the only things that make dust in my shop are the 14 in bandsaw and a 6x48 belt sander. i have a fan in the wall behind the beltsander. i also have a grizzly dust extractor connected to the sander. nothing is connected to the saw. also have a overhead dust extractor. stilll getting fine dust that goes 10-15 feet from both tools. SO, i was wondering if anyone has any experience with the Festool brand of dust extractors; or, would i be wasting $$ ??
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Dust issues in shop
- Thread starter porthos
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- May 14, 2019
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I can't answer your question about the festool vac. What I can mention is there is a BIG difference in dust collection SYSTEMS. Have something that sucks things up may or may not be effective for your needs. Hoods, shrouds, etc being placed in the correct place makes a huge difference, along with properly sized hoses. Having a cyclone type of system attached makes a huge difference as well.(really helps the dust from going out the exhaust side) CFM is commonly used to determine sucking power of a vacuum, some will talk about water column which I think is a better indicator of ability to pick up saw dust.
Not knowing what you have and how it's setup it's going to be hard to give you much useable information. Pictures would help. You can buy the best collector available but without a good hose pickup point, etc you will be disappointed. Just trying to help you put your money in the place it will do you the most good.
Edit, you may even have 2 different systems competing with air movement and interfering with each others effectiveness
Not knowing what you have and how it's setup it's going to be hard to give you much useable information. Pictures would help. You can buy the best collector available but without a good hose pickup point, etc you will be disappointed. Just trying to help you put your money in the place it will do you the most good.
Edit, you may even have 2 different systems competing with air movement and interfering with each others effectiveness
Try putting a pickup hose at the belt sander, the closer the better, keep the bends to a minimum. The further the fan is from the sander the higher the CFM you'll need. The ideal fan would be located at the belt sander. A shop vac would probably work just keep in mind there may be some hot sparks from the sander.
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What is a Grizzly dust extractor? If you are talking about bag dust collectors, some of them are nearly worthless for collecting fine dust. Many of the older ones only filtered down to 5 microns, which left all of the sub-5 micron dust to float around in the air and for you to breathe in. If you do not have any dust collection connected to the table saw, there is no chance of eliminating your issue. I have a 3hp cyclone dust collector connected to mine, including an overarm collector, and I still have dust floating around (albeit a small amount). I even went so far as to seal all of my dust collection joints with silicone caulk, which help tremendously. The sander needs to have dust collected at the source. I use a shop vac with an https://www.oneida-air.com/dust-deputy attached to it. There are less expensive options also. The fan in the wall will help to extract whatever dust the shop vac doesn't catch, but the fan alone will not work.
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while the festool is an excellent vac, it won't solve your problem. A 6x48 requires a DC. A small hose like the one on the festool will not overcome the 6" width of the belt. A DC would. It sounds like your DC is not hooked up close enough to the bottom of the belt where it is thrown off. That being said, I have a 2 1/4 vac connected to my 6x48. My DC is connected to my band saw, planer, and jointer. I don't have enough CFM to connect it to my tablesaw. My belt sander could benefit from the DC, but I wouild have to move it to the other side of the room (again since it is underpowered). Are you using coarse belts, or fine belts. Coarse belts are great for roughing, and creating less dust. The size of the wood removed is larger and less likely to float. I could go on and on.
The problem I believe with the festool for your issue is its like a mixed drink straw, when you need a milk shake straw. You need CFM.
the exhaust fan is 2 ft. above and 18 in. behind the sander. the dust collector intake is about 20-24 in. from the outlet at bottom of sander. i suspect that the fine dust is from the sander. the bandsaw dust is bigger that the sander dust .i will jury rig a shop vac to the saw.
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why wouldn't you have the dust collector right at the bottom of the sander, where it can collect it. The further you get from the source the more will get into the air. Dust collection is really only valid right at the source period. if you don't catch it then there's nothing you are doing but sucking air.
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We have the Festool vacuum system for polishing solid surface materials.Works very well and has the hepa filters. You pay for all of this in the price tag, but I couldn’t be without it when polishing solid surface on site
Martin
Martin
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pics please. 3/4 hp. That's not much. That's even less than mine.