Official Luthiers Forum!

I will be removing my central dust collection system between Christmas and New Years and replacing it with a larger 5 HP, 6" system. I actually have two separate systems both of which are in good working order:

1 - 1 HP Harbor Freight 120 volt blower mounted to a steel cyclone separator w/ a 4" inlet.

1- 2 HP 220 volt Grizzly with a steel trash can separator & dual bag filters (less than 6 months old).

LOTS of 4" PVC duct work, 4" flex hoses and blast gates.

I thought I would offer it here before eBay. Only stipulation is that you must pick it up. Email for more inforamtion if you are interested.
Thanks...

Lance & Broc, This may not be appropriate so if I have violated any policies feel free to remove my thread.
Thanks,

_________________
tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

So Tim tell us about the new system.

_________________
Beautiful and unusual tone woods at a reasonable price.
http://www.rctonewoods.com/RCT_Store
The Zootman
1109 Military Rd.
Kenmore, NY 14217
(716) 874-1498

Clear-Vue cyclone, dual HEPA cartridge filter elements, 5 HP, 1800 CFM, 6" D&W PVC, 6" aluminum self cleaning blast gates, 6" ports on all tools and LOTS of work ahead ;( I also ordered a Mini Clear-vue cyclone for my dedicated Shop-Vac that is attached to my RO sander. Mary has developed some serious allergies to fine wood dust so we are taking every precaution to rid the shop of all the dust we can. This vac aught to bow the walls inward.

_________________
tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

[QUOTE=Tim McKnight] Mary has developed some serious allergies to fine wood dust so we are taking every precaution to rid the shop of all the dust we can. This vac aught to bow the walls inward.[/QUOTE]

Yes, this wood dust thing is serious for every shop. I have to admit when I saw Jeff Traugott in his helmeted faceshield and make up air to build guitars, I thought he had gone overboard a wee bit. I don't think that today, at all.

Good for you and Mary, Tim. I hope it works as good as you need it to. Sure do. I wish everyone here was following your lead. I must do something soon myself.   

_________________
http://www.dickeyguitars.com

Boy howdy, you can't have too much DC!
When I was setting up my current shop I put in a 2 hp cyclone unit and have
never looked back. I also use a Jet air filter to catch the stray airborne dust
and a Fein Turbo 2 with the hepa filter and bag attached with all the RO
sanders. I also recently built a down draft sanding table with 2 stage filtering
for when I cant (and even can) use the dustless sanders.
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Can you use your downdraft table for sucking up router dust / chips? I have been wanting to build a dedicated booth for hand router work.

_________________
tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

[Quote=Tim McKnight]Can you use your downdraft table for sucking up router dust / chips?[/QUOTE]

Tim this seems like a great idea but I would be very surprised even with the best of downdraft tables if there is enough flow to really get the chips and dust. My guess is it might help but not really do the job. Have you considered making a modified router base with dust collection?

_________________
Brad
Avon, OH

I'm building a new downdraft table with a pair of 800 cfm sqirrel cages, if they ever get here. I plan to use it as a room filter as well. I think it should work pretty well and will have final filters of 1 micron size. I shoulda had it today as I just finished resawing 12 sets of mahogany and have dust everywhere. I did wear a mask though.
I also just ordered a positive pressure face shield and installed a room filter in my assembly room. Hey my shop should start cleaning itself. Now if I could get a machine that would follow me around and put stuff away!!!

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Tim-
The answer is yes and no. The big chips that have enough velocity to get
out of the downdraft airflow are going to get away, but they're big and
relatively harmless. The fine particles will get sucked into the filters. I
suppose you could put enough hp and blowers in the rig to pull the fur
off of a cat, but there's a point of diminishing return for everything.
As Brad says, a router with a shroud works well, depending on the type of
operation. Plunge cuts are well evacuated, but edge forming not so much.
I've got a Dewalt plunge with built in shroud that works fairly well.
The Festool routers with built in DC look very well engineered, but at
$300+ they're not for the faint of wallet.
Another approach is to dedicate an area of your shop with partitions to
high dust operations (rout/sand) and suit up before you enter. Again, a
commitment (in sq. ft.) you may not be able to make.
If only we could grow the dang trees in the right shapes in the first
place...
-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

I have several lam trimmers set up with dedicated bits for certain operations. I have always thought about building some sort of booth so the routers were all hanging accessibly so I could grab em and go. Now, I have to get them out of the cubboard, unwind the cord, plug em in, clean up the mess, wrap up the cord, yada, yada, yada. You get the picture. I just envision another small 4' x 4' x 4' booth with routers hanging on the walls and a fan, blower, etc... mounted on the back wall to pull away the chips & dust. Sounds simple enough if I could only find the time to build the beast.

_________________
tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com

I'm sensitive to wood dust as well (boy can I pick a profession or what!) and I've found that with my Festool CT22 hooked up to just about everything, I can really limit the amount of airborne stuff flying around.  it even works well on the Festool router...

for what its worth...

 

DC on a lam trimmer would be a bother. I have several of them too-
dedicated to various operations. A downdraft table could work well for that
use.
Grizzly makes one if you're short of time to build it.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/23-x-31-Vacuum-Sanding-Table /H2935
Lance was threatening to get one of these a while back-I'm not sure if he did
or not.
Maybe Santa will do you right later this month...

I only bothered to build mine because I had all the major parts.

-C

_________________
Freeborn Guitars
and home of BeauGuard©

Just stumbled across this from Rockler. Might be a temporary option for your router booth. Looks like it could be converted to a larger booth or a downdraft table pretty easily...

_________________
Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

[QUOTE=Tim McKnight] I have several lam trimmers set up with
dedicated bits for certain operations. I have always thought about
building some sort of booth so the routers were all hanging accessibly so
I could grab em and go. Now, I have to get them out of the cubboard,
unwind the cord, plug em in, clean up the mess, wrap up the cord, yada,
yada, yada. You get the picture. I just envision another small 4' x 4' x 4'
booth with routers hanging on the walls and a fan, blower, etc... mounted
on the back wall to pull away the chips & dust. Sounds simple enough if I
could only find the time to build the beast.[/QUOTE]

Check out Olson's rig
router rig

He apparently still uses some of this but much of it is backup since he got
this
Fadal

While you are at it check this out (downdraft heaven)
Sanding
outfit

And everyone should have one of these (drool)

"Laser" beam

What a wondrous shop.

Oops sorry for the highjack! I got carried away!

Now we know how he did that rosette on the guitar in that other thread.

_________________
Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Just wanted to say THANKS for sharing this thread. I have a brand new clearvue 6" system on the way and will spend the next week or so replumbing the shop for the new system. All of the really fine dust has settled in my shop and is covering everything. I needed to get control of this and I believe the new system will do the trick.

_________________
Reguards,

Ken H

Ken, I fired up the MAX system today and Mary held her tiny hand about 6" away from an open duct and it pulled her hand right up into the pipe. She was not injured but it sure made her smile. We are really confident this new system will greatly reduce the small dust in the shop

_________________
tim...
http://www.mcknightguitars.com