As always, I look to you all as my guiding light. I’m starting to think about improving my sanding room- I’m sick of having a white cloud when I sand a hotcoat! I own a dust collector that I use while planing, a shop vac, and a powermatic air filter unit, but I’m not keeping up with the cloud that I form. What’s the solution? I understand large factories can have full on sanding bays w bazillion cfm collectors- but what does the smaller guy do? I thought about builiding a intake box with a fan and crude filter just to get air flowing into the dust collector.
Howzit Barry, I used to have an old fan like the ones the picker guys collect and when I ran it on high I swear if I put wings on it it would take off and fly. I think I left it at Ambrose’s shop when I had to leave to take care of my dying father. Never asked him if he or some body grabbed it when the shop got torn down. Found it at the old Hanalei dump and brought it back to life. Aloha,Kokua
I can handle that. 36inch is a big boy. I’m wondering if my dust collector can handle it- do you actually match the cfm for the fan and collector? I guess it doesn’t really need to match since the fan is really just a large assist, and I feel like at worst the dust collector’s motor would draw a touch less power due to less resistance.
You’re overthinking it. It’s not that high tech. Most factories don’t have “bazillion cfm collectors” unless you call a household box fan at ground level a “cfm collector”. What Barry mentioned above is the common setup in a glass shop. Deluxe would be a fan at one end of the room blowing the dust downwind towards the other end of the room where it is exhausted out of the room by a ground level fan. The ground level fan is usually set up with some kind of shroud or hood (usually made of sheet metal) with a bag attached to it(usually a pillow case) that holds/contains the dust. If you are in SD or OC be sure to put a dumpster or some other large immovable object in front of it to prevent some Jerry Brown nosin’ bureaucrat from CARB from noticing all that dust. If in the Islands or the NorthWest; “no matta” .
Low tech systems aside; There is a plastic hood vacum set-up know as the “Dust-Buddie”. Fits a 7" sander. About $100 on ebay or Amazon. I’ve yet to try one, but I believe I’ll buy one to use in my latest clandestine factory. I’ve seen a couple of tile-setters and granite counter top guys use them and they seemed to get the job done.
Right behind the Jet is the exhaust fan that exhausts air outside.
My fresh air supply is on the other side of the room. So all of my air flows in one direction—from the supply, across to the Jet, and out the exhaust. The Jet is a little bit pricey but I can tell you it WORKS. No clouds.
I have the powermatic which is basically the equivilant of the Jet. I’m realizing the key is the directional airflow, and the exhaust. Unfortunatly, my room is within a warehouse so I am not able to vent outside, hence the need for good filtration. Just fooling around with a 20" fan blowing around seems to really help the filter capture the dust.
Good question. I believe the Jet was designed to be hung on the ceiling (thus the 4 hooks built in to it) to collect airborne dust. Because I have the uni-directional flow across the room, any dust that is kicked up in the air by my planer/sander gets caught in the flow and goes through the Jet. Dust that doesn’t go airborne just goes on the floor. Important thing is that there is no “cloud of dust” at eye/board level to become a nuisance. I still have plenty of sweeping to do after I’m done, but the air is clear while I’m working.