Advice on small dust collection systems

My wife and I rent a small garage type space (650 square feet). At first the plan was to use it as an artist studio space for her (painting, clay work, etc) and I figured it would be nice to have a place to work on my old diesel benz indoors.

Since that time, however, we started doing work for an artist friend. The side income is nice to have. The artist sells a line of cast bronze pieces, and was looking for help finishing them. The pieces are small, the size of a large apple, and are sand cast. We sand them down to a smooth finish for her.

The problem is it makes a huge mess. Lots of dust, including fine dust that stays suspended in the air for a while. Gets all over everything. We're building a small room to do this work in (60 sq. ft. by 7' tall). I'm thinking about a dust collection system, but most of the metal systems I've found are overkill. Most of the systems that are in a realistic price range are for woodworking.

Anybody have any advice on systems?

Would using a system for woodworking be a bad idea? (we are ONLY sanding bronze, no visible sparks except for the occasional inclusion)

Are there any small downdraft tables you guys use?

Would my best bet be a broom, dustpan and shopvac?

Since this is just some side work, I can't justify spending much more than $1500.

Thanks.

I see no reason why a wood working system would not be just perfect and well within your budget. I would just make one of the many downdraft sanding tables designs on wood working sites that suits your work. The wooden grid pattern style may suit you best, dust and large chips fall in and the wood does not damage the article, once used a friends to port and polish a racing two cycle engine... about a $500 investment in total and just perfect, sorry no pics, hes not near me any more.

If you have the time/inclination you could build a small spray booth with a water fall back. Google pottery spray booths and you will see a variety of homemade booths. I built one using a junked fiberglass shower stall which I cut down, plastic barrels or the plastic inside of a dishwasher are also used. Add a false back (for the waterfall) a small recirculating pump and a fan to exit air (which you could also put a filter on) and you're ready to go in a small area. In a day you can have your booth. Whatever you choose to do wear a good respirator.

Good luck,
Dave

What I question is what the dust consists of... one would think that grinding bronze, the dust particles would be really heavy, and not remain airborne long. The fact that they are (you say the dust gets everywhere) would seem to indicate a really fine particle size, which is likely too small to be captured by the filter bags in the typical woodworking system.

I grind a lot of graphite for EDM electrodes, and this grade of graphite is essentially compressed smoke. The airborne dust is finer than frog fur. Initially we tried rigging a common shop vac to pick up off either the grinder of CNC mill as needed; it picked up the dust, but the fines went through the filter. It was obvious, because a brand new monitor on the shop computer turned black in a week, from static attraction to the case.

Our solution was this vacuum system:

Donaldson|Torit|Vibra Shake Dust Collector

It's located entirely inside the grinding room, so doesn't evacuate all the warm air during the heating season. The noise level is like a large air handler; a deep droning rumble, which is easier to deal with than a screaming shop vac. In your situation, if no one works outside the grinding room while you are grinding, put it outside the room. Pick up is very good, and the monitor no longer attracts the fine dust, because there isn't any in the air.

Only downside is we have to warn new hires about the noise the filter shaking cycle makes, because it's LOUD, and starts a minute or two after the blower shuts down, so tends to be unexpected.

I don't have a current price; we've had ours almost twenty years with absolutely no maintenance issues.

Dennis

www.rockler.com has many small dust collection parts to custom build what you might need, also Grizzly.com® -- Home has similar items there too.

Modelman, I was also wondering about the "dust gets everywhere" part which is why I was leaning towards a spray booth style waterfall to capture most dust, exhaust the rest through a filter/outside (and use a good respirator as a backup). I guess part of the dust might be the abrasive media but either way being that fine is dangerous.

lucky13dave, if you google it there are also sites for homemade sandblasters. The part you might find very interesting is the homemade water filter to clear the dust from the air recirculating through the cabinet so you can actually see what you are doing.

With either one of the above you will be able to reclaim most of the dust (metal?) and with a sandblasting cabinet which in your case could just be a plywood box you should be able to reclaim 100% with a water filter.

Dave

find a little Torit 64 , great units.

ebay 380460410414

Easily handle your need.

New bag kits are around $280 (last time I bought one)

No problem to swap in a single phase motor, all standard stuff. (Thinking 56 frame???)

You might want to try harbor freight. I use their 2 HP dust collector and have had no problems with it. Cost is around $200.

I have two dust collection systems. One is a Donaldson/Torit Vibra Shake like Dennis mentioned. You can probably find one used in your price range. The other I put together using an inexpensive bag filter dust collector in which I substituted a pleated canister filter for the bag. I purchased the filter here 35A Series Cartridge Kit. You should be able to put together something for less tan $500 going this route. The main reason to use a cartridge filter is that it gives better air flow and picks up much smaller particles than bag filters.

What are you using to do the grinding with?

Mite not work for your location but I built a system for my surface grinder. I don't bother with bags /filters etc. I just exhaust to outside. Yeah, it sucks out some heat but I'll pay that price..............Bob

Before you go to any expense try this.Tape a cheap furnace filter to a box fan.The filter will be on the suction side. Place the fan behind the casting. If the fan collects the dust on the filter then i would try raising the fan to a temporary ceiling height. If the box fan pulls the particles up then a wood working system should be fine. I still would use the box fan behind the casting.
mike