Is The Dust-Free Workshop A Myth?

[Pete Staehling]

I use the leaf blower as well, but.....

If it is a two stroke cover your stock.

I found that for me a light duty rechargeable battery blower is plenty. I just open the big door and fire up the Ryobi One Plus blower. It works pretty well, is fairly quiet, and uses the same batteries as my battery drill. It is a toy compared to heavy duty blowers for some outdoor chores, but for cleaning the shop I actually like it better. It is ok for blowing grass cuttings off of paved surfaces as well, but a little under powered for leaf blowing on the lawn.

[Curt Harms]

I asked a Minnesotan what they did in the summer there and he said they usually have a picnic that day.

Mike

The 'skeeters do too.

[Phil Thien]

I found that for me a light duty rechargeable battery blower is plenty. I just open the big door and fire up the Ryobi One Plus blower. It works pretty well, is fairly quiet, and uses the same batteries as my battery drill. It is a toy compared to heavy duty blowers for some outdoor chores, but for cleaning the shop I actually like it better. It is ok for blowing grass cuttings off of paved surfaces as well, but a little under powered for leaf blowing on the lawn.

I have the same one. It will blow dust around but nothing like their new 24v model. That thing is crazy powerful.

[Patrick McCarthy]

The only dust free wood shops I've ever seen are in the Fine Woodworking pictures. I can imagine what they go through before they take those pictures.

Mike

Mike, kind of reminds me when our 5 kids were small. I would see photographs of the interior of homes in magazines and ask my wife why we couldn't get our house to look like that? She kindly sat me down and explained "Patrick, real people didn't live in those houses."

[Frank Drew]

Adding dust collection to most of my machinery made a huge difference -- there's nothing so depressing as a shop with every horizontal and near-horizontal surface inches deep in sawdust -- but I never tried to make the shop completely dust free.

[Rod Sheridan]

It's dependant upon what you mean by dust free.

If you mean not a speck, then no it doesn't exist.

If you mean a shop that after a year of use doesn't have more dust than a shop that just sat, yes that's possible.

The trick is to have enough collector airflow and have machines that were designed for dust collection. That means on a table saw, above and below the blade collection.

The hardest machine in my shop to collect dust from is the bandsaw. My high tech solution for it is a cardboard box, a bungee cord and a 4 inch hose just under the blade.

Of course I have shavings from planes and chisels on the floor, those have really poor dust collection............Rod.

[Julie Moriarty]

Yep. It is complete fiction! You won't find it in the non-fiction section of the library.

So maybe I should cancel those trips to see Nessie and Sasquatch and just become one with the broom in my shop.

[Ole Anderson]

I am surprised the Neanderthals haven't chimed in. If you can work without sandpaper, hand tools don't seem to generate dust, just things that will fall on the floor. Not that I would really know though...

[Julie Moriarty]

I got the hand tools mess resolved...

And you should see what I have for chisels!

[Karl Juelch]

LOL! Where's the "Like" button when you need one?

[Brian Tymchak]

I got the hand tools mess resolved...

And you should see what I have for chisels!

That's a classic. Might want to patent it or submit the idea to Lee Valley for their custom plane series...

[Prashun Patel]

Lee valley ran that as an April fools a couple years ago. Or am I not picking up the irony here?

fwiw, hand tools generate plenty of dust.

[Phillip Gregory]

You are always going to have some dust if you actually do any woodworking. A good dust collector and avoiding using tools that have poor dust collection (particularly portable sanders) goes a very long way.

[Bill McNiel]

I have a difficult time keeping my Finishing room "dust free" let alone the shop.

BTW-I don't sweep much anymore, vacuum.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

You all obviously have not tried my patent pending multi-step technique for a dust free shop*:

1. Locate a small child. Ages 2-4 are preferable, two and a half is about ideal. If you don't have one, the technique would probably work equally well with a borrowed one.

2. Demonstrate using a shop vac to suck up sawdust.

3. Get a second job (to pay the doubled or tripled electricity bill).

4. Enjoy your dust free shop**.








* I do not use any power tools and enjoy having my kids in the shop, so your mileage (and the wisdom of letting a two year old into your shop) may vary. Technique has been tested extensively with three boys. Probably would work with girls, but results not guaranteed.

** Your shop is guaranteed to be dust free, but may also be free of pencils, small rulers, and other lightweight objects less then two inches in diameter.