Dust Control

As I spend more time working on wood projects I noticed that I was coughing more. I finally realized that it was likely the wood dust from the various saws and sanding. So I have been doing as much as possible to minimize my exposure to fine dust. Where possible, I connect vacuums to the saws and sanders, which does help. But there is still a lot of fine dust that is not captured. I do wear a respirator while cutting but there is always some dust suspended. So, I have been building a variety of things to help control the dust.

Shop Air Filter

This project  came about after watching multiple videos on shop wide air filtration. It was made using a fan that we had plus scrap lumber. I bought 3 Merv 11 filters at Menards. As you can see from the pictures below, there a cube like box with filters on three sides and a fan on the fourth side. The fan pulls air through the filters and exhausts it out the back. The cube is mounted on a cart that I can move around the shop. After using it for a couple weeks, I can see fine dust collecting on the filters plus the car isn’t as dust covered. So I think it is working as designed.

Sanding Box

The concept behind this tool also came from videos. It is a simple box with a peg board top. The box has a vacuum port on one side that allows a vacuum to be attached to it.

Belt Sander Dust Pickup

I use the belt sander a lot and it generates a lot of dust. The spinning belt was dumping the dust off the end so I made a simple stand to hold a vacuum hose where most of the dust was flying off.

Update

I added a picture to the gallery that shows all of the fine dust that was collected by the “Shop Air Filter”. It appears to be working as designed as a reasonable dust control measure.