air filtering advice

[mrs. sliver]

Long time no see chaps! Happy new year and all that rot! ccasion5:

I am after some advice on dust. I have, up till now, relied on a dust mask. but, may be spending more time turning soon, if things go to plan.
So need some proper extraction setting up.
I now only turn green wood but do sand and cut quite a bit once dry and make a fair bit of dust. What do you advise Oh wise men? :-k

 

[CHJ]

Well Mrs S. happy new year to you and yours and here's my two pennyworth.

If you don't already have them,

1. An Air Fed fine filter Full Face Mask for starters.

2. Complimented by a chip extractor with as much air volume as you can afford and if it resides in the shop ensure it is fitted with the finest filter you can get.

3. If you are unable to vent the Chip extractor outside the shop then an Ambient Air Filter unit to clean up the atmosphere for when you take the mask off.

The chip extractor will do little to catch the shavings from actual turning but the bigger the air volume moved the better it will draw any dust created away from you and the shop in general. With suitable arrangement of the hose system it will be great for 'vaccing' up the debris after the event.

Also think about skin exposure to the dust/particles, gloves are not a good idea around spinney machines but a good dry barrier cream is worth consideration.

 

[PowerTool]

I added this to the workshop when it was on offer last year - it is wall-mounted,at the tailstock end of the lathe - and the first time I used it,the amount of dust it stopped was almost frightening :shock:

Andrew

 

[loz]

1. An Air Fed fine filter Full Face Mask for starters.

Hi all,

Firstly hello - new member, and newbie turner, just got my lathe ( record power ) over xmas and made a few spindle projects - rolling pins etc.

I'm concerned over dust, and wonder if anyone can recommend a brand of the above to purchase, as google gets a bit kinky on the full face mask dept.

Happy New year to all,

Regs

Laurence

 

[mrs. sliver]

hello and welcome Loz. and yes, any suggestions on the mask make or best place to buy.

 

[CHJ]

Welcome to the forum Loz,

On the full filtered face mask front there are not many options, and all are expensive.

There is a new model due for release from Trend which runs out at around the £200 mark, may be discounted by some but not for a while I suspect, looks very good and is certainly an improvement on the existing design, but it is a lot of pennies, beware of the older model which many of us have as it is now being withdrawn and has a limited spares life ahead of it.
The other readily available model is the Power Cap (£150-ish)Seen here with the older Trend model

 

[mrs. sliver]

hmmm, do they do them in pink? certainly could do with one but, as you say, a lot of pennies! :shock: will go on top of my 'need' list :!:

 

[loz]

wow,

Seems lot of money - but then again shouldn't scrimp when it comes to health.

Thanks the info.

 

[Ken Furminger]

I have had a Microclene MC1000 for 8 years and once you get used to the noise it does a brilliant job. You can take the filter out easily and tap the dust out I have only just ordered a replacement filter!
Also I have just bought a Power Cap to replace the valve type face masks I have been using and again it is very good, you don't realise how much dust gets round the edges of the masks until you take of the Power Cap or equivalent and your nose and throat feel really clear. I paid £165 delivered for mine from Protec.
Regards
Ken

 

[jpt]

HI

In my opinion there is no one answer to dust and I use 3 different types of dust protection. The first is a chip/dust extractor which is attached to a hood behind the lathe. It has a fairly fine filter on it but I am about to order a very fine filter.

The second is ambiant air filters, I keep looking at the Microclene but they are a bit expensive for me at the moment, so instead I made my own.

I have 2 versions the first being an old cooker extractor hood which is mounted above the lathe


The second is one I made myself

It is a box with an extractor fan mounted on one end and a filter clamped onto the underneath. Both of these are cleaned quickly and easily by running a vacum cleaner over the filer.

The third and most important is an air helmet, the other filters will take what goes past the inlets but will leave a lot of dust in the air. The air helmet provides you with clean air where it matters and is worth spending money on to get a good one.

john

 

[greybeard]

Nothing contentious here, just similar encouraging observations!

Wood 'mess' (chips, chunks, shavings and sawdust) produced by almost any woodturning operation appears to be produced in volumes totally unlike any other wood shaping activity.
Most non-turning folk will simply not believe the volume, be it chips or sawdust, that can be produced.
And I too was one of the non-believers, as far as the sawdust/smallstuff was concerned, even after I'd found myself up to my ankles in wet shavings from one pretty small piece of green timber on several occasions.

The full-face airfed masks are horribly expensive, but the sheer mass of 'stuff' that simply stops at the filter and never gets as far as my mouth/nose reassures me every time I wince.
And of course, each time a suddenly airborne chunk bounces off the mask.....that's only got to happen once really, and suddenly it does seem just a little less expensive.

And as for the 'stuff' the baby Microclene captures.....no contest...and that 'stuff' is so small....and there's so much of it......

All of which means IMHO this is a bite-the-bullet one, it really does make good sense.

Order of purchase is facemask first, just in case you were wondering!

 

[mrs. sliver]

oh dear .... sounds like the piggy bank is in for a nervous breakdown!! :shock:

 

[steve.b]

I have a fresh air mask linked through a filter and fed by an external compressor, and a friend of mine just purchased a Aircap battery operated one which she kindly left in my workshop for me to try, for a hundred and fifty quid I dont think you could buy better, I am certainly going to order one and it will be nice to not have an airline plugged into my belt.

steve

 

[Jenx]

Hi.. I'm not sure how relevant or valid it may be, but 'breathing quality' air is a slightly different matter to supplying air ( compressed or otherwise ) through lines and fittings usually used for things like air tools or spraying etc.

I'm no expert on the subject... but for anyone rigging up their own 'custom-made' setup, please ensure you're not introducing more contaminants into your respiratory system, than you may be curing.. compressed air from a standard compressor can potentially be laden with oil vapours etc, and without the correct filtration levels downstream of the equipment ( i.e. - on its way to the user ), its possible that all manner of 'nastys' could be finding their way to you.

There is, dependent on the specified filtration levels and/or max allowable ppm contaminant content in many breathing-air applications, sometimes the need to utilise chemically de-greased lines, valves and fittings, which are fairly specialised and very expensive. ( think - hospital breathing apparatus, diving equipment etc... )

In theory, if the compressor has its air intake from the same environment in which the contaminants prevail, its quite possible that all one would be achieving, is to compress the already contaminated air, and effectively re-introduce it back to the operative - which probably is somewhat counterproductive, regardless of the filtration...... filters themselves can indeed be misleading, - in 'particulate terms', one could be filtering microbes or spacehoppers, molecularly speaking.

Don't want to be alarmist... but even more 'dont want' anyone coming to any harm !


(See here --> http://ezinearticles.com/?Air-Filters-a ... &id=517851 and note the last paragraph of the article)

 

[mrs. sliver]

thank you for all advice chaps! I have just ordered my 'power cap' from screwfix online £159 inc VAT and postage. cheers!

 

[steve.b]

Absolutely right jenx, a fresh air mask should be supplying you with clean, filtered air from outside the environment that you are working in, in my case my compessor is in its own seperate building the air is filtered before it goes into the compressor, it then leaves the compressor and goes through a moisture trap and grease trap through another moisture trap then a carbon filter and into my mask, and works very well apart from being connected to an airline , I have been using one whilst painting 2 pack paint for the last 25 years, on the other hand one of these power caps just filter the dusty air thats in your work environment, but seem to do the job well, and lets you move about easily, I am certainly going to get one.

steve

 

[greggy]

mrs silver, fwiw try looking at this, its all you need to know about dust extraction,http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

 

[wasbit]

I thought the point of a mask was to allow you to work in dusty conditions. If you have a fresh air feed, I doubt that you would need the mask.

 

[steve.b]

A work mate of mine used to make a lot of built in wardrobes cupboards etc out of MDF and only used to work with it outside or in well ventilated conditions, he did this for many years and died at the age of 40 with throat cancer, which at the time the doctors said there was good chance was caused by the MDF dust, [he never bothered with a mask because most of the dust was blown away and he used to say it was safe]

Steve