Wood Cutter
Member
I love making things. Mostly fitted stuff which means some time in my workshop and some in my house. I have a particular problem in that I am intolerant of wood - working it gives me severe migraines. Gypsum and some glues can be even worse by-the-way; and I have a lot of plasterboard in my house. Hence I always wear a mask which is a must for me.
I asked about saws in another post and all of my power tools are hand-held apart from two; a radial arm saw and a pillar drill and this is likely to remain the situation. Having used my neighbours thicknesser recently I now suddenly know what chippings really are and that none of my tools creates a great deal of them. So after some time wondering about chippings versus dust I now believe that with my intolerance and my equipment I essentially have a dust problem not a chip problem.
Given the nature of what I do - being as much "on-site" (i.e. in my house) as workshop (i.e. in my garage) I am now thinking that a portable dust extractor would suit me best. I saw, I sand, I drill, I biscuit-joint (is that a verb?) and I route with power tools. Then I chisel, I file and I saw with hand tools. There are probably some other actions too that I have forgotten.
After asking about saws; I am likely to buy the Festool Plunge saw. My RAS is a DeWalt. My sander is the surprisingly wonderful Skil Masters 7660, routers by Elu and soon-to-be Makita and with other equipment made by various companies and I won't replace them all or indeed any of them. So the extractor will have to work with all of this. Hence I have a few questions for all you experienced users out there...
I asked about saws in another post and all of my power tools are hand-held apart from two; a radial arm saw and a pillar drill and this is likely to remain the situation. Having used my neighbours thicknesser recently I now suddenly know what chippings really are and that none of my tools creates a great deal of them. So after some time wondering about chippings versus dust I now believe that with my intolerance and my equipment I essentially have a dust problem not a chip problem.
Given the nature of what I do - being as much "on-site" (i.e. in my house) as workshop (i.e. in my garage) I am now thinking that a portable dust extractor would suit me best. I saw, I sand, I drill, I biscuit-joint (is that a verb?) and I route with power tools. Then I chisel, I file and I saw with hand tools. There are probably some other actions too that I have forgotten.
After asking about saws; I am likely to buy the Festool Plunge saw. My RAS is a DeWalt. My sander is the surprisingly wonderful Skil Masters 7660, routers by Elu and soon-to-be Makita and with other equipment made by various companies and I won't replace them all or indeed any of them. So the extractor will have to work with all of this. Hence I have a few questions for all you experienced users out there...
- Which current portable extractors which would you recommend from experience for this dual in-workshop/on-site life and which would be unsuitable?
- With all of the kit having slightly different hose connections (different diameters etc) what do people do for fast but reliable connection/disconnection to the outlets of different devices?
- Am I right to worry about the cost and future availability of consumables - like filters and, in particular, bags?
- Some tools would perhaps benefit from having two connections to the extractor - the formal designed-in connection plus either another inlet (I am thinking of the sander when used inverted in particular). Is having two inlets something anyone does with a portable style extractor? Does it work? Are there splitters to make the dual connections?
- For hand tools, like files or chisels, can these portable extractors work with a hood?
- Where a company makes different sizes of extractor is it worth me selecting a slightly larger model?
- How good are these things at dealing with dust from plasterboard (I will always wear the mask anyway)? Do their filters clog up?
