This following article, Dust Collection, from Lee Valley Tools Ltd., has some great suggestions for how to keep wood debris under control when you are working on home renovation projects:

When woodworking instructors review basic safety measures, they often tell you, “At the very least, wear a dust mask.” What they neglect to tell you is that a dust mask provides only minimum protection for your respiratory passages; it doesn’t do a thing for airborne particles lurking in an enclosed workshop. Unless wood dust is properly collected, it can still cause damage.

Back in the “good old days”, air quality in the shop wasn’t a big concern. For one thing, more hand tools were used and they didn’t generate the fine dust that today’s power tools do. A good sweeping usually picked up a day’s worth of sawdust.

Another factor was that many workshops were located right at the wood source — outdoors. Simple three-sided structures provided minimal protection against the elements, but ample circulation of air.

Now that today’s workshops have moved indoors and contain a substantial inventory of power tools, dust control and air quality are serious issues that every smart woodworker should know about. Good housekeeping practices are still excellent for combatting dust, but they aren’t everything. Being aware of how your clean-up efforts can affect overall dust control is just as important.

The problem with dust masks and respirators is that, while they can reduce the threat of wood dust allergies, they do not remove dust from your environment; they just block the dust particles from getting in your lungs while you’re working in your shop. If your shop is located in a basement or an attached garage, uncaptured dust particles can still infiltrate other living spaces and cause problems for everybody.

Many table saws and planers collect sawdust and chips in their base. This helps to reduce the amount of dust that can hover about the workshop. Although the debris is enclosed, the drawback to this design is that once a planer base is packed with wood chips, stock fed through the machine will be riddled with dimples and blemishes. Another collection system is obviously called for.

Shop dust is always a problem when you are finishing a project. If a finish is applied in the same room that the project was sanded, for example, the fine dust will eventually settle on, and stick to, a fresh finish. The finish can easily be ruined this way. Sawdust, however, can be a costly menace long before a finish is applied to a project. When a bandsaw or table saw is littered with sawdust, it makes it hard to see what you are doing, which can result in a miscut or an injury. The consequence of letting wood debris accumulate on your work surface increases the likelihood that you’ll have to start over again.

A quick solution for keeping wood debris under control in a small workshop is to connect a shop vacuum system directly onto a machine. This allows dust to be collected right at the source and as it is produced. A shop vacuum that is fitted with a CleanStream® Shop Vacuum Filter, for example, will capture 99.7% of wood dust particles as minute as 0.3 microns. It is equally effective with cement and drywall dust. However, because shop vacs are loud and have small canisters that must be emptied frequently, they are not meant for continuous use.

When a shop contains several power machines, a central dust collector with properly grounded ductwork is recommended. The larger-capacity collection bag means that you can work for long periods without having to stop to empty the bag or sweep the floor. Although more expensive to set up than shop vacuum systems, they are also more effective.

Capturing and collecting the dust in your shop is only part of the solution. Proper ventilation is also a must. Even though an open window brings clean air inside and sends dusty air outside (when it is also equipped with a fan), it’s not an ideal solution in Northern climates.

An air filtration system suspended from ceiling joists is a more effective device than a window for circulating the air in an enclosed workshop. Not only can such a system trap up to 99.9% of dust particles as minute as 5 microns and 35% of particles less than 0.4 microns, but a system with a two-stage filtration can actually clean the air. Although it cannot (and should not) replace sawdust and shaving collectors, an air filtration system makes an ideal partner for a regular particle collection system.

The bottom line is that the words of caution from a woodworking instructor shouldn’t just be about personal respiratory safety, but about overall air quality. In the long run, what you learn about controlling woodshop dust will save you a lot of misery and increase both your production and overall enjoyment of working wood.

Courtesy of Lee Valley Tools Ltd. www.leevalley.com

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