Dust collection in a small shop

[Peter Misiaszek]

I recently moved shop into a dedicated bay in a three-car garage. Dust is an issue. This is a small turning setup with a Oneway 1224 as the centerpiece. Yesterday, after sanding a magnolia bowl, everything else in the garage had a good dusting of magnolia. I’m not looking for a perfect solution, just a good one. I have a mini-Oneida cyclone that I’ve never used, and doing some kind of hood arrangement at the lathe is an option. I’m also looking at a Wenn air filtration system, but if it ever warms up here in Florida, I’ll have the garage doors open. Noise and space are concerns. What works for you?

 

[Lamar Wright]

I recently moved shop into a dedicated bay in a three-car garage. Dust is an issue. This is a small turning setup with a Oneway 1224 as the centerpiece. Yesterday, after sanding a magnolia bowl, everything else in the garage had a good dusting of magnolia. I’m not looking for a perfect solution, just a good one. I have a mini-Oneida cyclone that I’ve never used, and doing some kind of hood arrangement at the lathe is an option. I’m also looking at a Wenn air filtration system, but if it ever warms up here in Florida, I’ll have the garage doors open. Noise and space are concerns. What works for you?

Hi Pete, I have the Wen air filtration in my small shop and it does an excellent job of taking care of the fine dust in the air. I use a Jet dust collection system for my Lathe work and my 14" bandsaw. The Wen takes care of the rest. Of course, use your dust mask and shield. Hope this helps.

 

[Fadi Zeidan]

Did you partition the bay from the rest of the garage? I’m thinking of doing the same to my 3 car garage.

 

[Peter Misiaszek]

No, I didn't partition, although I did consider it. I have to make a 90 degree turn into the garage, and a partition would create problem parking in the adjacent bay. The garage ceiling is 10', so a curtain would be quite a project. I'm tempted to try a Wenn because it isn't a major investment, but with the doors open, my guess is it won't be of much use. The logical answer is to collect as much dust at the lathe, as possible.

 

[Owen Lowe]

I have a mini-Oneida cyclone that I’ve never used, and doing some kind of hood arrangement at the lathe is an option.

Your first step is to put that Oneida to work at the lathe. Even without a hood, the bare hose 6” from the sanding will catch a great majority of the dust. I’m not sure of the filter for that so it may also need a finer one to really do a top-notch job.

The second step might be to go with an air filtration unit if the primary collector is not able to capture a satisfactory amount. This type of unit will solve extremely little on its own. You’ll still end up with dust on everything because it’s designed to catch the very, very fine dust that floats in the air for extended periods of time. The dust you see settling on stuff is the heavier stuff that the Oneida will catch.

 

[Mark Wollschlager]

Controlling sanding dust has a 2 or 3 part solution.
Point source collection, having a hose or nozzle near the sanding. In general that will get 80-90% of dust.
Sanding at lower speeds, lathe and power sander send less dust into the air and gives the point source a better change of grabbing the dust.
Ambient air dust collection. This can get a percentage of the remaining dust, if you set it up right.
Usually they are placed along a long wall to establish a sort of circular air flow that brings the dust to the collector.
That might be a challenge in your larger space. A bigger unit might be required, unless you can restrict the 'shop' air space from the rest of the garage.
Wet sanding techniques can be used to minimize airborne dust.
There are pluses and minuses to this. Sandpaper clogs up faster and sometimes finishing methods need to be adjusted.

A mini cyclone attached to a shop vac can be a noisy solution. In addition the cyclone will pick up the larger particles and chips, but leave the fine particles to go to the vac or dust collector. Having a HEPA type filter on the shop vac or a canister filter on a dust collector and cut down on the reintroduction of dust into the air from the collection device.
A dust collector with a higher volume/lower speed generally is quieter and more effective than a shop vac.
Working with the garage open would be much more feasible with a quieter, more effective dust collector.
And the rest of the garage would probably be cleaner.

Always remember your Personal dust protection.

 

[Lamar Wright]

Like Owen said, the Oneida is a good idea, but if you won't better air filtration, like I mentioned above, I would install the Wen or Jet air filtration system. To catch the majority of the dust should be at the source and for the air born dust, the Wen does very well for my shop.

 

[Paul Gilbert]

How do you confine a wood shop to just part of a 3 car garage? I have the typical 3 car garage that has not seen the likes of a car in years.

 

[Mark Hepburn]

Peter, even if you literally use curtains to partition off part your shop while working it will help. I have a “paint booth “that is an area divided by plastic drop cloth.

PVC rods and some sort of clips or means of making the “curtains “ movable so you can get them out of the way. This will reduce some migration elsewhere in your garage.

as Owen and Mark said, colllecting at the lathe is essential. Here’s my primitive DC hose setup. Goes to my Oneida V series.

 

[john lucas]

For a long time I had a shopsmith and also had their dust collector. It's surprisingly quiet. I would put the hose as close as possible to the dust soarce and collect as much as I could. I also had part of a garage and got lots of complaints from the wife so I put hung a clear plastic sheet between my bay and hers. It was easy to walk through the overlapping pieces and it kept pretty much all of the dust on my side.

 

[Fadi Zeidan]

I was thinking of either using curtain tracks like the ones they have in hospitals, or build a wall with a door to the bay. Not sure if the curtain will catch that flying bowl from going through my wife’s car window

 

[Mark Hepburn]

True, but those heavy canvas drop cloths like painters use (with some weights at the bottom) may well do the trick. They're pretty sturdy and quite a bit cheaper than walls.

 

[JeffSmith]

In my old shop/garage, I used the curtain tracks from Ikea - with the rolling clips to hold up a simple visquene curtain. They have curved corners, so its simple to make a curtain that creates a space around the lathe to contain both shavings (my main concern) and dust. Easy to setup, pretty cheap and the plastic sheet can be changed if necessary - didn’t need to for 5 or 6 years.

in the new shop I was in a hurry with no immediate access to Ikea, so I just strung a wire from wall to wall to setoff the turning area with the same plastic sheeting on shower curtain hooks. Left both ends long so I can pull it around the ends when necessary. Eventually, I’ll go back to the Ikea curtain system, but this works for now.

 

[Dean Center]

I used a metal electrical conduit held at both ends like a closet rod, but 10 feet long, with shower curtain sliders. Adequately rigid without other support. Slides well. Any of the curtain ideas will work, though I went with the not-quite cheapest plastic ones.