I was brousing the net for dust controll devices and new ways to handle the mess. This is what i have come up with.
I just recently completed a" dust seperator" and for the fun and ease o making one, plus how well it works, its pretty crazy. I spent avout 25-30$ to make it.no more clogging filters in my shop-vac and no loss of suction really ever
Dust-Free sanding handles are also awesome. They hook up too a vac and are he same as a hard block. I reckon you could even make one with a soft bottom with little modification. Just google “dust free hand sander”
In my research also has seen a few products called dust free sanding bonnets. They can slip over a PowerPad or hard disk and remove almost all of that dust from your shop, hook it up to the vac and go! No more dust! Google dust free sanding bonnet or “dust free power sanding cover”
Try moving the “vent” end of your vac (even after filters) to be piped out of the shop. Sounds simple enouh and im sure you may have done it ready but hey! Hope it helps
Cyclone technology: so may brands. I have found the oneda dust depudy to be very reputable and reliable over the huge expensive vac systems you could buy. But dont be limited to this, so many oher brands out there and even kits.
Seperators: i have build one, all from lowes parts and supplys cheaply and very easily. I can easily say that itmame s a huge difference in almost everything you can do. Totally worth doing.
Anything i missed our you guys want beter elaboration on,do not hesitate to comment and i will throw it in.
Hopefully this thread can become a resource for many shapers and glassers.
Hepa filter chip/dust collector. Cost- $75 for used dust collector motor and fan assembly off craigslist, $35 for the hepa furnace filter from Home Cheapo, $15 for the plastic barrel. add one redneck welder aka: roll of duct tape and a cardboard box from the bike shop in my shop complex and about 3hrs to patch it together . That and plans for the “cyclone” section inside the barrel @ http://www.jpthien.com/
Knowing how well it works now I will pretty it up and spend some time to eliminate the redneck welding and patch the small leaks.
Cyclone works really well but don ´t catch super fine particule, under 5 micron,efficiency is really low. Most sanding particule are bigger but the small ones are the most dangerous for body so you need a specific filter after cyclone for complete protection.
You would be shocked, i was, If done right the plastic bag picks up a static charge to trap the smalls and the hepa filter takes care of the rest. Ive been a carpenter for 23 years, This system does the trick. The barrel catches the large particles and the plastic bag slowly gets the fines. when the hepa filter starts getting clogged a gentle shot of air from the outside flushes it clean.
From wiki
HEPA filters are composed of a mat of randomly arranged fibres. The fibres are typically composed of fiberglass and possess diameters between 0.5 and 2.0 micrometers. Key factors affecting function are fibre diameter, filter thickness, and face velocity. The air space between HEPA filter fibres is much greater than 0.3 μm. The common assumption that a HEPA filter acts like a sieve where particles smaller than the largest opening can pass through is incorrect. Unlike membrane filters at this pore size, where particles as wide as the largest opening or distance between fibres cannot pass in between them at all, HEPA filters are designed to target much smaller pollutants and particles. These particles are trapped (they stick to a fibre) through a combination of the following three mechanisms:
Interception, where particles following a line of flow in the air stream come within one radius of a fibre and adhere to it.
Impaction, where larger particles are unable to avoid fibres by following the curving contours of the air stream and are forced to embed in one of them directly; this effect increases with diminishing fibre separation and higher air flow velocity.
Diffusion, an enhancing mechanism that is a result of the collision with gas molecules by the smallest particles, especially those below 0.1 µm in diameter, which are thereby impeded and delayed in their path through the filter; this behaviour is similar toBrownian motion and raises the probability that a particle will be stopped by either of the two mechanisms above; it becomes dominant at lower air flow velocities.
Diffusion predominates below the 0.1 μm diameter particle size. Impaction and interception predominate above 0.4 μm. In between, near the most penetrating particle size (MPPS) 0.3 μm, both diffusion and interception are comparatively inefficient. Because this is the weakest point in the filter’s performance, the HEPA specifications use the retention of these particles to classify the filter.
Lastly, it is important to note that HEPA filters are designed to arrest very fine particles effectively, but they do not filter out gasses and odor molecules. Circumstances requiring filtration of volatile organic compounds, chemical vapors, cigarette, pet, and/or flatulenceodors call for the use of an activated carbon (charcoal) filter instead of or in addition to a HEPA filter. (ZAND)
this old topic! i totally forgot about this thread i started. Its funny to see one of my dead threads come back to life like this, totally awesome. Btw i apologize for the horrible first post. not one of my best for sure
Coldwaverider interesting idea! the static charge on the plastic draws in the oppositely charged micro-particles. How does that static build up and is there any way to atrifically create that to create a “micro particle magnet” of sorts?
As for HEPA filters, great wiki. whenever im in Lowes i always see the box type filters and have had some ideas on how to incorporate them into my dust collection. Your system looks effective. Do you run it inside your shop?
I make dust for a living, maybe there are folks here that know the science. I have it sitting on a dolly with rubber wheels so as not to ground out and let me move it around (and yes I’m aware of the hazard of dust and static discharge, ill take the small explosion over lung cancer) I suspect the static charge comes from the dust rubbing on the plastic hose and barrel. I will say this. I have worked with large eloborate dust systems, shop vacs and “other” methods. This does as well or better as any of them with no loss of suction after days of heavy use and a full barrel. Ideally there is 4 filters creating a box with the bag at the bottom and the input at the top pointing straight down. I just patched that one together so I could rip some cedar with the shop door closed, after 2 hours of ripping you can see In the photos the chips and small stuff in the barrel creating a volcano shape (bout a quarter full) and the handfull of ultra fines in the bag, hard to really see in the bag shot but it is a very fine powder. left on like an air scrubber for 10 15 minutes and the air in the shop is clear and you can smell its clean.
Heading back to the shop now, I’ll get a few more photos for better detail on how I patched it together
I make dust for a living, maybe there are folks here that know the science. I have it sitting on a dolly with rubber wheels so as not to ground out and let me move it around (and yes I’m aware of the hazard of dust and static discharge, ill take the small explosion over lung cancer) I suspect the static charge comes from the dust rubbing on the plastic hose and barrel. I will say this. I have worked with large eloborate dust systems, shop vacs and “other” methods. This does as well or better as any of them with no loss of suction after days of heavy use and a full barrel. Ideally there is 4 filters creating a box with the bag at the bottom and the input at the top pointing straight down. I just patched that one together so I could rip some cedar with the shop door closed, after 2 hours of ripping you can see In the photos the chips and small stuff in the barrel creating a volcano shape (bout a quarter full) and the handfull of ultra fines in the bag, hard to really see in the bag shot but it is a very fine powder. left on like an air scrubber for 10 15 minutes and the air in the shop is clear and you can smell its clean. 
