dylos and the outdoors

[James Baker SD]

I am working hard to try to improve my dust collection inside my shop (garage). I am cleaning the floor and dust off the tops of tall machines (band saw, drill press etc) in preparation for a fully duct-ed system. But even what I had, while not good on the dylos scale (500 to 1500 depending on what I am doing and what cloud I am stirring), it is way better than when I open the garage, jumps to 4000 to 6000 really fast, closing the door and turning on the cyclone to just suck air through a nearly closed blast gate, I see it falling again. Seems my outdoor air is almost unbreathable.

James

[David Hawxhurst]

i noticed the same thing. while using my cyclone the air is cleaner in the shop then the outside air.

[Alan Lightstone]

Noticed the same thing here. Really had me wondering. Only about 500 outdoors, though.

Where is your outdoor air that I don't want to breathe?

[Bud Millis]

Two schools of thought: 1. is it because there is so much dust in the shop that the doors/windows being open is kicking it up? 2. Or is the outdoors just that bad?

I noticed something close as well. Both outdoors and the house (with windows open) the Dylos will read between 1000-1500. I know for a fact that this is a very dusty town that I live in. Especially in the spring and early summer you can see a layer of dust (gritty dust from all the sand used during the winter). When mowing the lawn with the shop windows open the Dylos will also start reading very high.

My thought is - like the boy in the bubble; we need to live in our shops.

Now with his going to 4-6K really fast & high, that seems a little to much. When is the last time you cleaned your Dylos? Is it in direct sunlight?

[Greg Peterson]

I think the particles floating around the outdoors are most likely water soluble, unlike the particles in a wood shop. I may be out to lunch.

[Ashwini Kaul]

My workshop reads the cleanest in the entire house, since it has the air cleaner/DC and concrete floors!

My upstairs and the outdoor are the worst - especially in the day. Things settle down at night.
And I live on a cul-de-sac in a suburb.

I wonder what air I was breathing in New Delhi - I could feel it in my eyes and throat, after a drive through the city!!! Would have broken down the Dylos.

[Phil Thien]

http://www.epa.gov/air/urbanair/

You never know what it is counting, just how much.

[Bud Millis]

I think the particles floating around the outdoors are most likely water soluble, unlike the particles in a wood shop. I may be out to lunch.

Your out to lunch. Now for apples to apples and oranges to oranges. Any particle < than .5 microns will do damage to the lungs. With as dry as it has been this year when mowing your lawn or seeing someone mowing a lawn you might have seen a cloud of dust. That's just as dangerous, if not more so. That could kick up mold spores, rat or pigeon poo which can make you very sick.