EcrosTechWiki | Woodworking / Workshop Dust Control

My Workshop Is In The Basement

I do my woodworking in a section of the basement of our house. Our house is rather peculiar in that the driveway is at basement level and there are two single-car garages taking up parts of the basement. There is a door in between them from the driveway and this door and a door from one of the garages lead into the area I use as a workshop. You have to go through this area to get to the cleaner section of the basement and up the stairs into the main part of the house. So, people (mostly myself and my wife) constantly pass to and fro and I have to keep a passage clear past any equipment. I also have to keep dust and dirt down so that it isn't tracked into the house. My main weapon is a broom for the floor and a dustpan and brush for everything else.

Dust Extraction at the Source

When I bought my new table saw (which started this whole woodworking thing off), I was pleased that it had a dust port at the back. This was sized for connection to a shop vac and, indeed, the hose of my trusty Craftsman shop vac connected right up.

Removing Dust from the Air

Of the dust that isn't removed at the source by the dust extraction system, large particles just fall all over the place and fine particles end up floating in the air. The drum sander and the table saw produce the most fine particles. Dust extraction for the drum sander is quite effective, but, depending on what kind of cut I'm making, dust extraction for the table saw can be anywhere from somewhat effective to useless. When I'm using the saw I (almost always) wear an N95 mask (with an exhalation valve). But so that I can take the mask off later on, I want to remove the dust that hangs in the air. As with everything else in my workshop, I do this on the cheap. I have made a frame for a 24 inch square HVAC filter and fixed it to an old square box fan. This hangs from the central heating pipes that run through my basement workshop. I have positioned it carefully so that when I rummage for something in my router parts box and then standing up, I hit my head on it and it falls on top of me. Incidentally, it creates a circulating air current around the room drawing away dust to my left and returning filtered air from my right. To monitor the air flow, I have draped a couple of old shoe laces over the pipes so that they flap about in the draft. When they stop flapping and merely twitch, I remove the filter, go out into the driveway and beat it with a stick to dislodge the dust. Then I put it back. Occasionally, I throw it out and start using a new one. Since I'm only trying to capture dust, not bacteria or anything really small, I use filters with a MERV (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value) Rating of around 7 or an FPR (Filter Performance Rating) of 5.