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Dust collection new idea

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I came across this article the other day: “Dust Collection- The Clean Air Myth”
In the article, he describes his basement woodshop. He has a large cyclone dust collector with hoses linked to major equipment, plus a ceiling mounted dust filtration box. Even with all of that, he can wipe a finger along any wall and come up with dust. (This is similar to my situation)
Anyway, after visiting a cigar parlor with no noticeable smoke, he came up with the idea to add an “air purifier.” to run in concert with his existing system. These are small-ish units with a pre-filter, a HEPA filter, plus an activated charcoal filter. He claims this has solved his problem, no more dust residue. He is so happy that he is buying another unit for his first floor.

Read the whole article, I am just summarizing the main points.
https://www.highlandwoodworking.com/woodworking-tips-1605may/dtew/dtew1.html

I was wondering if anyone else has gone down this path?
 
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Hmm, I might have a more serious look at this system. Initial thought is that it is a bit of overkill, but if I was very sensitive to dust and allergens, then it might be more important to research. One type of particulate matter collector that I haven't seen for shops is one that bubbles the collected air through water. That does seem to get everything. I did see a house vacuum cleaner that used this and was told that it is common in hospitals.

robo hippy
 
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Sure, I have a shop-built ambient air filter with a squirrel cage fan, flat pre-filter and multiple bag filter, sized to cycle the shop air volume around 10x/hour. Very useful for scrubbing out dust that is not picked up by the central system. Many shops use commercial versions. Charcoal filters seem overkill in a woodshop unless you are generating toxic fumes.

The key to effective dust control is catching it at the source with an effective hood and sufficient volume and velocity. That's more difficult at the lathe than many other stationary tools, all the more reason to have an auxiliary system in a turning shop.
 

Randy Anderson

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Interesting article. Always interested in something that helps keep the chips and dust under control. I've redesigned my dust system more than a few times over the years based on shop layout, space, which tools need more dc than others, etc. I have one of the portable high end air filter systems in the house that we use from time to time but always thought that the filters would clog up very quickly and they are really expensive and not washable. The biggest improvements I've made over time are going to 4" hose, two overhead WEN air filter units that run almost all the time, collecting at the source, separator before the dc motor and venting the dc exhaust to the outside. Venting to the outside was probably the biggest improvement. Filters leak, separators are not 100% efficient and I can see a fair amount of dust and chips outside on the ground where it vents. Not an option for many I know. Downside is on hot days I can suck all the cool air out of my shop in a short time.
 
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Sure, I have a shop-built ambient air filter with a squirrel cage fan, flat pre-filter and multiple bag filter, sized to cycle the shop air volume around 10x/hour. Very useful for scrubbing out dust that is not picked up by the central system.

I suspect your squirrel cage filter box is similar to the box (made by Jet) that I have suspended from my ceiling. I find that there is still a layer of dust that eventually builds up in the basement ceiling rafters, on walls, on the ducting that goes to my cyclone dust collector, pretty much everywhere. If you do a "finger swipe" test, do you pick up fine dust?
 
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Almost all of the commercially available air purifiers come with a charcoal filter, but I agree that a charcoal filter won't help much for dust; It may help for fumes created when finishing. Many of these air purifiers units do come with washable pre filters to prolong the life of the HEPA filter. I do believe that the HEPA filter is a step up from most dust collection systems marketed for wood shops.
 
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Interesting article. Always interested in something that helps keep the chips and dust under control. I've redesigned my dust system more than a few times over the years based on shop layout, space, which tools need more dc than others, etc. I have one of the portable high end air filter systems in the house that we use from time to time but always thought that the filters would clog up very quickly and they are really expensive and not washable. The biggest improvements I've made over time are going to 4" hose, two overhead WEN air filter units that run almost all the time, collecting at the source, separator before the dc motor and venting the dc exhaust to the outside. Venting to the outside was probably the biggest improvement. Filters leak, separators are not 100% efficient and I can see a fair amount of dust and chips outside on the ground where it vents. Not an option for many I know. Downside is on hot days I can suck all the cool air out of my shop in a short time.
Where to start and end my "diatribe" on dust collection.... :D

My synopsis is that - it will never be 100%. Just too many variables. Having said that, I turn wearing this https://publicsafetycenter.com/rpb-px5-z-link-papr-kit.html
And I have 2 Jet 1000 cfm ceiling mount air filters, and a large Delta 2000 cfm air filter.

My shop dust collection is a 5HP 2 stage cyclone Bill Pentz design called an EF 5. Made by Clear Vue. https://www.clearvuecyclones.com One caveat tho. I discovered that in a basement shop - one can suck ALL of the heated or cooled air out of the house above, and in short order. It is so much more effective that the short funnel height cyclones as for dust separation - due to the longed cone design. I have friends that have those by Laguna, Jet and others, and they have a much lower separation rate due to the shorter cone. But they do save space...so there is a fair compromise. The filters on this unit are still clean after almost a year of near daily operation. There is a 1/4hp shaker motor mounted to the top of the filter stack, and a momentary switch on the outside of the filter cabinet. Helps shake down the dust to the drawer at the bottom of the cabinet. All of the cabinet openings are double gasket and the latches are adjustable for any long term compression compensation. There are no leaks.

So, I had to design a "return air" housing and connection for the 1 micron filter stack so as to preserve that expensive conditioned air, and to no longer create a negative pressure in the house above. When the gaskets along the bottom edge of your exterior doors are whistling...you know that you have a negative pressure situation.... ( See pictures.) What this does is clean the conditioned air that now blows thru my shop, and keep any escaped dust on the surface of things in suspension longer, so that it has a chance of being extracted. Of course, static charge inherent to all things means that you will always find a little sun on surfaces. But, it is minimal now in areas the air flow can effect removal.
 

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Michae, you are right that my ambient air filter is just a cobbed together version of the commercial ambient air filters like the Jet you have. Unfortunately there is little that is new in air filtration. Keeping shop air clean while in use requires high volume and high efficiency filter media. The Rabbit unit described in the Highland article has multiple layers of filtration and a particle monitor but it has less than 300 cfm reported volume. In my 24' x 45' shop with 9' ceilings it would take over 30 minutes for that unit to process the total volume of air, while all the time I would be generating more dust. I think one would get more bang for the buck with a larger central dust collection unit with hepa filtration and a large blast gate open all the time or a larger ambient filter like mine or yours with hepa multi-pocket bags. Running them on a timer for a period after work would help with the "white glove" settled out dust. The Rabbit units seem gimmicky for a woodshop as the multiple filters would be expensive and laborious to clean or replace relative to the volume needed to keep the air (relatively) clean.
 
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I read the article and it was thorough, but certainly requires more research and answers to questions for each of our shop situations.

I would agree that, if you feel there is mold, allergens, or other airborne particles besides dust in your shop's air, then the Rabbit Air may be a great answer. It can cut down on mold, bacteria, etc., and the dust. Since the writing of the article, Rabbit Air has an even more expensive, higher capacity unit (about 1,000 sq. ft.).

However, if you are merely trying to remove the finest dust from the air that escapes at the tool or gets past the ceiling mounted air cleaner, then maybe Powermatic's air cleaner, which has a HEPA filter, might be an answer which focuses on the dust in the air issue. Older air cleaners (mine included since it's about 25 years old) do not have HEPA filters. I have never really understood this, but it is true across the board, regardless of manufacturer. I can buy a HEPA filter for mine, but it's over $200 and, according to the manufacturer, not reusable. The Powermatic unit can be placed on the floor rather than the ceiling (which might be a good location to draw the dust downward away from your nose and face), is focused completely on the finest dust which may still be in the air, and, the filter, while still about $100 the last time I checked, isn't quite as expensive. I don't know what the cost of the Rabbit Air filters are, but there are a lot of them and they all have to be replaced periodically to keep the unit working correctly.

Just suggesting another point of view if dust is really the problem in your shop. The article is clear, and I completely agree, the fact that dust remains in the air should never be a reason to just give up on the idea of dust collection or just buy something cheap. A good quality HEPA cyclone or other dust collector coupled with a ceiling mounted air cleaner plus an air powered dust helmet or dust mask, significantly decreases the risk to your lungs and nasal passages. While not perfect, it certainly is better than nothing or a solution which only removes a small portion of the dust before it gets to you.
 
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Hmm, just pondering, but I have wondered about a variable speed DC system, probably with a timer. Since new pleated filters take things down to 0.5 microns or less, if there was a slow speed setting and timer, you could turn it on when you leave the shop, and then it would scrub the air.

robo hippy
 
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Something that does not occur to most is that there is a lot of dust on a shop floor. When you walk thru it or have a fan on some gets stirred and will go back into the air. So to solve this either put on the dust mask , open te garage door and blow it out or use a vacum to clean it up. Brooms?? will stir the dust into the air.
 
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I agree Gerald and I've noticed when I turn on my dust extractor it actually stirs up dust. We have a Renewaire system https://www.renewaire.com/erv/ev130/ on our furnace and a Conway air filter in the main part of our house. I think if I had something like that in my shop I'd be changing filters daily. I wear a mask and postive pressure system in the shop since I had asthma.
 
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I want to start this post with a disclaimer that I am far from an expert in this area, and am enjoying the different ideas in this thread. My feeling is if you can wipe your finger on surfaces in your shop (including the floor, as Gerald mentioned) and come up with significant dust, that is an indicator that dust collection is inadequate. I do wear a powered respirator in addition to my dust collectors, but am still concerned that the dust can become airborne again. Furthermore, it is my understanding that you need to filter the particles down to 0.5 microns (at least) to be safe. The majority of these air filters (like my Jet) are only rated to MERV11, which capture only down to 1 micron, and at something like 80% efficiency. In contrast, HEPA filters capture 99% of particles down to 0.3 microns.

So the author of the original article mentions that he tried multiple different air filters of various kinds, some quite expensive, but did not "solve" his problem until he added the Rabbit Air. I have found several other manufacturers of similar units that are also attractive. These have lower cost HEPA filters (~$60) and washable pre-filters to prolong the life of the HEPA. Many of these units are medium sized but you can buy 3 of them for the same price as the Powermatic, and spread them around your shop.
I'm still not sure what, if anything, I will do; but if I had to decide today, I would take a chance on a $200 air purifier and if it seems to be working, I might add another one.
 
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If the prices of effective HEPA air purifiers are truly $200, it's a great idea and I'm sure it will improve the residual dust in anyone's shop. However, I have not yet found air purifiers that have the capacity and effectiveness to clean a shop for $200. In fact, in some cases, that is merely the price of the replaceable HEPA filter. So, some references for those $200 HEPA air purifiers would be helpful to all of us.
 
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I have been relying on the group who named themselves Consumer Analysis. I find them to be pretty straight forward and tend to believe them. However, you will not find much consensus among different reviewers, which bothers me. In particular, their top rated purifier, the Winix 5500-2, doesn't appear on many other people's list.
Here are a few of their many YouTube videos.

The Best Air Purifier - A Buying Guide​

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgn-K5wbh2A&t=216s


Winix 5500-2 Review​

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An1viLvI8Xw

The Best Air Purifier for Dust​

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuuiRnK_Jzk


Comparing the Winnix to Rabbit Air

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeOJmvLhXDo
 
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Several years ago I got in on a group purchase of a portable particle counter made by Dylos. Like a few above I too have a 5HP ClearVue cyclone for sucking up dust at the source and a Jet ceiling mounted air filtration system. What I found and sort of suspected is even with the cyclone the particle count increased quite a bit when the big tools are run but what surprised me was that in not too much time the levels dropped quickly when I ran the air filtration. I even found that when running the Jet system in the garage the air quality was better then in the house.
 
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I also have a Dylos meter and have found it to be very helpful in the shop to:
1. Determine what operations make the most dust and thus where I should spend the most effort improving dust collection (and be most vigilant about wearing a respirator).
2. Give a warning when something isn't working right...like a leak where the cartridge filter was supposed to seal on the dust collector or from the hole in my blower outlet after I sucked up a bolt.
3. Give some peace of mind when I see the dust levels drop quickly when running the overhead filter unit. And when I can see that the air in my shop is cleaner than in my house, and both are cleaner than the outdoor air.

One additional point is that it's the small particles, less than 10 microns in size, that are the most dangerous. That size is not visible to the naked eye. If you're just looking at visible dust buildup to judge how good your dust collection is, you are not getting the whole picture.
 
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Many years ago when I was involved in the boat building business we would do some repairs on fiberglass hulls and usually had an airboat or two sitting around the shop being worked on for various repairs. We would open the doors on both ends of the shop and fire up an airboat on one end of the shop and throttle the motor up to speed this was a quick way to clean the fiberglass dust out of the shop with hurricane force winds. :)
 
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One type of particulate matter collector that I haven't seen for shops is one that bubbles the collected air through water. That does seem to get everything. I did see a house vacuum cleaner that used this and was told that it is common in hospitals.

robo hippy
As a long since retired water chemist, I have a lot of experience in treating the water for air scrubbers in textile mills and hospitals. Textile mill air scrubbers were a gold mine and highly sought out by water treatment companies. Hospitals were generally ignored since the air purified was outside air and low in contaminants. Textile air was recirculated indore air and contained a lot of fiber from the fabric being woven/spun/knitted/etc. Textile mills being closer to a wood shop than a hospital, I would suggest that a wet scrubber in a wood shop is a major PINA to be avoided. I have toyed with the idea of using a "swamp cooler" to take the edge off of the Texas summer. I envision its use as somethin to place outside of the garage door and blow only outside air into the shop. This type of device would also be a very effective dust collector. I cringe at the maintenance it would require when used as a dust collector in an enclosed environment.
 
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