Workshop dust extraction. Yes, really!

[Mike G]

I've had a workshop for 35 years or more, and I've never had a dust extraction system. I've had a vacuum cleaner hooked up to a drop box to lead off to individual hand held power tools, particularly the router, but that's it. My planer thicknesser and bandsaw have never had extraction. I've always been perfectly content with that situation.

Two or three years ago DaveL of this parish upgraded his extraction to something of a squillion horsepower which sucks the wallpaper off his neighbour's walls. He generously gave me some of the more important parts of his old one, and they've sat in a store shed ever since.

Then somehow I acquired a lathe. The extraction situation (lack thereof) then quickly became untenable.

So, here's the before:



And this is the kit that Dave gave me:



It took quite a lot of working out to get this thing to fit in that corner, but this is what I came up with:













There's some temporary wiring that will need sorting when the shops re-open. Obviously the big square hole in the top box will have a door on it......actually a door with a vision panel so I can keep an eye on blockages. And also obviously, there are no pipes as yet. They'll connect into that upper box, with one run going off to the bandsaw and planer thicknesser, and another heading off to the lathe.

That work took 2 days. Of that, re-routing the electrics in the corner took about 2 hours, and getting washers and nuts on two impossibly inaccessible bolts took another 2 hours. The rest was a doddle. All the joints are sealed up with silicon, and the bottom door/ hatch thing has rubber seals. That incidentally forms a little sump where anything sucked up accidentally can be retrieved without opening up the bag. I'll order the tubes and fittings in the next day or two.

 

[Rezi]

Looks very good. Unfortunately, trying to collect the shavings when turning will be a forlorn effort, in my opinion. The stuff tends to fly off in different directions depending on how your cutting edge is presented to the wood.
Being of the lanky variety I tend to bang my head on whatever is available and the motor hanging down at that height would be like a moth to a flame for my scarred scalp. I'd have to put some yellow tape or similar on it eventually.

 

[Mike G]

You'd need to be pretty tall to bump your head on that one. The lowest point is about 2m off the floor.

I'm not expecting wonderful results when turning, but if I can collect the dust when sanding on the lathe, then that will be a big step forward.

 

[Lons]

You can direct a lot of the lathe shavings especially when using a roughing gouge by using your hand supporting the blade close to the rest Mike, just hold up some of your fingers to deflect towards the extractor pipe, it can be either hand if as I do you switch sometimes depending on the direction you're cutting.

 

[Woodbloke]

Looks very good. Unfortunately, trying to collect the shavings when turning will be a forlorn effort, in my opinion. The stuff tends to fly off in different directions depending on how your cutting edge is presented to the wood.

Yep it does and it mostly comes towards the operator, rather than the back of the lathe where the extraction hood is usually placed; hence the need to wear good PPE when turning (face shield is mandatory as is a dust mask)
Sanding dust can be effectively collected via the dx hood/port but you're on a hiding to nothing if you're aiming to collect shavings from lathe tools - Rob

 

[AJB Temple]

Yes, I've got a fairly powerful Jet cyclone in my workshop and piping all around with blast gates to keep the runs as short as possible. I have two extraction hoses on the lathe: one below with a funnel and one above. It gets some of what comes off the tool, but lathes produce a lot of waste and a good deal ends up on me. That said I don't turn much and I am no expert.

 

[kirkpoore1]

I have to agree with catching the shavings while turning--the best thing I've found for that is a broom.

On the other hand, for sanding, I wonder if you could rig up a hand-held device where a strip of sandpaper was clamped to a dust scoop, with a hose attached to the latter...

Kirk

 

[Phil]

Looks very good. Unfortunately, trying to collect the shavings when turning will be a forlorn effort, in my opinion. The stuff tends to fly off in different directions depending on how your cutting edge is presented to the wood.

Yep it does and it mostly comes towards the operator, rather than the back of the lathe where the extraction hood is usually placed; hence the need to wear good PPE when turning (face shield is mandatory as is a dust mask)
Sanding dust can be effectively collected via the dx hood/port but you're on a hiding to nothing if you're aiming to collect shavings from lathe tools - Rob

Agree about the shavings, difficult to catch. But the dust can be sucked from the back.

This is what I saw ...........







......... and then concocted something that hooked onto the back of the lathe. Made for old Walker-Turner.






Need to still make one for the small Jet.

The very 'fancy expensive' white connector took it down to the size for the vacuum pipes.
I would use the large industrial 3000W vacuum which dimmed the lights when switching on :shock:

Question - how well did it suck?

Very good, no dust flying around.

 

[AndyP]

Mike there are a couple of images on this old thread that might give you some ideas.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1012&p=11936&hilit=Lathe#p11922

 

[Mike G]

Thanks Andy. Some nice ideas there.

 

[AndyP]

That length of hose with a cut away end when not attached to the lathe* is long enough to just rest about 1cm off the floor. Simple job then to run the broom around the floor sweeping all the shavings towards the open end.

*when not attached to the lathe, nor dangling on the floor, the magnet holds it in to a radiator out of the way.

 

[PAC1]

I have just posted in the for sale section a stand for dust collection from a lathe if anyone wants it.

 

[RogerS]

Mike....what bits do you need ? I have a load sitting in a pile doing nothing and I'll never use it.

 

[Deejay]

Evening Mike

Worth a look before you buy any tubing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl50n2qz8SY&t=1474s

Cheers

Dave

 

[Mike G]

Mike....what bits do you need ? I have a load sitting in a pile doing nothing and I'll never use it.

It's complicated, Roger, because I've got to do a top-up for the house ventilation system and may as well do that at the same time. So although the workshop is very easy, it might take me a while to sort out the full order. But thanks so much for the kind offer.

 

[Mike G]

......Worth a look before you buy any tubing......

Thanks Dave. I'll watch that tomorrow.

 

[RogerS]

Mike....what bits do you need ? I have a load sitting in a pile doing nothing and I'll never use it.

It's complicated, Roger, because I've got to do a top-up for the house ventilation system and may as well do that at the same time. So although the workshop is very easy, it might take me a while to sort out the full order. But thanks so much for the kind offer.

Well, it's not going anywhere, Mike !

 

[Mike Jordan]

I had a similar machine which was wheeled between machines for use, it’s disadvantage only became obvious when a shaft of sunlight in the workshop highlighted that it was very efficient at putting out large amounts of largely invisible fine dust. My problem was solved by building a separate small room to house the extractor and fitting it with and external louvred door.
As my photos show this makes for a messy area and would be a problem if I had neighbours at that side of my house. I am planning to try one of the filter type cartridges in place of the bag.
You are right to be concerned about sanding dust rather than the larger chippings, they are difficult to control as others have said, but don’t pose the same health hazard as fine dust.
I like your idea of a “drop box” for anything inadvertently extracted, it beats searching through the waste sack

Now to be a little more constructive I have three suggestions that might interest a new owner of a lathe and extractor.
I now always order waste sacks which are about 300mm taller than required, this allows me to fold down the top portion of the bag and allows plenty of material to tie the top of a very full bag.
The 9mm thick ply profile shown in the photos, fits the the lathe bed and allows the 100mm extract pipe to bee positioned nice and close to the dust source.
And finally the lathe makes a good 300mm disc sander with its own extractor fitting as shown. The discs are mounted on Velcro which makes changing grit sizes easy.

 

[Mike Jordan]

 

[Phil]

This is what I did for the lathe, small turnings works ok


viewtopic.php?f=24&t=7151

 

[Cabinetman]

I like that self concocted rig you’ve got there Mike, microfilters are available for units like that one you have stood on the floor, this is a picture of mine it’s in the bottom right hand corner in that steel mesh thingy. I use that small fine filter machine for the two sanding bits of equipment I have.
The rest of my DX system was bought secondhand, and it took a lot of work dismantling it all cleaning it all and then configuring it so that it went where I wanted it for all the machines, it’s three-phase and sucks like the devil, unfortunately I couldn’t put the bag part outdoors so I’m stuck with it as it is, but I do have a secondary fine filter mounted in the ceiling which hopefully catches a lot of the dust from the three bag machine Ian