Question for the guys that exhaust their sawdust outside directly...

[BloomingtonMike]

Yesterday I emptied 220 gallons of sawdust out of my collectors. That is from the last 4 months. Are you able to exhaust that much dust outside without having piles or are you throwing away/recycling/burning some of it too??

[mike4244]

We blew the dust and chips into a plywood box on a small trailer. We sometimes delivered the dust to a local farmer if he wanted it. Otherwise the trailer went to the dump..We filled a box 6-6" x 8'-0" x 4'-0" high about every 8 working days.
mike

[WilliamHodge]

My blowers exhaust wood only shavings and sawdust into a 4' x 8' x 4' box on a trailer. Because I don't saw plastic, particleboard, laminate, or finished wood, the sawdust is clean enough for animal bedding at an organic farm. The finest dust goes out the end of the trailer, into a meadow where I also filter storm runoff water.

The less clean sawdust is collects in a 55 gallon drum outside, and it goes in a dumpster. The central vac for the floor, sanders, and paint dust go into that.

The dust levels in the shop are very low. I found that changing bags on a a dust collector inside a shop creates clouds of fine dust that end up going everywhere. Dust collector bags can be cut up and wrapped around the paper filter in a shop vac.

[closed for business]

i vent outside, but still have a 55 gallon drum for dust/chips. my amish neighbor takes all the shavings i can provide. i empty before/after planing walnut.

[packerguy®]

Ive wondered the same thing myself.

I know generate about 100 gallons a week.....give or take depending on work flow. I bag it and put the bags in a covered trailer then haul that to the dump when its full (normally 1000-1200 gallons). They want it bagged.

I guess if you lived in the country, and no one was around, sure vent it outside, but in the city....I cannot imagine that would fly.

[TDKPE]

packerguy® said:

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I guess if you lived in the country, and no one was around, sure vent it outside, but in the city....I cannot imagine that would fly.

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I vent my non-filtered cyclone exhaust out a side window, right at my neighbor (who we're on good terms with, and only 25 ft away), but there's virtually nothing in that stream as witnessed by no discernible discoloration in snow in my window well. If it made a mess, I wouldn't do it. But I live in a so-called bedroom community outside the city, so dumping raw discharge wouldn't be a good idea. But if I were in farm country (1/4 mile away), I'd send it out the window into a pile in a heartbeat.

So I've basically added no value to this thread.

[packerguy®]

TDKPE said:

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[blockquote]packerguy® said:

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I guess if you lived in the country, and no one was around, sure vent it outside, but in the city....I cannot imagine that would fly.

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I vent my non-filtered cyclone exhaust out a side window, right at my neighbor (who we're on good terms with, and only 25 ft away), but there's virtually nothing in that stream as witnessed by no discernible discoloration in snow in my window well. If it made a mess, I wouldn't do it. But I live in a so-called bedroom community outside the city, so dumping raw discharge wouldn't be a good idea. But if I were in farm country (1/4 mile away), I'd send it out the window into a pile in a heartbeat.

So I've basically added no value to this thread.

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[/blockquote]




I can relate....

[lift mechanic]

I thought about exhausting out side, but, I don't want to blow my heated air outside in the winter. Think about the CFM of your DC it would not take long to exchange the air in the complete shop. Am I thinking about this wrong?

[WilliamHodge]

Having close neighbors could be a problem. I have neighbors 1/4 mile away. They don't get hit with dust.

Ripping 8/4 mahogany with a stock feeder makes a cloud of dust outdoors. In the winter, I can see that it can stain the snow 75' away. Stray shaper shavings have blown hundreds of feet when the snow is smooth crust on top.

The heat loss is manageable. I have several sizes of blowers, and only use what is needed. The shop has radiant heat in the floor. Sometimes it's just cold,but it's worth it to have clean air. Bringing in humid air in the summer is also a problem. I try to maintain the shop at 50% Relative Humidity with a dehumidifier, or an air conditioner when it's hot.

Having a main blast gate is important to keep outside air out. Other blowers can pull air in through an idle blower, or regular convection can move humid air in in the summer. Leaving a blast gate open on a planer will result in a rusty head and table.

In the Fall, an open blower pipe and an idle blower creates a Highway Of Hell when mice come in with all the acorns and excrement they have been saving up all summer to deposit in my lumber pile. It has started already. This week I turned on a blower, and I could hear the acorns, and possibly mice, tumbling up the pipe towards the Impeller Of Doom. I feel bad for the mice and their babies that met an untimely death being swatted and flung by the huge metal blades, but working with my brother Tommy, you never know what messed up thing he will do next, like leave the exit blast gate open.Tommy's nice, and he means well, but industrial accidents happen to careless people, and then you have to live, and work, with the resulting brain damage. So, when I open up an impeller and find it encrusted with rodent carnage, I just say a silent prayer for my brother who isn't the way he used to be.

[Stwood_]

I just let it pile up outside the shop. The very bottom chips eventually compost.
Never noticed a heat loss in the winter.