Extaction woes and food for thought !!

[Dusty]

I am set up quiet happily with my extraction and utilise a bag extractor on my spindle moulder and thicknesser , and a couple of can type extractors on my table saw and router table . I alway wear a mask as a belt and braces apporoach . Overall I get minimum dust escape , or so I thought !

Over the last few weeks I have had a mate coming into the workshop to make some products for himself using MR MDF .Blimey or riley , the mess that ensued was phenominal . The table saw had a pile under it so big that recreated a 1 to 1 scale version of the himalayas and he used the router table with a copy cutter and due to the shape we had to remove the fence and rely on extraction underneath via the router itself . I reckon about 60% escaped and I ended up with a green baze carpet effect the size of the millenium dome .

Luckily when I am not puffing on my rolly ( I generally work on my own ) I am masked up as I have ( had ) a friend who has suffered serious consequences of working in a dusty workshop all his life and paid the penultimate price . I understand that my extractors are more than up to the job when working with "real" wood as I rarely have a problem or much fine sawdust to clear up under machines but given I normaly work with regular MDF I have never noticed the difference but now that my workshop ended up looking like the incredible Hulk had just sneezed in my otheriwse sacred domain , I can no see that some of my machines , namely the table saw , needs looking into , and can see the problem is the shroud that encloses the blade underneath and has the extraction mounted to ir is open at the top as it needs to rotate when the blade is tilted , it may need some form of rubber flap to govern the sucken area , as for the router table , I see that little can be done when the part being copied is a very awkward shape and over hangs the table at times ( BTW it is the large Record table with a Trend T11 mounted ) .

I suppose the real point of this post is , look after those lungs , My mask cost £20 and replacable filter cost £10 and get chucked regularly , there is no price not worth paying and never just look at it as a bit of dust , especially when working with man made boards as they create such fine dust .

cheers Sam

p.s , I spent two hours clearing every last drop up , and my knees are sore as ..............

 

[sunnybob]

If you do a lot of work with the router table fence gone, why not put a hood on a flexible hose over the table (like a kitchen extraction hood). That will remove most of the really dangerous fine dust.

 

[Ttrees]

. I understand that my extractors are more than up to the job when working with "real" wood as I rarely have a problem or much fine sawdust to clear up under machines
.............
Those bag type extractors are pants !
Only the finest dust escapes and stays airborne ...Look when the sun beams through your windows and see for yourself.
Maybe your bag extractor is in another room outside ....if so, what CFM are you getting ...
If your extractor is in where you work, you would need to wear that respirator all the time.
Bill Pentz is the authority on the subject ....look his dated website up.
Theirs some cyclones being made in the uk now, mostly because of his designs ....
Axminster tools and Jet are two UK sellers of them ..some on youtube are doing cyclone builds ..
and some have done threads on this forum too .
Good luck