What a diff having a filter in the shop,

What a diff having an air filter in the shop. I always turn it on when I'm in the shop and it just quietly works in the background keeping the dust down. I've found in my small shop that if I run it, I can then start finishing my projects, either spraying or wiping a finish on, with in 30 minutes of cutting or sanding with little to no dust ending up on the finish. I also don't have to worry as much about kicking up some dust from moving something or someone opening a door as I used to (helps that I keep the shop vacuumed now too).

I have a larger one that will do 1200 cfm, but I always run it on low so it's quiet and I use a double filter on the front.

Saves me lots of time from having to sand out the dust in between finishes.
So, if you run across one on cheap, jump on it, it's worth it just for the ability to do a better finish, especially on flat work.

Brian

Well yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.................that's what there for

That's near the top of my list for most wanted tools.

Dave Hawksford said:

Well yaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.................that's what there for

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I originally got it so I could vent out a house when doing a remodel and there would be dust created. I built a cart tall enough so it will vent right out a window, open a window on the other side of the house/room and then it pulls all the dust and such out of area and vents clean air to the neighbors.

I then put it in the shop (still on cart) and just recently realized the benefits of it in relation to finishing.

yeah, I know, my wife reminds me and so did my mother...I'm a little slow.

Since lathe dust (especially when sanding) is about impossible to completely capture at the source, my shop still gets plenty dusty even when I'm running my overhead filter. But if I don't run it, things are noticeably (and measurably) more dusty. Like you, I've found that running it for a half hour or so before applying finish sure cuts down on the number of dust nibs in the finish.

I really should invest in one myself, Can't be too safe! I currently use an old furnace blower vented thru the wall...works great, but it's on the noisy side...pull's smoke, fumes etc. out in a flash. I'm not sure how small micro-wise it is at particle removal, but it's better then nothing...and the initial cost, the same

Ken Cook said:

I really should invest in one myself, Can't be too safe! I currently use an old furnace blower vented thru the wall...works great, but it's on the noisy side...pull's smoke, fumes etc. out in a flash. I'm not sure how small micro-wise it is at particle removal, but it's better then nothing...and the initial cost, the same

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If it's moving the air, it's moving the smallest particles...the really dangerous ones. If you're blowing it outside, I wouldn't worry about filtering the air unless it's pointed at the neighbor's bedroom window or something.

Vaughn McMillan said:

If you're blowing it outside, I wouldn't worry about filtering the air unless it's pointed at the neighbor's bedroom window or something.

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Hmmm, that's an interesting thought! Guess it depends on how much you like your neighbors and if they let their dog poop in your front yard?

Another thing I found, when I blow out my pre-filters, don't do it when your neighbor is just finishing washing his car...SORRY!!!

Thanks for that Vaughn...Our lot backs up to the interstate service drive and that's the direction the vent blows, so if you ever hear about a major pile-up due to a freak mini dust storm....

Your not alone Brian, got my neighbors blowing out the shop-vac filter

A friend who also has a finishing shop has 2 spray booths, one for sanding and one for finishing. It works well for him. I wish I had that set up. LOL

Ken Cook said:

...Your not alone Brian, got my neighbors blowing out the shop-vac filter

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I fired up my DC in the driveway once with the lower bag off. I figured it'd blow out a little bit of dust from the filter.

The resulting cloud blocked the sun for several hours. Still don't know if any of the neighbors noticed, thankfully.

There is a theory that the dust filters are bad for your health. They circulate the air, don't touch the chips (who cares), catch the medium size dust particles in the relatively coarse filters, but keep the really fine particles (that are especially bad for your health) in the air.

If you have a good cyclone or other dust collector with a 0.5 micron or smaller filter, you are better off running the dust collector a high percentage of the time, not just when you are using a machine... Typically it moves all the air in the shop every few minutes, and takes out the fine dust as well as the chips and visible dust.

We have three of them. Two of them will be centered between the molders and ts mving the air in a figure 8. and when running the molders it really makes a difference. My dc unit is not big enought to pull all the heavy chips and dust, so we usally have dust all over eveything if we dont run them.