Can a rigid shop vac be used on my mini surface grinder?

O

ome

Forum Guest
Register Today
Hi guys,
i recently got a sanford mini SG WITH 4 inch wheels. Can i use my large shopvac to pick up any metal dust that gets around the spark plate.
Thanks,
Jon
 
Shure but you will wan't a good filter in it.
 
If you are going to use it make sure you have at least an inch of water in the bottom of it and surround the filter with a material that doesn't burn. That way any heavy particles that may be still sparking will drop into the water and the lighter dust won't start a fire. Fine grinding particulate steel will burn by itself when introduced to a good spark.
 
Realistically, no. What you should do is spray coolant on it and then filter the coolant for reuse using a sediment tank and skim off the clean coolant from the top. Grinders are just messy, we have 2 at work, one from 1954, the other from the 80's. Vacuums have inherent problems like wanting to explode with flammable dust and adding water can cause heat in the tank when the iron starts to corrode. Just something to think about. Tim
 
Not a good choice - you really need coolant on a SG - youll have burn/hot spots all over the place and your wheel wont have a very good life span
 
I would place a separator between the vacuum cleaner and the SG. Easily made using a 5 gallon pail and one extra hose. That way most of the particles will stop there instead of all getting to the vacuum cleaner.
We have 2 SG at the shop, we use a Q-Air collection unit. It has a metal screen that sits on top of a collection pan, the pan has a drain for return of coolant, the second stage is a set of vertical filter bags. We don't use coolant, all of our tooling is ground dry. We use soft wheels so burning is reduced but resurfacing the wheels is increased. 6 of one, half a dozen on the other.
Pierre
 
What you have to remember is that there are two categories of grinders commonly found in a shop, to keep it simple you have "water grinders" and "surface grinders". Water grinders typically have a self reciprocating table and sometimes have automatic down feeds (but most are manual). Surface grinders are usually found with all manual controls and are meant to grind dry, though I occasionally use a "cool gun" (cold air gun) to keep the material temp under control if I'm going to be hogging. Coolant on a surface grinder could quickly destroy it, water grinders have the proper sealed bearings and way protection built in. I'd kick someone out of my shop if I caught them even running a coolant mister on my KO Lee 618.

Burn spots on a surface grinder indicate wheel loading and or the wrong wheel selection (to keep it simple).

The issues with surface grinder dust collection come down to health and safety. From a health standpoint, breathing silica is bad. Google it. Surface grinders require suction of around 650 cfm to pull the dust away from the operator. Many shop vacs fall into the 150~250 cfm range. Safety us most usually addressed relative to the noise issue. Look at the dB rating of the vacuum you choose. Many yeas ago when I investigated the issue for my home shop Fein made the quietest vacuum but it was still around 100dB.

I ended up looking at it from a long term standpoint and am glad I did because I've added a T&C grinder and a Deckel SO grinder since. I chose to make my own Torrit style dust collector using the impeller assembly from a Harbor Freight wood dust collection system which was rated at 650cfm.

dustcollector3.jpg

In the photo above, the dust is collected in the 2" grey hose and enters the lower chamber behind a false wall that extends down towards the bottom of the box stopping about 3" from the bottom. The heavy dust drops into the metal tray and the light dust gets caught by the 5 micron bag units as the air is pulled upwards by the impeller. Anything that makes it through the bags gets caught by a HEPA filer that is mounted over top of the bags. he clean air is then pulled through the impeller and shot up through the eggshell lined foam chimney. Sending the air up through the chimney puts the expelled air out well above my ears and the foam lining quiets the noise to about 75dB. I'v been running this unit for 10 years now without a hiccup.

dustcollector1.jpg

dustcollectorstack.jpg

dustcollector3.jpg

dustcollector1.jpg

dustcollectorstack.jpg
 
Is there a dust collector that is portable so i can use it on a few different machines?
thanks,
Jon
 
Ray C said:
You mean, like this one? http://www.harborfreight.com/13-gallon-industrial-portable-dust-collector-31810.html

In conjunction with this kind of hose? http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1
Ray
Click to expand...
Thanks Ray,
that looks like the price is right, but will it get the dust from a surface grinder, as well as any fumes from a spot welder. I have most of my grinding machines in one room, with only one window
to open. I have a full face mask with cartridges and a heap vacuum for any carbide I may grind, but my baldor carbide grinder are in a different room with my other delta grinder for HSS.
THANKS,JON
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top