Dust collection?

S

scherar

Well-Known Member
I am looking into getting a dust collection unit. I read the post earlier about setting up a dust collector, but my question is about a specific unit. Right now I have the window fan with a furnace filter taped to it, but it only does so much. I have it right beside my grinder, but it doesn't get all of it. And what it doesn't get, it blows any residual dust around.

I am looking at a Grizzly collection unit. The smaller unit that has a 4" intake and delivers around 500cfm. I will probably only be using it at the grinder to collect metal, wood, micarta and especially g10 dust. My biggest question is the metal sparks entering the unit. It is the one with the "bag" filter. Have the sparks extinguished by the time they have entered the unit? Sparks in cloth bag probably aren't the best, but this unit seems feasible for my limited space and inability to exhaust it outside.

My last question about it is how much do the bags filter out, such as the g10 dust? I saw that a 3 micron bag can be purchased for the unit. Does anyone have units like this to share any insight?

Thanks.
 
Hello,
Those bag type dust collectors are great for dust collection, but they are fire starters waiting to happen when you suck sparks into them!! Noisy too if there inside. I have the grizzly 2hp bag type that I keep in a little box outside my shop, still noisy. I removed the bags and run all the dust outside to fly in the wind, via flex pipe. If you have neighbors next door, they might complain! My sparks and metal dust fly into a bucket of soapy water under my grinding wheel and I keep my dust collector turned off. There are solutions to the bag problem, I have heard of a inline spark arrestors made from a steel box with baffles in it to catch sparks before they get to the bags. Not sure if somebody sells such an animal.
Hope this info helps a little,
Sincerely,
Sampson Knifeworks
 
I agree! At one time I had a bag type dust collector....and nearly burnt the shop down because of it. I now use the water buckets under the grinder, built a "dust sucker" with filters and an old furnace blower, which hangs from the ceiling in the middle of my finish shop. AND THE MOST IMPORTANT PART....NONE OF THIS IS AN EXCUSE NOT TO WEAR A RESPIRATOR! Layers of protection are the best way to ensure that your shop and YOU stay safe.
 
Ed, thanks for the input. I do wear a respirator at the grinder. I just wanted to cut down on dust that accumulates everywhere in the shop. If it isn't there, then I thought it couldn't be stirred up and inhaled while doing other things in the shop (when not wearing a respirator). I figured a collector at the source might remedy most of that.

Sampson Knifeworks, you are in Woodland Park? I live over by Spinney Mountain Reservoir. That is interesting. I didn't know of any makers in Woodland Park.

Thanks
 
I also have one of the Grizzly bag type collectors and it sits in a little shed outside the shop. I can turn it on from inside my grinding room of the shop. If you have it sitting in the shop you'll be amazed at the amount of fine dust that escapes the bags and as was said it's noisy. Even the fine micron bags let a lot of dust escape. Inside that little shed is a mess but everything that's in there is not in my shop to get stirred up. I don't run the collector when grinding steel because of sparks. I just wear a respirator with a water bucket under the grinder and the dust when grinding steel doesn't seem to migrate outside the grinding room like handle materials and leather.

The only bad thing about a dust collector outside is it pulls air out of the shop which means your loosing your heated or cooled air and replacing it with outside air being pulled in around doors and windows. Will cause your furnace or A/C to run a little more when using it but it's worth it to keep the shop cleaner.
 
I wish I had the opportunity to put it in a seperate room (outside), but my "shop" is just a small partitioned area (with canvas drapes) in the storage area of our basement. If I put the unit in my area, or right outside my partitioning drapes, then it sounds like it would just emit dust into the same areas.

I was reading that a 3 micron bag could be bought for it, but I guess that would just emit finer dust into the area. It isn't sounding like this is much of a solution with what I have to work with.
 
scherar said:
I wish I had the opportunity to put it in a seperate room (outside), but my "shop" is just a small partitioned area (with canvas drapes) in the storage area of our basement. If I put the unit in my area, or right outside my partitioning drapes, then it sounds like it would just emit dust into the same areas.

I was reading that a 3 micron bag could be bought for it, but I guess that would just emit finer dust into the area. It isn't sounding like this is much of a solution with what I have to work with.
Click to expand...

I've got one of the 3 micron bags on mine and it still escapes it. Fine dust will fog the area. You can build a water pre filter and catch a lot of it. I have mine in one of those little plastic sheds you can buy at Lowes and places. It was a little damaged and got it for under 100 bucks.
 
You have two concerns:
1. Spark control.
2. Containment of fine particulates.

My concerns are the same as yours- I have a basement shop and did not want to exhaust outside. (I could exhaust outside, but I did not want the wide temperature swings.)

I use a 1.5 HP collector rated at 1100 CFM. It originally came with a 2 micron cartridge filter, but I put it aside in favor of finer filtration.

On the intake side, I use a metal cyclone I bought for woodworking. This has the exhaust tube (of the cyclone) cut at a severe angle, and the bucket is filled with water to cover the bottom half of the tube opening (EXACTLY as shown by Chuck in post #7). To the best of my knowledge, this takes care of spark control.

Because I wanted to recirculate air rather than exhaust it outside, I do not use the factory cartridge. I contacted my heating/air guy and obtained a 1200 CFM HEPA furnace filter.
By definition, a true HEPA filter will trap 99.97% of particles larger than .3 microns. (Three-tenths of one micron.)
A sheet metal box was built to house this filter and connected to the exhaust side of the fan.

This setup has worked great for me. If I'm working with wood, micarta, etc., I run the cyclone dry. When I grind metal, I simply put water in the cyclone tub.

The biggest expense (aside from the collector itself) is the big HEPA filter; mine runs around $150. But it has performed well for over a year without changing it out. Even at that, the amount spent on it is well worth it for a years worth of almost daily use.
With a smaller unit such as your proposed Grizzly 500, you can get away with a smaller, less expensive filter.

If you go this route, make sure you size the filter correctly. IOW, make sure the filter will handle at least the amount of CFM for which your fan is rated. Too much backpressure could burn up the fan motor.

Good Luck,
Robert
 
Chuck Gedraitis Knives said:
Build one of these. I need to.
Click to expand...

Chuck,
That is a genius set up there and one that looks like it could be adapted to a regular type shop vac, I will definitely be working on one of these very soon! I was a "Firehouse Subs back in the summer, at the time I found out they support a charity that helps Firefighters that were injured in the line of duty. One of the ways they raise money is by selling their used pickle buckets, they had 5 there with lids for 2 bucks each, I bought them all! With no intentions planned for them, this is perfect for one of them, THNAK YOU! Rex
 
Chuck Gedraitis Knives said:
Build one of these. I need to.
Click to expand...

Even better than this, there is a home make cyclone separator you can put water in the bottom of.
Others have used this setup say the downforce of the air blows the water up so it gets caught and exhausted into the shop vac



There are free plans about, if I can remember the name of it...

Thein

http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/cy.htm

in the discussions it misses some fine dust, but in that setup it traps most of the debris before a shop vac
If you have water in that trap, I think it would work fine.
Especially in this cold weather, I can't send my air outside.

Video demo
http://www.cgallery.com/jpthien/demo.wmv
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top