Dust collecting system

What is your solution for dust collecting? I ask it becouse mine is not very good or actually there is nothing but just one vacuum cleaner in my workshop. Now I am lying at hospital becouse of pneumonia. This makes me think again. I thought I will buy next new drum sander, but not any more. I need good dust collecting system. I have only one life and I dont want waste it stupid way. I have used dust mask, but that is not enought anymore.

None of these dust collectors are perfect....When I worked in a factory that manufactured components for Nuclear Submarines...we had a "sealed clean room" for specialised welding..there were very expensive dust and fume collectors at various points around the room, But! we stlll had contamination problems causing defects in the welds. The reason was that the filters in the collectors did not work 100% and micro dust particals were getting through and still in the air...The problem was solved in the end by removing all the extractor units from the room and setting them up outside the building..But this gives you another problem to think about .. all the warm air in the workshop gets sucked outside and the outside air gets in again and you're left in the cold. This is the one I use and it takes up a lot of space but it's on wheels and i can move it around.


Get better soon by the way

A little discovery, which will only be applicable to those setting up a dust collection system, and have access to a Lowes Home Improvement store. Dust collection fittings, designed for 4" hose, are a different size from thin-walled PVC pipe (normally sold as drainage pipe), You need to buy PVC-to-dust adapters. I have found that Lowes sells a green PVC drain pipe which is slightly thicker, making the inside diameter just slightly smaller so it exactly fits over 4" dust fittings and fits standard PVC fittings. (clearly this same stuff must be sold elsewhere but I have found it at Lowes in both Pennsylvania and Florida) This means that that I can build a dust system with all hard (and therefore smooth) pipe which is neater and more efficient with no special adapters. The Lowes PVC pipe also can be cut to a short 2" piece to make a PVC to dust 'bushing' adapter.

I've got a basic Jet like this one and it does the job OK and isn't too loud:
https://www.jettools.com/us/en/p/650-cfm-dust-collector-with-2-micron-canister-filter/708642CK

If I had to do it over again, I would likely look for a cyclone or two stage collector in a similar price range, like:
https://www.grizzly.com/products/Grizzly-1-1-2-HP-Portable-Cyclone-Dust-Collector/G0860

As it is, my single stage works fine for true "dust," but bigger chunks and even bigger peelings from the planer can clog the intake and require occasional clearing with my Jet.

John

I use a 3.5 horse power cyclone. The few upgrades I have made that really help was to get a remote power switch. You keep the remote clipped to your shirt. Also I built a cabinet for the 7 foot tall filter that vents outside. When the weather is good (most of the time here in Northern California.) I close that cabinet door and let the system vent outside. My thinking is no filter is going to work 100% Venting outside is the best. I almost always vent outside. I also use a box at my main workstation that is attached to a shop vac that lives outside the shop to keep the noise down. The box has lots of holes in it and sucks up the hand sanding dust.

Hope You get well soon.

I have the Grizzly 2 hp dust collector with a single felt bag on top and clear plastic waste bag on the bottom. Mine might have come with a 5 micron bag (IIRC), but now the web site says it comes with a 2.5 micron bag, which is even better. This is fine for a small shop, especially if you use gates to stop flow to the machines you're not currently using. It's relatively affordable at $395 (don't know what shipping to Finland would be like, though). I have a friend who has a similar 1 hp dust collector (different brand) that he rolls from machine to machine as needed. That works ok, mainly because it avoids the pressure drop from long pipe runs. Getting any kind of real dust collector is going to be a vast improvement over using a shop vac for dust collection.

As far as bags go (assuming you get a bag collector instead of a cyclone), the smaller the micron size the better. This is better BOTH because more fine dust is filtered out AND for better air flow through the bag. Bags with smaller holes have more holes, resulting in more overall open area for air to flow through. The downside is that smaller micron bags are more expensive, but they generally last for many years in home-shop duty, so it doesn't work out to being expensive over time.

For thickness sanding back sides and soundboards I like my Festool vacuum sander attached to the Festool hepa vacuum. It sucks up all the dust through holes in the sanding pad and I can go through various grit sandpapers. It is also is great for shape sanding necks, bridges, and fine sanding toward the end of production. Since it is a vibration sander, final sanding still needs to be done by hand with the grain to prevent swirls. Festool is a German manufacture so it should be available in Europe as well.