I have seen a lot of posts lately on personal protection from fine dust particles - such as the Trend, respirators, dust masks, etc. These units can all have a place in our shops and will assist in protecting our health but it is always considered a "last resort" to use personal protection in safety/health situations. A much better solution is engineering controls.
I like many here have just a "hobby" shop and did not have room for a large cyclone system so a few years back I purchased a small dust collector on wheels with a 30 micron bag. I hooked this up to a trash can seperator and was in business - or so I thought! I noticed that while I collected a lot of shavings in the can, the fine dust still was all over the shop. I have an air cleaner running also and it was not able to stop the settling of dust that could harm my health. Recently I started noticing that when I would turn on the dust collector the bag would inflate and you could see a "cloud" of dust come off of the bag - fine dust bad for my lungs!! I also noticed that my suction was loosing power and I was not catching as much of the fine dust.
It was obvious the culprite was the 30 micron woven bag that came with the dust collector. I started doing a lot of research on the bags for dust collectors and realized that a woven bag was the wrong textile substrate for this operation, a felt bag works much better and will stop the fines. I found a company call American Fabric Filters http://www.americanfabricfilter.com/dustbags.htm
Upon calling them and talking with their customer service people it was obvious that they knew thier "stuff"! In fact I had to go home and obtain lots of information for them about my system before they could make recommendations. Not only was the 30 micron bag the wrong type - it was way, way too small to handle the airflow. AFF wanted to maintain my airflow when filtering just like the blower had no bag on it so they upsized the bag to about double the dimensions (really upsizes the cubic inches!!). The bag I got was not cheap but I really got a high quality, well made bag for my money that has solved a lot of my problems!! I have much higher suction now at the tools and the fines are NOT escaping the bag. The bag is made to let the fines cake and then fall to the bottom when the dust collector is turned off so a new layer can cake upon the next run. They also installed a zipper opening on the side so I can clean it out easily!! I have seen NO FINES come out of this bag when it is turned on - that alone is a major improvement. I plan on blowing down the shop soon and will let you know how much I see difference in redeposition of the fines I see in the shop after it is cleaned out thoroughly.
AFF has lots of information posted on their new web site about dust collection - see the right hand lower corner on the page linked above. If you are having trouble with your dust collector controlling the fines - give AFF or another good bag company a call and see if a new bag system will improve your system as much as it did mine!! I was turning some tool handles out of cherry last night and left off the respirator on purpose, when I quit there was no nasel irritation or sneezing - major improvments!! Lets control this dust before it hurts our lungs!!
I like many here have just a "hobby" shop and did not have room for a large cyclone system so a few years back I purchased a small dust collector on wheels with a 30 micron bag. I hooked this up to a trash can seperator and was in business - or so I thought! I noticed that while I collected a lot of shavings in the can, the fine dust still was all over the shop. I have an air cleaner running also and it was not able to stop the settling of dust that could harm my health. Recently I started noticing that when I would turn on the dust collector the bag would inflate and you could see a "cloud" of dust come off of the bag - fine dust bad for my lungs!! I also noticed that my suction was loosing power and I was not catching as much of the fine dust.
It was obvious the culprite was the 30 micron woven bag that came with the dust collector. I started doing a lot of research on the bags for dust collectors and realized that a woven bag was the wrong textile substrate for this operation, a felt bag works much better and will stop the fines. I found a company call American Fabric Filters http://www.americanfabricfilter.com/dustbags.htm
Upon calling them and talking with their customer service people it was obvious that they knew thier "stuff"! In fact I had to go home and obtain lots of information for them about my system before they could make recommendations. Not only was the 30 micron bag the wrong type - it was way, way too small to handle the airflow. AFF wanted to maintain my airflow when filtering just like the blower had no bag on it so they upsized the bag to about double the dimensions (really upsizes the cubic inches!!). The bag I got was not cheap but I really got a high quality, well made bag for my money that has solved a lot of my problems!! I have much higher suction now at the tools and the fines are NOT escaping the bag. The bag is made to let the fines cake and then fall to the bottom when the dust collector is turned off so a new layer can cake upon the next run. They also installed a zipper opening on the side so I can clean it out easily!! I have seen NO FINES come out of this bag when it is turned on - that alone is a major improvement. I plan on blowing down the shop soon and will let you know how much I see difference in redeposition of the fines I see in the shop after it is cleaned out thoroughly.
AFF has lots of information posted on their new web site about dust collection - see the right hand lower corner on the page linked above. If you are having trouble with your dust collector controlling the fines - give AFF or another good bag company a call and see if a new bag system will improve your system as much as it did mine!! I was turning some tool handles out of cherry last night and left off the respirator on purpose, when I quit there was no nasel irritation or sneezing - major improvments!! Lets control this dust before it hurts our lungs!!
Gretch
