Just How Dusty Are Dust Collectors?

[Jeff Erbele]

Last week we stayed at my wife's sister and her husband for several days. He is a a construction contractor. i picked his brain about many things including power tools, wood shop machines and shop design. When I ask about a sliding table saw, an edge bander and a dust collection system he said his professional cabinet builder has all of those including two banding machines. So I went to the professional cabinet shop and picked his brain too, but briefly as it was during his business hours.

His cyclone was in a purpose-built, small room attached to the outside of the main shiop. It was a nice set-up but when he opened the walk-in door, the vacuum created by opening the dorr caused a cloud of dust to fly about. There was about 3" of flour dust on the floor. I was taken aback by all the random dust in the room. I can only speculate how it got that way, either ducting leaks or thru the filter bags.

Skip to my shop, soon to be. They just dug the new house basement last week. The house will have a 20 x 20 garage with another 20 x 30 beside it. I'm pretty sure I am going to partition the two areas. In the past I was thinking about building a small room within the 20 x 30 space to house the DC and a vertical air compressor. Then I came up with an alternative. As the 20 x 20 will house my wife's car and storage shelves only, I thought of putting the DC and vertical air compressor in the smaller bay, saving shop space in the 20 x 30 space. After seeing the amount of dust in the cabinet makers DC closet I decided that would not be acceptable, if my DC (yet to be purchased) did the same.

Do you find your DC and the space around it really dusty? In the shop or in a closet?
Would routine and preventive maintenance eliminate the mess I witnessed?
I want to do it right the first time; buy one, set it up and use it; not move it around and figure it out by trail and error.

[Tom Hintz]

Years ago I had a Sears DC with a fabric bag but it was so coarse it just filtered out the big stuff and launched all of the fine dust into the air. I have since used way more efficient DC's that filter down to 1 micron and the amount of dust they throw around is dramatically less. I guess it is like most things, get a good one, (fine filtering) and it works way better than the cheap ones.

[David Hawxhurst]

i have mine in my shop and have little to no dust around the cyclone area. as long as the cyclone is not leaking espcially on the output side it shouldn't be a problem. i would recommend that if possible that the cyclone be as close to the exit/door, makes for easier and less mess when its time to empty the bin.

[Jim German]

If you have a good filter (like the Wynn's on the Clearvue) on the cyclone there shouldn't be any real quantities of dust coming out of it, so it should be fine to house in the garage. I suspect either the cabinet shop had very very poor filters/bags on their system, or it just had a sizeable leak.

Also keep in mind that the cyclone is extremely loud, so either plan on sound proofing the closet, or make sure its far enough away from the rest of the living space.

[Jason Beam]

There are far too many variables to explain why that shop's closet was so messy. But consider the volume of sawdust they create. Also consider the filtration media they were using. It could also get that way in the emptying process where dust spills and nobody sweeps it up. There are just too many possible ways to explain the mess.

My DC sits in a closet. I work mostly weekends and produce varying degrees of dust - from planer/jointer shavings to drum sander wood flour. My closet gets a very thin film of ultra fine dust on the walls after about a year if I don't clean it. I'm using a Jet 1100DC modified with a Thien baffle and Wynn cartridge filter and plastic bags. Before that, with the fabric bags, dust was all over - I don't believe a fabric bag will ever perform as well as canister filters in this setting - I have yet to see a bag that isn't covered with dust on the outside.

[glenn bradley]

I imagine you wish you would have asked the cabinet shop guy "why the mess" at this point ;-) If the DC was not venting return air into the shop the requirement for being super-clean is not present and the acceptable level can be set by the owner/operator. My dad's bag unit is in a side building and it gets pretty messy in there. I have to vent back into my shop's airspace so I run very fine filters and only get dust around the DC when I spill it (or freehand route nearby ).

Seriously though, given a good quality machine, the DC will be as clean as you make it by being diligent about leaks and your method of barrel emptying. I would make every effort to move the DC and compressor into the 20x20 space as the cost/effort involved in making that install acceptable would pale when compared to the gain in shop space/noise levels.

[Michael W. Clark]

i would recommend that if possible that the cyclone be as close to the exit/door, makes for easier and less mess when its time to empty the bin.

I would recommend this from David.

I think you could safely put the compressor in the garage and may be a good place for it anyway for airing up tires and any pnuematic tools.

I would still keep the cyclone and filter in the shop space. Even if everything is perfectly sealed and in proper working order, you are going to create some dust when you empty it. Maybe you could "steal" the real estate from the garage side and put the DC in what would be a closet on the shop side? The extra walls on the garage side would help with storage and possibly form a corner where your compressor could sit?

Mike

[Chris Friesen]

Something to consider...do you need to vent the air into the shop space? Unless it's very cold where you are, it might end up being more economical to do less filtering and vent to the outside.

[Paul Wunder]

I have a Clearvue CV1800 cyclone with 2 Wynn cartridges (standard issue) in my basement shop. I do not get any dust at all in the area where the cyclone is. In the years that I have been a member of the Creek I cannot recall anyone owning a cyclone (Oneida, ClearVue or Grizzly) complain of dust in the vicinity of their cyclone unless there was a leak that needed to be fixed. I would not be concerned (dust wise) of placing the cyclone in the smaller bay.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I have a Wood Magazine cyclone, 1.0 HP delta blower (salvaged from a drum top unit) with seven filter socks that are 6" X 65" from Onieda. My unit is in my shop. There isn't any dust to speak of, except when I empty the bin. Nothing in my shop has that fine powder that you see so often. Of course my cyclone is controlled by the machines, through the power panel.

[Lee Reep]

I bought a Laguna 2HP cyclone this summer. I have no dust in my shop now. I went from a number of shop vacs on each tool (and dust everywhere) to great pickup with the cyclone, and virtually no dust in sight. The Laguna is so quiet I cannot really tell it is on when my table saw is running. That compares to a low end dust collector where I do some part time work, and it leaks like a sieve, and sawdust covers everything in the shop when it runs. I often think it would be better to just leave it turned off and sweep afterward.

[Michael W. Clark]

Something to consider...do you need to vent the air into the shop space? Unless it's very cold where you are, it might end up being more economical to do less filtering and vent to the outside.

If it were my shop and the climate allowed, the ability to vent outside might take presidence, so I would want it on an outside wall if possible.

[Chris Parks]

Venting straight to atmosphere also increases the air flow for no extra cost. If you vent to the atmosphere make sure the exhaust is not near an opan window or door as the dust still contained in the exhaust can re-enter the building with the replacement air.

[Dennis Nagle]

I have the big Grizzly DC and it filled the shop with the fine dust that hurt the lungs so I mounted the motor and blower on the wall and vent it outside. No issues now and one unintended perk is it is really quiet compared to using the bags.