Troubleshooting dust collection Washington DC

1. What do you find to be the biggest wood dust collection problem, and how would you solve it ?

   Rosemarie Kraemer, vice president, Kraemer Tool & Mfg. — As usual, money is the biggest problem. Most local furniture manufacturers have to compete against cheaper and sometimes less quality conscious offshore imports. The wages are sometimes as low as a few dollars a day and do not compare to ours and neither do the environmental laws or workers' compensation payments. Still, there are no import tariffs. Since our governments are borrowing heavily from the same sources, there is no help coming anytime soon.

   Curt Corum, sales manager, Air Handling Systems Manufacturers Service Co., Inc. — Today's woodworking industry is comprised of thousands of small shops.

   The shop owners are hard pressed to find someone to properly design their dust collection system. It seems the professional dust collector manufacturers do not want to spend time designing and quoting 5- to 15-hp systems. In addition, most of them are married to mechanical contractors who want to quote a turnkey project.

   The dust collection budget for small shops are usually quite limited but would cover the purchase of a collector and the ducting. With the proper layout in hand, nearly 100 percent of the shops are capable of the install themselves, saving thousands of dollars.

   The problem is, where do they go? If a collector is purchased by mail order, they are left on their own. Most likely, the system will be installed incorrectly. The professional dust collector manufacturer, typically, will not work directly with the small shop or in some cases is selling the dust collector without providin+g the duct design! Professional engineers versed in wood shop dust collection systems do not seem to advertise in any woodworking publications. For a fee, the PE is able to provide the non-biased specifications with a blueprint that includes duct design.

   Some companies offer a "do it yourself design guide," but many shop owners are fearful and don't want to attempt the exercise.

   My solution is two fold. First, I would not allow a dust collector manufacturer or distributor to sell a dust collector over 3 hp without providing a proper duct design. Second, I would like to see one of the woodworking associations create a listing of PEs who are experienced and interested in designing systems for wood shops that are out of the realm of a turnkey project. This will obviously require a national search, but I believe it is feasible. Small shop systems can be designed without a site visit as long as the shop owner provides the PE with all of the necessary data.

   A dust collection system provides for the health, safety and productivity of a shop. Let's make the pursuit of this objective easier for the small shop owner.

2. A lot of wood sanding is done with hand sanders. How do you ensure that those doing the sanding are protected from the dust?

   Kraemer, Kraemer Tool & Mfg. — If we had hand finishers, we would get them our self-cleaning downdraft tables, KTM pulse 4000 or 6000. A good downdraft table will do wonders and draw the fine dust away from the worker. Our tables have four or six filter cartridges that clean the air 99.97 percent. When the filters need to be cleaned, a push button cleans the filters quickly and efficiently. The tables are only 32 in. high and are very sturdy. They weigh about 1,000 lbs. each, and all have silencers in order to reduce the noise levels.

   Corum, Air Handling Systems Manufacturers Service Co., Inc. — It is just as important to purchase a hand sander with a dust collection attachment as it is to purchase your shop floor machine with a dust collection hood. The attachment will provide a connection for the 1-in. vacuum hose, which can be connected to a high-velocity vacuum dust collector. Scrutinize the attachment, as some manufacturers engineer the dust collection aspect better than others. The primary approach is to capture at the point of generation.

   A high-velocity vacuum dust collector provides minimal cfm, but is able to overcome the high resistance level of long lengths of a small diameter flex hose. A conventional dust collector is a volume machine required to evacuate dust collection hoods on table saws, widebelt sanders, etc. Attaching a 1-in. flex hose to your conventional dust collection system is like trying to drink a milkshake with a cocktail straw — the machine cannot overcome the resistance, thus, no airflow. Many shops need a conventional dust collector for their floor machines and a high-velocity vacuum dust collector for the hand-held power tools.

   In some instances, the 1-in. hoses can be obstructive. An ideal solution is the environmental control booth. It is similar to a spray booth, except the unit has a series of cartridge-style dust collection modules. Completely self-contained, the air is filtered and returned back to the work environment. The employee is free to sand virtually any size object in a wide open area. A downdraft table is also a common approach but is limited to smaller parts due to the necessity of leaving the grated surface open to maximize airflow. In addition, downdraft tables are subject to disruptive cross drafts.

A top and sides can be installed, but now the work area is reduced substantially.