How long does dangerous dust remain in the air

[photobug]

 You definitely should collect dust at the source first.

That is my plan.  I have a 2HP dust collector and all the accessories needed to set it up with 4" piping all around.  I was going to install it but figured 6" piping would be a better setup, so waiting till I get everything figured out and get all the pieces to set up a full shop dust collection system.

Up until a week ago I did not even have a motor cover on my Unisaw, now I do so I am slowly making progress towards a clean shop.

[photobug]

 Buy a second pair of glasses or find some old ones and remove the nose supports. See if that works for ya.

I had perfect vision till 49 years old.  In the last year my near vision has gone downhill.  I just got some glasses that are progressive.  I really only need the reading glasses for woodworking.  I just got some safety glasses with a bifocal reader.  

I love the protection and comfort of the 3M respirator, but it is a bit of a beast to work around.  It wraps around the back of my head making it hard to get my ear muffs to fit comfortably.  The respirator part pushes my glasses up my face so I have trouble seeing around the reader portion of the glasses.  It's great for setting the fence but not for operating the machinery.

[Arlin Eastman]

I have mine set so when I leave it will run for another hour.  I can let it go up to four hours but that is way to long and it will clean my shop every 20 minutes so it will clean the air three complete times.

[TDKPE]

Kind of what i thought.  I read an article on another forum where someone had the same air filter and plugged it in first night and left the timer on when he was done.  It almost melt burned down his house.  I wondered why someone would leave the filter on timer and go away for hours.

If it almost burned the house down after a couple of hours run time, there was something wrong with it.  Maybe something internal was still wrapped up.  Anybody's guess.  But they use continuous-duty motors, and there's no reason they shouldn't be able to run indefinitely.

Just sayin'. 

[Terry W]

For years I didn't worry about dust in the shop. Then one sunny day saw all the dust suspended in the air from a sunbeam coming through the window. My thought was 'If I'm breathing all this in, what's it doing to my lungs?"  Now I wear a 1/2 face N95 dust mask and  a HF dust collector whenever I'm cutting or sanding wood. With a beard, it doesn't filter out 100% of the dust but it's much better than nothing at all.

I have a ceiling mounted shop dust collector too. I've been told that running it while you are working is bad because it keeps the very fine dust (the worst for you) suspended in the air.  Now I only run it an hour before or after I'm in the shop.

[TDKPE]

I use an almost antique window fan to vent the air in my basement shop when it's not too cold, plus an air cleaner I made from a furnace blower and a wooden tool stand I had made when I was in high school (and it looks like it
).  Plus my Pentz cyclone with 2 hp HFDC blower on top.  And I still get dust. 

But at least the air gets cleared fairly quickly, especially with the fan.  I really need a Sharkguard with dust pickup for the TS.  I even plumbed a 4" branch on the ceiling for it, but have no guard to connect it to.  Yet.

A respirator helps, of course, but I don't like wearing one.  

   

   

   

   

[jteneyck]

It's not the dust you can see that does the most potential harm it's the stuff that's so fine you can't see it when it's floating in the air, but you know it was there after it settles out on your bench, etc. hours or days later.  Unless one is using HEPA or equivalent rated filters all one is doing is redistributing that fine dust.  When I reconfigured my DC system I decided to vent it out a window, expelling the fines with it.  I still have lots of dust from sanding, routing, etc., however.  Dust is an inevitable part of modern woodworking and unless you commit to wearing a dust mask all the time there's no way to truly eliminate the risk unless you work only with hand tools.   

John

[Kudzu]

No way to answer your question, without a way to measure it all you are going to get is opinions.

[photobug]

No way to answer your question, without a way to measure it all you are going to get is opinions.

I thought all post here are just opinions.  I was just hoping for an opinion from someone who has experience and a better educated opinion than mine.

[wrb]

I got curious about the effectiveness of my dust collector (Oneida Dust Gorilla, 2.5hp) and air filter (Jet). Based on my measurements using Dylos Pro, the air is significantly cleaner when running the air filter and dust collector or Festool vac depending on the tool while woodworking compared to baseline ambient air prior to starting woodworking. My conclusion from this is that as long as you have good quality filters and accomplish dust capture at the source, it is possible to reduce the impact of wood dust on air quality substantially.

My dust collector has the original non-HEPA filter. Air filter has good quality prefilter and the inner filter. While these sre not HEPA rated, I think once they are used a bit the filters get conditioned through accumulation of dust “cake”, further increasing capture of smaller particles. Festool vac has HEPA filters. I never sand without using the vac.