Shop ventilation ?

[Toejammer]

Did a search, and didn't find much about it, surprisingly.

Just wondering what kind of vent system you guys run for bone dust, etc ? I got to grinding on some bone scales the other day, and stunk up the whole house. I use 3m respiratory masks for my own protection, but that don't stop the stink ! It also doesn't help that my workshop is next to the furnace, and the intake.

The wife was not amused.......

I used to do alot of airbrush work, at our old house. And I had built a small 3' x 2' x 2' paint booth, with an acrylic top and a fart fan for exhaust. Worked great. But I disassembled it when we moved to our present place. (saved the fart fan though) I'm just wondering how the fart fan would fair with bone dust ? I was always more concerned with ignition from spraying Diamont Urethane, but the fan was sealed and worked well. But I don't know how it would deal with the bone dust. (I do have a small window in the shop area, so I can vent straight to outside)

Any and all suggestions appreciated !

[orvet]

Most of my equipment has ports on it for dust collection. You can purchase a shop dust collection system if it is in your budget (not in my budget) like this small inexpensive system; http://www.grizzly.com/products/1-HP-Wa ... ctor/G0710

Or you can you can do what I do, get a 5 gallon Shop Vac from a local store and plug it into each piece of equipment when you are using that piece of equipment. Most places that carry the Shop Vacs also have high efficiency bags that remove very fine particles from the air. That is what I do and it works pretty well. My shop, which is about 2/3 of the garage, is attached to the house and we don’t have problems with the smell coming into the house, though that may depend mainly on how your HVAC system is configured.

You can buy a sheet metal hood for dust collection if you use a buffer. Buffers do produce a lot of dust. I made a small dust collector for one side of my buffer that I plug my shop vac into. I would say it is about 75% efficient. It is funky looking, but it keeps the dust down. I will get a pic and show it later.

[IMBand]

I used one of these window mounted fans during a couple paint projects.
Obviously no real help with dust, bust may knock down the odor for the short term.
They are cheap and adjust to most window openings.


IM

[Toejammer]

Hot dang ! I just remembered I have an old shop vac down here that need re-purposing !

Thanks Dale !

[orvet]

No problem Mike.
I am all about repurposing!

My parents grew up during the depression and they learned to “repurpose” many things. Repurpose sounds a lot better than the term they used; “make-do,” e.g.; “I need a dust collection system in my shop, but I can make-do with an old shop vac.”
It sounds better your way; “My dust collection system is a repurposed shop vac.”

[muskrat man]

I have a very poor ventilation system that needs attention. I have a wall mounted exhaust fan but I need a much bigger/more powerful one. This one was already in the shop when I moved in this house. It's a small one like you see in the kitchen above the stove. It has broken down on me 3 times in about 2 years. I need hoods and shop vac hookups on most of my tools; it would make cleanup a lot easier and cut down on the airborne particulate. Don't fool with dust masks, get a respirator with replaceable filters. They are the only way to go if you do much stuff that could damage your respiratory system (that's about 80% of my daily activities). The new exhaust system and dust collection systems are on the to do list for this spring if I can ever crawl out from under this pile of work. I run another part time hobby/job from around november to early february, and once spring time hits I have to wrap it up. Then I have more time for maintenance of the shop ect.

[orvet]

Here are some pics of my homemade buffer hood.
It is made from plastic laundry soap jugs, an old shop vac tool to get the hose connected, cardboard and duct tape. It is held in place with screws through the bottom into the wood on the top of the stand.
It is anything but fancy, but I think it gets about 75-80% of the dust when I use the buffer. Aside from the duct tape everything else was bound for the garbage or recycling so there was no great expense for it. Much better than nothing and far less expensive than several hundred dollars for a sheet metal hood that goes around the buffer.

[muskrat man]

great idea dale! I love recycling old junk and garbage into useful items. I've got a whole barn full of scrap wood and metal, I'm sure I can cook something up once I have the time. Take it one machine at a time and I'll have them all outfitted within the year LOL.

[gringo]

what ever method one uses to ventilate a shop...where flamable materials are used...or ground or cut....
the fan must be run by a motor NOT in the evacuation flow...

sparks from an electric motor will ignite fumes...
so that cute little window fan...dual fans...is an ignition source waiting for a chance.

kinda like a wood stove in a flour mill.

[muskrat man]

Played with making some dust "hoods" (for lack of a better term) for a couple of my dustiest machines last night. Did some testing last night and cuts dust by at least 75%. Made them out of recy.....I mean "repurposed" cigar boxes that I had kicking around. Certainly not the best but it sure cuts down on airborne dust. I ground an 8" section of 2x4 completely away on both machines and you can see how little dust there is lying around. On the belt sander, what looks like dust on the bench is actually the SS sheet cover where I didn't get overspray from painting the hood LOL.

[Joe Dirt]

That looks to be quite effective, Caleb! Very resourceful!

Several years back, I discovered an excellent source for clean, straight, large, dent free pieces of sheet metal.

My discovery came when my recycling truck driver refused to take an old washing machine. I had prepared
myself to be at the top of the drive when he arrived to HELP him toss it into the back of the truck. He stubbornly
REFUSED to take it even with my help loading it into the very low bin on the back of the truck.

In my spite, I wheeled the machine, still on the hand-truck, back down the drive and straight to the basement door.
Hast-fully, I went into the basement and grabbed the sawzall.... the recycle man TOOK THAT WASHING MACHINE without
even knowing it! Six HEAVY trash bags, he lifted into the truck, the following week!

Alright, the moral of that story is washing machines have an access panel for repair men to do there work...
the whole front panel of the machines are attached, normally, by only a couple of screws on the bottom and two
"latches" at the top, about an inch in from the edges, in the seem between the top panel and the front. A putty
knife is all it takes to unfasten the latches by pushing it straight in, through the seem. No prying necessary -
it just compresses a clip and releases it.

So, there you have it! A nice piece of light gauge sheet metal ready to be formed into whatever shape you desire.

A metal brake is very simply made using a piece of angle iron and two C-clamps.
Mark out your pattern, cut it out with snips or whatever you have, then lay it on the workbench. Place the angle iron
on top of the pattern and align it with the edge of the bench. Then clamp the angle iron in place with the C-clamps.

Bend and hammer away, my friends!
Be sure to leave an extra inch on the pattern, at the seems, to form the lip used to fasten the edges together with
self tapping screws or pop rivets.

If you need a larger piece of sheet metal (for long hoods), find a refrigerator door at the scrapyard.

(Basement metal fab: 101 )

...... Joe

[philco]

I'm not sure how well my wife would like me doing that to the refrigerator.