All sawdust into the cyclone and hardly any into the vacuum.

With some ingenuity, you can hook it to any tool.

[maskedbacon]

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys.

 

I think what I'll do in the short term is get the HEPA filter for my vacuum as well as filter bags, and strap a cheap furnace pre-filter to the Winix for post-work air scrubbing. When I have time I'll build a garbage can cyclone (http://www.jpthien.com/cy.htm). I think I'll also hang some box fans with cheap furnace filters and see if they'll help.

 

The Oneida cyclones seem very reasonably priced, so we'll see how the garbage can performs before I shell out some more money.

[Beechwood Chip]

Oh, and don't use a router on MDF!

[maskedbacon]

Why's that? Fire hazard?

First time I used a router was a couple weeks ago, and I proceeded to burn the bit. Maybe I should have watched some tutorials first.

[Beechwood Chip]

MDF is made by gluing together very fine wood dust under high pressure.  As soon as you cut it, especially with a router, all the dust gets released and fills whatever space you are in.

 

Not really, but that's what it seems like.  Routing MDF will produce unbelievable clouds of fine dust that will be a pain to clean up, and not fun to breath.

[Bombarde16]

Routing MDF will produce unbelievable clouds of fine dust that will be a pain to clean up, and not fun to breath.

 

Same thing with the circular saw, the chop saw, the table saw, etc.  Chip's right:  The miserable clouds produced any time a high speed cutter goes into MDF are not to be believed.

 

I wouldn't bother building a separator.  The Oneida Dust Deputy is a great little unit and worth every penny.  As another poster said, do as many operations as you can outside.  Apart from sanding, you didn't specify what tools you're running.

 

One last thing:  Be sure you're building stuff your girlfriend likes/wants/needs.  If your hobby doesn't pass that test, it probably won't matter how clean you keep the garage...

[maskedbacon]

Hi Rob,

 

Would you get the dust deputy from woodcraft.com (link below)? I agree, my homemade separator would not be on the same level and will probably cost at least half as much plus a bunch of time.

 

http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2021015/26325/Oneida-Molded-Dust-Deputy-Kit-With-Two-5-Gallon-Plastic-Buckets.aspx?refcode=10INGOPB&gclid=CjwKEAjw14mhBRC0vdSNkI2l7CASJAC8OFS0DpY5nKDsON-j8587IKQoDjSba5DVcP0aKsfAuLrzjRoCx33w_wcB

 

I'm slowly acquiring tools by need... I currently have:

 

- 7 1/4" Ryobi miter saw - http://www.homedepot.com/p/Ryobi-7-1-4-in-Miter-Saw-With-Laser-TS1142L/202078684 (hey, it's cheap).

- Porter Cable circular saw and a couple of jigs.

- Grandpa's super old Craftsman router & palm sander.

 

It's nice that I can swap Diablo blades between the two, but I am more than ready to upgrade to a real table saw. 

 

So, in about a week I'll be getting the Dewalt DW745 (unless you guys recommend something different). I'm really looking forward to having some consistent accuracy, and trying to do everything with a circular saw has definitely given me a lot to appreciate. I'd also get one of these to save my fingers - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001I9UNWC/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER. 

 

As for what I intend on building - good advice. Fortunately, my current interests are storage, tables, and shelving, and that's exactly what she needs. Phew!

[Bombarde16]

The DeWalt was a very close second to the Bosch when I was choosing a job site saw. I forget why I went with the blue saw but I remember being just as impressed with the yellow saw, too.

The miter saw and the router will be your biggest enemies in the battle against dust. Even higher quality miter saws have lousy dust collection. The beauty of the router is that it gets used in a billion different ways and this means there's no way to design a consistent dust collector. Get them outside as much as you can. The new table saw will have a 2" port that plays nicely with a Dust Deputy and a shop vac.

I'm sure the microjig Grripper is a nice tool, but I've always made my own disposable push blocks. Leftover construction lumber, batch them out by the dozen and you throw them out when they get chewed up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Bombarde16]

I don't remember paying $100 for my Dust Deputy, but it was two years ago and, yes, that's the model I have. Works great both for the heavy stuff coming off my planer and the fine stuff coming out of my orbital sander.

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[maskedbacon]

Thanks again, Rob.

 

I think most of the sawdust I've been creating has been from the circular saw, so that table saw will really help.

 

I will definitely need to get a handle on the dust situation before getting an orbital sander. I'm currently looking at the Makita BO5041K http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003M5IWM8/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_10?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

 

But that is in the future. My wishlist is full of stuff Maybe the next thing would be a planer...

[Vyrolan]

I'm in a similar situation and am taking a similar approach for smaller tools.   I have a Ridgid 14-gallon vac and I use their filter bags (the ones for drywall dust) and also use their best filter (their level 5 HEPA-like one)...and I have a Dust Deputy before the vac to catch the bulk of it.

 

For sanding, I use that shop vac setup to my ROS, but also anytime I'm sanding (with power or by hand), I do it near the side door of my garage with the door opened partway.  I setup a big fan blowing out there and open one of the front doors enough to serve as an intake...most dust is thrown out, and I always brush off pieces/surfaces in that direction to send it out.   Not a perfect system and colder temperatures make it less comfortable, but it works for me for now.

[Bombarde16]

Looks a lot like the Bosch sander that I have...probably made in the same Chinese factory, for that matter.  Vyrolan is correct.  As long as you can run it outdoors with the wind going the correct direction, no worries.

 

Might not be a bad idea to look into scrapers and hand planes.  No, it won't eliminate sanding.  (Even the most die-hard neanderthal will still admit to keeping a sheet or three of sandpaper around.)  But any surface prep that can be done by an edge tool will be that much less fine dust to worry about.

[maskedbacon]

In my collection of Grandpa tools I have a hand planer that I recently sharpened and put back together. I'm not super comfortable with it yet and I don't totally understand how to do a great job flattening a surface, but I plan to get there

 

Anyhoo, I'll report back once I get this new setup together, and hopefully my lungs will be happy and the next questions will be more about technique than coughing and cleaning! I really appreciate all the tips everyone's provided.

[Beechwood Chip]

You might like Marc's Hybrid Woodworking book.  How to hand tool for power tool users, and visa versa.

[Bombarde16]

Stickler's point:  Handheld planers have power cords that plug into a wall socket.  Your grandfather probably left you a hand plane.

 

Snap a picture and show us what grandpa left you and tell us what you're building.  There's a lot of different ways to welcome a hand tool into a power tool workflow.  You asked about dust control and I raised hand tools in that context because edge tools often allow you to eliminate large part of sanding work.

[maskedbacon]

You're right, hand plane! And I'm going to grab a copy of that book, too. Looks great.

 

I'm actually moving in the next week to our rental house (I've been commuting every weekend to visit and fill the garage with tools and wood), so I won't be able to do anything until then. But I'll take a picture soon.