Sanding dust & clean up

Im curious how you guys clean up fiberglass sanding dust. Im working out of a corner of my garage where I have covered the walls in vinly and can literally spray them down with the hose. This seems like the best idea as sweeping and vaccuming spread the dust. What do the production shops do? Special vacumms/filters? Also, does fiberglass dust ever breakdown over time to a point where it is less of a hazard. I just don’t want to leave remanants around the garage to be sucking them up years later when Im moving boxes etc…

For a backyarder if you’re able to contain the dust and then hose it down, seems like a good set up to me! if you could somehow catch the runoff then dispose of it even better, otherwise it’ll dry up and blow around.

Dunno, but I doubt the dust will break down in our lifetime

I built a tiny shed for my board-a-month ‘production’; when it comes time to power sand I staple $2.50 worth of plastic drop cloth around the altar. It contains most of the dust and all of the wet splatter. Dust, some sticks to the plastic, most falls/deflected to the floor for the shop vac. When finished I carefully roll up the plastic as I detach it, and then dump it. The shop vac gets most of what hits the floor/walls; empty the vac into a large garbage bag then I thorougly shake out the filter inside the bag before tying it up. I wear a respirator and (usually) goggles in there, shorts, slippers & tank top. Later the kids fight over who gets to blast me with the gardne hose

Howzit will, I used to hose down my sanding area every month or so and after we moved and I took down the shop the new owners put a garden in the same spot. Went by there a few weeks back and the garden is really doing well. Not sure about how the dust will affect the veggies grown in it but the dust isn't keeping them from growing at a normal rate.Aloha,Kokua

yeah, my setup is much like yours. ive got thick black plastic stapled to two corner walls and then it hangs from the ceiling to make two more walls and enclose a rectangle. the concrete in my garage has a bevels and goes to a drain. so i guess i’ll contiune as planned and spray it down.

is there a recommeded filter for shop vac- that catches fiberglass/small particles etc?

w

Invite some riff-raff f(r)iends and give them all straws.

IMO, get at least a 12 gallon & don’t scrimp on the power for the vac. whatever brand you get will have filter options. the drywall/fine particle/etc filters probably sold separately. I have this one from RIGID http://www.ridgid.com/Tools/14-Gallon-Pro-Vac/index.htm and have been very happy with it.

Does anyone know, if I buy the optional vacumm liner bags, does that mean you do not use a filter? Anyone go this route with the bags?

On a related note, I found some 3M wet/dry 150g & 220g that I’m going to try on a hotcoat. See how it works to reduce dust by keeping the surface misted with water on the lower grits. The wet splatter is much easier to control, esp since I’ll be throwing away the sheeting

The messy clean-up is one of several reasons why I have chosen to finish my balsa board with Spar varnish instead of glass. I do my sanding out in the drive way.

Hey bud

I posted a question about wet sanding the hotcoat not to long ago but havn’t tried as yet.

Let me know how it turns out.

Cheers