Sawdust in the house

As some of you know, I'm using the fresh air and wind method of dust collection. So I'm outside if it's nice and with my machines facing out of the overhead door if it's not nice. I'm pretty good at sweeping up all the time. No matter what I do, including leaving boots by the door of the shop, I'm getting sawdust EVERYWHERE in the house on a daily basis.

Any ideas? Anyone else with this problem?

Thanks all
 
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My shop gets vacuumed out very regularly but in addition to doing that I open the overhead door and use a leaf blower to get even more of the dust out.
Before I leave my shop, which is a separate building from our home, I will use the air attachment on my compressor to get as much of the dust off me as I can.
 
The latest issue of Wood Magazine has a Harbor Freight coupon for their DC. On sale for $149.00.


I would think Cynthia that if you are blowing all the dust outside then some of it is blowing back in through open doors or windows:dunno: Try using a shop coat and taking it off before you come inside.

My shop is in the basement. The only dust I get in the house is from my shoes. The dust collector and my air filter get it before it gets upstairs.
 
Sawdust in the house why I never heard of such a thing.:thumb::rofl::rofl::rofl:
Oh wait my bad that's whats all over the house most of the time.:doh::rofl: I have often wanted a vacuum door of some sort that would clean you and or the dog off as you came in. :thumb:
 
Cynthia i tried the one piece idea for a while but it gets tired quickly when u need to pop in the house for this or that like going to washroom. But since i got given a nice large apron by Jim Bradley i dont have a big priblem and its easy to pop on or off.
Dust collector would also be my recommendation.


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Dust into the house from the shop is a very definite thing. I was polluting the house with sawdust and small wood chips. I tried vacuuming my clothes and shedding my shoes. The problem stopped.

I no longer shed the shoes. I do wipe them thoroughly on a mat. Now, once-in-a-while, I shed a small chip.

What I do with my clothes depends on what I was doing with wood. If I was table sawing, sanding, or causing major disturbance to wood, I give my clothes a really good shaking, batting, brushing. I do have a reasonable dust collecting system. I have shown pics of it and described it in quite a few threads and posts. I would not dream of doing woodwork without it.

As the dust collection system developed, the need for radical clothes shaking has almost vanished. The thing that makes me the greatest chip carrier is the wood lathe. I can seem to corral all or almost all of the fine dust at the lathe. However, some of the hard stuff coming off of the wood can have enough mass and velocity to get past the air intakes and onto my clothes. This is the place where more horse power would pay off.

I paid attention to all of the rules for running ducts (hard plumbing, as little flex ducting as possible, no sharp turns, etc.) and that is what makes my system work so well. However, the laws of physics say that it takes a certain amount of energy to make a moving object change its path. You can change the path of the fine dust easily. As the mass increases it becomes more difficult. If the mass is enough you cannot capture it. The same type of thing happens with the amount of air you are taking into your DC pick-up. The greater the volume of air you move at a given speed, the heavier the particle that you can convince to come into your DC. Etc.

I hope this helped.

Enjoy,

JimB
 
I don't like aprons myself. The dust and chips seem to get into all the arm and neck areas. I have an old loose fitting thin nylon pullover that I cut the sleeves off of around the elbow. It hangs a bit below the waist. I just brush off my shoes and pants. No dust complaints from my wife in a long time so I guess it works :)
 
I have a suede apron that might be great for a farrier, but it's worthless in the woodshop. Sawdust magnet. I've also got an old cloth apron that was my granddad's and I wear it when I'm doing something that I want to keep off my clothes (like applying dyes or turning real wet wood). I wear it inside out, though, since it has a large front pocket that catches a lot of chips from the lathe.

As far as dust, I'm in the "blow it off with an air hose" camp. I do have to watch the soles of my boots when I'm turning wet wood. The waffle pattern tends to get packed with wet curlies, and I've been known to track them from one end of the house to the other.
 
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