wgeils Posted September 6, 2011 Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 I have a small shop with nothing better than a Shop Vac for dust collection. I have a respirator mask and was wondering how often I should be wearing it? I know that anytime I am spraying an oil based finish I should wear it. Should I also wear it when I am sanding and other high dust type activities? What is the risk and how much should I worry about it? Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beechwood Chip Posted September 6, 2011 Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 Bill Pentz has written a lot about this. I wear the mask most of the time I'm in the shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcustoms Posted September 6, 2011 Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 I Second Beechwood Chip after reading all of Bill Pentz's research I wear my mask most of the time while working in the shop. I have two different cartridges for the mask one for spraying finishes and one for general work that filters out the harmful dust. You will find a lot of good information on his website that will "scare" you into wanting to wear a mask as much as possible along with trying to prevent the harmful dust from entering the air. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgeils Posted September 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 Ok just finished reading that page. I'm now wearing my mask while typing on my laptop. I'm sure pounds of deadly dust are being launched into the air with every key stroke. That article was really scary. It opens up some real question for a guy like me with a basement wood shop. I don't have the $2500 it would take to do proper dust collection. What risk does the rest of my family upstairs have from my hobby? It's only me and the cat in the basement and I can wear a mask. If the cat dies I get make a cat coffin (by far my favorite upcoming project). Should I stop my hobby until I can afford the proper air cleaning equipment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilburpan Posted September 6, 2011 Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 It sounds like you have exactly the same problem that I did when I was setting up my shop. Basement shop, HVAC ducting running across the ceiling, and a day job that makes me hyper-aware of what wood dust can do to my kids' lungs. And I would feel really bad if my hobby gave my kids asthma. Here's what I did. 1. Hand tools as much as possible. You can do a lot with hand tools (ask Shannon or Bob). You don't need a table saw for every project, and if you generate less dust, you don't have to deal with it as much. 2. Pay attention to good dust collection when I do decide to use power tools. Bill Pentz has a great analysis of what is needed for dust collection. There is another approach. You can't get around the fact that you need lots of CFM for capturing fine dust particles. Bill's approach to maximize CFM is to reduce resistance by any means, and that includes using a cyclone to avoid flow resistance caused by clogged filters, which leads to huge motors to power the cyclone. The other way to reduce resistance is to make your DC mobile, and use very short runs of ducting. I have a 1.5 hp DC, but in my case I use only 5' of flex hose and wheel it to the machines that I am using. 3. Air cleaners are a must. The holy grail is 100% capture at the source, of course. This is nearly impossible, even under the best of conditions. Installing an air cleaner is your backup plan. The key is to have enough air exchanges for the size of your shop. Many people say you need one air exchange every 10 minutes, or 6 air exchanges an hour. I went for 25 exchanges an hour. You can reduce the amount of circulating dust particles quite effectively by going up on this parameter. And it's far easier to add another air cleaner to achieve this goal than it is to rewire your shop to support a bigger cyclone. 4. Good air filters on the furnace. If some dust does get out of my shop, I want to try to trap it as the air circulates throughout my house. This probably is not super effective, but it is better than nothing. In an ideal world, I'd have a cyclone unit, but I don't have the space for one. This is probably as good as I can make things, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beechwood Chip Posted September 6, 2011 Report Share Posted September 6, 2011 BTW, I got a Wynn air filter for my dust collector, and I asked them about using it as an ambient air cleaner filter, They said that that filter was originally designed as an ambient air cleaner filter, and they later discovered that it also worked well as a dust collector filter for hobbyists and small shops. So, I'm trying to figure out how to hook it up so that the dust collector blows through it when I'm working, and the air cleaner blows through it when I'm not. My first idea was to put louvers on each end of the filter cylinder, and have the dust collector Thien separator blow into one end, and the air cleaner blow into the other. I haven't rejected that, but I don't know how good a seal the louvers would make, or how important having a good seal would be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcustoms Posted September 7, 2011 Report Share Posted September 7, 2011 Bill Pentz sent me this picture of an air cleaner that he made using one of the Wynn filters and an HVAC inline duct fan. He told me to run it in the shop after I am done working. He also gave me the advice to always have air movement while working in the shop. For example I know you are in a basement but if you have a few windows put a box fan exhausting out in one window and on the other side of the shop have a fresh air source. Another thing to consider is if you could find a way to seal your shop to the point where you can negatively pressurize the room so all the fine dust will not travel around the rest of the house. That can be achieved by installing a good bathroom style vent fan that exhausts out side which would make your shop an area of low pressure preventing the fine dust from traveling around your house. Things like Bag style dust collectors and ceiling mounted air cleaners when operated in your shop act as Bill Pentz would say "Dust Pumps". The problem being, that the most harmful dust is free to exit the filters and is then pushed with force all around the shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcustoms Posted September 8, 2011 Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 As a follow up I just thought of a possible problem to the negative pressurization in a basement shop and that is drawing in the CO from the furnace and water heater. I don't know how the HVAC in your house is configured but something to think about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beechwood Chip Posted September 8, 2011 Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 Yes, Carbon Monoxide can be a problem if you have combustion in your shop (furnace, space heater, water heater, etc). If you can build a litle enclosure around the heaters, you can rig a fan to pull air out of your shop into the enclosures, where it will go up the chimney. That way the air flow is from your house into your shop, from your shop into the heater enclosure, and out the chimney. I haven't tried this - it's just an idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wgeils Posted September 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2011 OK I'm going to try to set-up a cross breeze with an exhaust and supply fans in the shop. Then after doing some work i'll take a look at my dinning room table to see if I have accumulated any dust upstairs. Hopefully that will give me some idea of how bad the problem is. Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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