Dust.
It’s the never-ending problem in my garage woodshop.
When I finish wood, I generate dust. Great, pervasive clouds of dust.
It drives Velda crazy. When I’m sanding, she really has no choice but to give up on housework. I become my own living version of Pigpen, and she knows that dust is going to come into the house, no matter what.
No. Matter. What.
I’ve got the big dust collection system, of course, but that is for the large tools like the Table Saw or the Drum Sander. Those tools are great as I begin to shape of the boards, and then smooth the glued-up blanks … but they have no place in finish sanding.
For that, I need hand tools. For that, I need sanding by hand. For that, I’m going to generate small dust particles, and there’s little to be done to collect that dust in my shop … so I thought I’d create my Do It Yourself Air Cleaning System.
I’ve seen this idea done with a plywood box containing the entire system, with air filters both in front of and behind the box fan. That was needless, I thought. I simply put one air filter behind the box fan so dust would be sucked onto the filter, and called it good. Come on, this is as low tech as you can get. Why complicate it with building a box to contain it?
The box fan was $40, and the filters are $4.50 each when you buy a 12-pack from Amazon. Does it solve the Pigpen problem? No. Does it help? Absolutely.
Dust does float … but then it lands.
The big dust collector sits unused when I go to finish sanding.
I have a lot of sanding to do. 70 boards are being finished this weekend.
I use two Bosch random orbital sanders. The 20 is the small, lighter sander I use for edges and corners. The larger sander is the 65, which is what I use for the tops & bottoms of every board. Use them, and dust flies – in spite of their stock, on-board dust filters.
Here’s the idea: a 20″ box fan on the end of the workbench …
… and a simple, disposable, air filter is in front of the box ban, trapping any air born particles that are sucked into the air going through the fan.
Air filter, in the beginning.
At the end of the first morning session.
At the end of the first day.
At the end of the second morning.
At the end of the second day.
At the end, the filter is covered … and then you throw it away.
Despite the efficacy of the DIYACS, dust still goes everywhere.
Here’s the floor where I’ve removed the anti fatigue floor mat … leaving relatively clean floor beside the dust-covered concrete.
The new batch of boards – about 70 of them! – was finished in time for our July 4th event in Ventura. Here are the cutting boards about to get juice grooves … 10 of them. And an odd small board, too.
17 small sous chef boards were finished.
A new novelty shape, actual surfboards … 11 are finished.
4 bread boards and another odd small board got finished.
9 of the cheese servers, commonly called surfboards are done. Love this design, but it generates a TON of sawdust at every step of the process..
Another new item, chess boards, finally got out of the shop.
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