What dust extractor and sander

[Stooby]

Hello all as the question about how you light your scroll saw is going so well I thought I would try a question here that didn't do to well on the buying advice forum and that is what you use for:

1 Dust extraction (I only have a tiny area so personally I am looking at vacuum extractor and want a really quiet one)

2 Whether you use a belt and disk sander and if so what kind.

I thought both questions would be better answered by fellow scroll sawers as well.

Also has anyone successfully sold anything on the for sale forum as I have some dremel things to sell including the dremel moto saw which was my into to scroll sawing.

 

[Claymore]

..........

 

[Chippygeoff]

Hi Stooby. The quietist vacuum extractor is the Henry. I have 2 of them in my workshop and even when they are running I can still hear my CDs. They have an enormous amount of suction and the power is in 2 stages. Switch it on and there is more than enough power to suck up all the dust from a scroll saw, press the second switch and you have double the power. If you PM me your e-mail address I will send you some photos on how I set up my extraction. With regard to sanders. I would get one of those belt sanders with a combined disc sander, they are all very much the same,in fact most of what is available is the same machine just in different suppliers colours. Mine is typical with a 36 inch belt, a bit under powered but does the job. I use a worn 80 grit belt, been on there about 9 months now. I use a 150 grit disc, mainly used for putting a round on a square corner.

 

[jonluv]

Hi,
I bought a TitanD15 belt and disk sander had it 4 years with no problems,think I paid about £60 for it.Don't use it as much as I thought I would for Intarsia/segmentation as Dremel and B&D flexible drum sander is I feel more accurate.

However I make a lot of Comfort Crosses for some Hospices and find the belt and disk to be great for " roughing out" before final sanding

On dust extraction I used an old bag less cylinder coupled to a home made cyclone ,not brilliant but better than just a vac(I think)

 

[scrimper]

I have never used an extractor on my Fret saw, I do on all my other machines but the amount of dust generated by the saw is so little I have never felt I needed one, however as the amount of waste is small I would suggest using a standard vacuum cleaner would do the job adequately, IMHO a nice quiet machine would be essential and as Geoff says you could do a lot worse than a Henry (Made by Numatic and British made too!) The thing about Henry is that it is simple and reliable and has no flashing leds, computer chips or gadgets.

I can vouch for their reliability and value, we have a Henry and James (like Henry but with metal bottom!) in the house and I have 2 Numatic commercials in the workshop. I used to retail Numatic machines and repair them when they went wrong, which was rare, the only problems we had mostly was with open circuit flexes! Nobody gets rich offering a repair service for Numatics unlike Dysons which are a Gold mine for repair shops!

I have one of those bog standard 9" disc/ 6" belt sanders that are sold under several brand names, I think mine is by NuTool, I find it invaluable for all my woodworking inc scroll-sawing!

 

[Stooby]

The Henry is looking popular but if I add a belt and disk sander is there one machine I can use, would the Henry do for both our would something bigger be needed?

 

[scrimper]

The Henry is looking popular but if I add a belt and disk sander is there one machine I can use, would the Henry do for both our would something bigger be needed?

Henry will do for both unless you are doing a huge amount of sanding, I use an old Hoover Constellation (sort of like a Henry) with my disc/belt sander it takes several months before I need to empty the bag, Sanders do produce very fine dust (like powder) so it will clog up bags and filters more quickly than normal sawdust like you get from a scroll-saw.

With bulky sawdust Henry can be used without a paper bag with just the filter fitted but for the fine sanding dust you should use paper bags as well, the paper bag acts like a filter it is specially made with small pores which allow the air to blow through but the dust stays inside, if you leave it too long before emptying the pores will all become blocked and the bag will burst, it happens quite often to my constellation when I forget to empty it!

 

[martinka]

I have the vac from Aldi, bought at this time last year. It's a fair bit louder than the Henry, so I boxed mine in under the bench, but it's brilliant for the power takeoff. You plug the saw into the vac, then when you start the saw, the vac starts as well, stop the saw and the vac stops a few seconds later.

 

[martinka]

I have never used an extractor on my Fret saw, I do on all my other machines but the amount of dust generated by the saw is so little I have never felt I needed one, however as the amount of waste is small I would suggest using a standard vacuum cleaner would do the job adequately, IMHO a nice quiet machine would be essential and as Geoff says you could do a lot worse than a Henry (Made by Numatic and British made too!) The thing about Henry is that it is simple and reliable and has no flashing leds, computer chips or gadgets.

I suppose if you have other woodworking tools on the go, the amount of dust from a fret/scroll saw will seem very small. In my case, only having the scroll saw, if I don't use the vac to extract the dust, I am forever cleaning the motorbike and car, and all my tools, my lathe, mill, etc, are covered in dust after a couple of hours scrolling.

The photo below is what is collected from the top of the table, and is what I just emptied out of a relatively new vac bag. (I'm a tight git, I empty the bag and reuse it until it splits ) Anything below the table is allowed to drop into a box I fixed to the stand and is emptied by hand. The dust is that fine it's like talc. Another thing, if I don't extract the dust and forget to wear a mask, my chest is bad for days. With it extracted, I can work without a mask and feel no ill effect.

 

[scrimper]

(I'm a tight git, I empty the bag and reuse it until it splits )

Err I can go one better than that! I open the bags empty them then reseal them to reuse, plus I never actually buy bags, when I sold my electrical business we had lot's of new packs of bags that were from older machines so sales were dead on them, rather than bin them being a scrimper I kept them and when I want a particular bag with a cardboard fitting I just cut the cardboard fitting off the old bag and glue and seal it on the replacement bag which may be from a totally different make of cleaner. well it's better than throwing them away especially when bags cost so much! :shock: