Comments on: Sanding Dust: In the Bag or Up Your Nose

By: GunnyGene

GunnyGene — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 13:22:29 +0000

I’m a firm believer in DC hookups to everything that makes dust, that includes have a downdraft sanding table for handsanding, etc. My shop DC does not have a bag or filter, but exhausts everything to the great outdoors. Which, besides keeping the dust out of the shop air, also increases the efficiency of the DC by quite a bit. I realize not everyone can just dump everything overboard, so to speak, but if you have the ability it’s well worth it.

I’ve known people who religiously hook up a DC or shop vac, wear a mask, etc. while working, and then don’t bother to wear a mask when emptying the bags or cleaning the filters! Wuwt?

By: willcon

willcon — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:58:53 +0000

I totally agree! Yeah, it is a little bit inconvenient to have a hose attached to your sander, but what a huge difference. I bit the bullet and got the Festool vac and sander, just because of the integrated dust extraction. I figured my future health was way more important that my current budget needs (and I use it professionally). A year earlier, I was sanding huge pine beams with an aggressive rotary sander, without a mask or vacuum, and ended up with pneumonia. I learned my lesson!

By: aschaffter

aschaffter — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 14:04:26 +0000

Woodworkers are just about the only people that try to filter dusty air so they can re-use it (and re-breathe it!!!). Industry knows better.

Filters, whether small tool-based or large cartridges found on dust collectors, are a lose-lose proposition. As the article states and everyone knows, you must have airflow in order to collect the dust at the source. However, as soon as you start collecting dust the small holes or openings in the filter media start to clog. The more they clog, the worse the air flow becomes.

Without constant filter cleaning dust collection is mediocre at best. To make things worse, repeated cleaning easily damages the filter media so it will no longer filter out the fine (hazardous) particles.

The solution is to use a vacuum with bench tools or big dust collector with your machines to capture the dust, separate out as much dust as possible with a cyclone, then discharge the rest outside!

By: Steve_OH

Steve_OH — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 18:17:46 +0000

I don’t doubt that ROS dust collection is better these days than it used to be, but I “grew up” with sanders where the built-in dust collection was more or less worthless, so I’ve gotten into the habit of always hooking up a vacuum cleaner when using an ROS.

-Steve