Safe Dust Separation and Collection

[mbellon (Mark Bellon)]

That sure looks like one. Oneida sells a complete package including the barrel underneath too. The one they sell is pretty strong… it’s really hard to collapse it… but it can be done (been there, done that).

The white plastic one is less expensive; the black plastic one is made of conductive plastic and it is used - along with conductive tubing - to avoid static build up problems. Hot/warm small particles moving around creates static. On a large scale this can become combustable and/or explosive. On smaller scales it causes build up in the tubing, reducing efficiency and requiring cleaning.

If one is concerned, there is an easy solution - run a naked copper wire through the tubing and dust separator and run it to local ground.

There are many solutions possible - trading off time, materials, and budget. One does not have to have a high end system to be safe.

Here are some related postings:

Dust safety question

I’ve been reading all of the postings here about dust-heads and safety. I use my Nomad to carve wood in a relatively small enclosed area, and it doesn’t have very good ventilation, so I am concerned. I’m sort of new to all of this, so I was wondering if I really need to create a dust head, or whether I could connect, say, a Festtool dust extractor just to a port that I cut into the back of the Nomad enclosure. Would that be sufficient to make it safe for indoor use when cutting hardwoods? Or …

This thread includes a list of vacuum system design principals:

Potential Health Effects of CNC and Machining

I ordered the Nomad 883 and I live in a small dorm room on campus. I would like to have it in my room so I can use it whenever I want and keeping an eye on it in case anything goes wrong. However, I am not sure if there is any potential health hazard linked to having it in my room. I am concerned about the dust and powder produced. I understand that wood, fiberglass and other materials alike produce fine dust during machining, so I am not considering machining those in my room. But I wonder if …

Thoughts on a small dust collection system for my workshop?

With all of the recent discussion about dust (and the danger of fine dust), I’m hoping to get some thoughts regarding a dust collection system for my workshop. I’ve seen the Festool CT, which looks good (?) - but it’s expensive, and for some reason you can’t get them in Canada anymore. What I’m imagining is a small, portable wet/dry vac and a dust deputy. Is this a common setup? One thing I’m not clear on is what small wet/dry vacs come with a Hepa filter. I have been doing research, and it ap…

Is Machining Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Material (e.g. FR4, Garolite) Dangerous?

Vacuuming while milling is good… but it can be more dangerous than not if the vacuum doesn’t have a filter that blocks the particles. For CNC work a HEPA filter rated at 0.3 micron is necessary to meet the highest level of safety. The 5 micron filters that are common are essentially useless in preventing the particles that are most dangerous to your lungs/health.

Dust collection with Festool and Oneida?

I haven’t modified mine yet, but one option is @FlatBaller’s method, and @patofoto has a method that I’m waiting to take a look at (hoping for pictures soon if the tutorial is too hard to get to, hint hint ;))

mark