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Thread: Effective dust collection for a wood lathe?

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    Florida Panhandle
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    27

    Effective dust collection for a wood lathe?

    Can any of you folks suggest a dust/chip collector that I can buy or make for my lathe? I have a dust collection unit but no way to hook it up to the lathe. I've thought about different things like hoods or a suspended hose but I'm just not sure if they'd be efficient. If you guys have an idea that works and you'd like to share it, it sure would be a grand gesture, and would make wood turning much more pleasurable!!!
    Thanks for reading my post!!
    Take care my friends!!
    Michael

  2. #2
    Have you seen the video fo the guy that got sucked into the jet engine. One of those might get all the chips from the lathe. Other than that I have never seen anything that will catch everything.
    Corel Draw 9, 12, X3 Also a CNC Router user. Web page http://www.scrollsaws.com

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    La Grange, IL
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    1,425
    A 4" hose strategically placed works well. I also use a big gulp when I can. I have a small 3" fan overhead to help redirect the fines. This method catches a lot of dust, but curlies will still be flying. I also recommend pre-separation, I use this on my dust collector and shop vac. Makes clean up a lot easier, and with turning it is best to stop the longer curlies before they gun up the works.

    Can hold the hose all sorts of ways. I am still figuring out how to best accomplish this on a new lathe. I am using rare earth magnets for now.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Green Valley, Az.
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    1,202
    I have the 16 in. hood and stand that Woodcraft sells. It does a good job and I like it. I turn on both the inboard and outboard sides of my lathe. The stand is easy to move back and forth. Cost is reasonable.

    Wally

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Location
    Goodland, Kansas
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    22,605
    I use a big gulp attached to my lathes with blast gates and it does great when sanding. Collects the dust just fine. Chips well let just say it is a futile effort. The best dust collection for those is a scoop shovel and broom.
    Bernie

    Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.

    To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funnybone.



  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Location
    Wetter Washington
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    888
    Yup, as usuall no one has a way, short of a jet-engine to collect chips via more power

    I have heard of a turner, that has enough skill that he can direct many of his chips into a large bin. This bins then gets dumped into a trailer, that he then sells to a farmer as bedding for his cows

    One of the few real solutions I've heard of

    Me, I use a 4 inch tool from Rockler, that connects to my DC and just clean up the floor and area afterward

    Oh ah, I did learn a good trick from Dave Schweitzer (owner of D-Way tools). He surrounds his lathe with roll-up blinds. These contain the chips to an area right around the lathe
    Making sawdust mostly, sometimes I get something else, but that is more by accident then design.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Holly Springs NC
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    183

    Put lathe on a platform

    Here is what I did in my previous shop that I purposely built for woodturning. I built a 10'x8' 4" high platform on top of the concrete floor for the lathe to sit on. I framed the base of the platform using 2x4s to provide a chute right underneath the lathe over to a downpipe of my cyclone dust collector. Underneath where the lathe sat, I cut a 6" diameter hole into the floor of the platform and into framed chute below. So while I was turning, I could hit the remote switch to my cyclone, and then just kick shavings into the hole in the floor - it sucked them right away. For sanding, I would attach an uptube from the hole in the floor to the back of the lathe and it would catch all the fine dust. This system worked great and also actually got me up off the hard concrete floor onto a nice wooden platform.

    Unfortunately, my ex got the house in the divorce and tore that all out. I now turn in a barn and my dust collection is more like dust ejection via a 42" barrel fan blowing out the big barn door. One day I plan to rebuild that system again though.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Wally Dickerman View Post
    I have the 16 in. hood and stand that Woodcraft sells. It does a good job and I like it.
    I have this setup as well, and it does a great job of the fines, etc. I sweep the chips over to the floor sweep on my DC and cleanup takes less than 3 minutes. I do it every time I turn to avoid the buildup - but then I am somewhat obsessive about keeping the shop clean.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Schell View Post
    Unfortunately, my ex got the house in the divorce and tore that all out. I now turn in a barn and my dust collection is more like dust ejection via a 42" barrel fan blowing out the big barn door. One day I plan to rebuild that system again though.
    But, Dave, at least you got the lathe!!

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
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    Holly Springs NC
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    Quote Originally Posted by John Keeton View Post
    But, Dave, at least you got the lathe!!
    Well, not exactly - I had a Oneway 2436 at the time and sold it - had no place for it where I was moving at the time.

    But yea, I now have a new Vicmarc VL300 and a much prettier girlfriend!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Forest Grove, OR
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    1,167
    I can't remember where I saw it, but someone with a cast iron lathe bed made the bed into the dust collector intake- the bottom was closed off with plywood, a dust port was added, and the dust got inhaled into the tool rest slot like a downdraft table. I'm planning to try this with mine. You could just use some boards or magnetic sign material to close the slot up out past the tailstock. It would pick up the dust, anyway.

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Salt Lake City, UT
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    749
    Here on the forum there was a "Son of Lathe Dust Collector" thread. I thought that his design was pretty interesting. Also in a different thread here on this forum was my own thread that had a few peoples results in it. It was interesting so I would point you that way:

    http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=120696

    Off of the forum I found this and in the end I stole a number of ideas from it for my own lathe dust hood.

    http://www.turnedwood.com/tools&jigs.html#NewHood

    This is not a forum just a link to a number of pictures and his short write up on what did.

    I build this one with a few minor differences and it has worked wonders. I extended the top piece so that they "frame in" the thing I am turning. Doing so I found that I collected a lot more dust. Instead of pulling in the air from every possible direction in front of the hose end I pulled it in a bit more "over and around" what I was turning on. I have found that it collects essentially all of the sanding dust from my turning. IF!!! I sand on the right portion of the project. On spindle work it really doesn't matter. On bowls I find that if I sand on the underside of the bowl then the dust as it flies out and off the surface heads right back into the collector hood. If on the other hand I sand on top of the bowl it comes at me with enough force/distance from the hood inlet that some of it escapes and comes out at me. So I changed how I sand just a bit and I am very pleased with the results.

    Joshua

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jul 2007
    Location
    Pleasanton, California
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    730
    For small spindle turning you could do something like this:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CI5lAYUwKg

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    Pensacola FL
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    43
    I agree that chips are best handled with a dustpan as a hand shovel and 55 gallon industrial plastic bag...lots easier than emptying your DC collector bag/bin/drum. The little bit left over can be vacuumed up or swept into the floor sweep for your DC. For dust collection I use a Big Gulp fixed to a Rigid flip top floor stand through drilled for a single carriage bolt, hand tightened. No wood flour in my kleenex after nose blowing when I use this rig. I have seen online but have yet to try a very simple solution - a cardboard box affixed with hotmelt glue to two slender wooden laths that jam at an angle into the ways of the lathe, with a round hole cut out for the end of the DC hose. Talk about simple, cheap and customizable! Pick and shape a box as you wish for the project at hand.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    Abbotsford B.C.
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    This is what I built. The 6" PVC pipe swivels to be able to be up against the lathe or out of the way against the wall. It also is able to extend in or out like a trombone as well as the cut out 5 gallon bucket being able to be in a horizontal or verticle possition. The arm is also able to extend out far enough to work on collecting dust from longer spindle type forms. Works very well and collects all of the sanding dust. The added advantage is that it is so easily swung out of the way when not needed.

    http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...turning+corner

    John

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