Dust Collection Finally Ready!

As a side note, when using a vacuum dust collection system, or a blower or even a shop vac, try to run a ground wire to the plastic hose and pieces and then to a ground point. The air action creates static electricity in the plastic pieces and at the very least, you keep getting shocks when you touch the hose or associated pieces. Very annoying. The other issue is that it can cause the dust to ignite...not a good thing.
Dave
 
Dave38 said:
As a side note, when using a vacuum dust collection system, or a blower or even a shop vac, try to run a ground wire to the plastic hose and pieces and then to a ground point. The air action creates static electricity in the plastic pieces and at the very least, you keep getting shocks when you touch the hose or associated pieces. Very annoying. The other issue is that it can cause the dust to ignite...not a good thing.
Dave
Click to expand...

This subject is a little confusing to me. How great is the danger of explosion, particularly in a humid environment where there is not much static electricity in general?

When I lived in the high desert I got shocked all over the place around the house and shop. Here on the coast I cannot recall ever getting a static jolt of any kind in the 20 plus years of being here.

I know this is real and it happens but how great is the risk really? I also know that some Spanish only speaking children have choked on small toy parts that must be warned about but really?

Can we be honest? How many of you here have been running dust collection without "proper" grounding and for how long?


JC
 
Dave38 said:
Your 100% correct. I injured my left hand in a bench saw accident years ago because I removed the guard on it and my lawyer friend wanted me to sue the manufacturer. I refused to do so as IMO, it was my stupidity for not operating it right. Thankfully the fingers heal very well.
Click to expand...

Removing guard is one thing.....

Not standing to one side, abstaining from push blocks, improper alignment of fence, trying to force a piece of wood that starts binding......

I feel MUCH safer while handling guns....
 
JC said:
This subject is a little confusing to me. How great is the danger of explosion, particularly in a humid environment where there is not much static electricity in general?

When I lived in the high desert I got shocked all over the place around the house and shop. Here on the coast I cannot recall ever getting a static jolt of any kind in the 20 plus years of being here.

I know this is real and it happens but how great is the risk really? I also know that some Spanish only speaking children have choked on small toy parts that must be warned about but really?

Can we be honest? How many of you here have been running dust collection without "proper" grounding and for how long?


JC
Click to expand...

In a small shop environment, you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than having a dust explosion...

Here is a good read on dust. I can't quote the exact source

http://www.thewoodnerd.com/articles/dustExplosion.html

and another

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/beginnnerscorner.cfm
 
Last edited:
JC said:
This subject is a little confusing to me. How great is the danger of explosion, particularly in a humid environment where there is not much static electricity in general?

When I lived in the high desert I got shocked all over the place around the house and shop. Here on the coast I cannot recall ever getting a static jolt of any kind in the 20 plus years of being here.

I know this is real and it happens but how great is the risk really? I also know that some Spanish only speaking children have choked on small toy parts that must be warned about but really?

Can we be honest? How many of you here have been running dust collection without "proper" grounding and for how long?


JC
Click to expand...
I have a dust collector that is piped around the shop using 4" pvc pipe. I kept getting shocked anytime I ran it, at every station. Some stations like my down draft table, the shock didn't matter, but on my Atlas and Hightower lathes, or my drum sander, getting a shock that jumped out about an inch away when I least expected it made me rap my knuckles or slam my elbow and almost lost a finger once. Grounding solved that problem. As far as dust igniting, about 15 years ago we had a foundry explode from the airborne phenolic resin dust igniting. It sent concrete blocks hundreds of yards in every direction. I live about 1/4 mile from it, it sounded and felt like a bomb went off under our house. Even though some experts say a home shop doesn't make enough dust to worry about it, It's enough for me to take it seriously. Another important thing to do is regularly clean the piping out so that the dust doesn't accumulate in the pipes.
I live in Western Mass. and we have dry and humid periods, but I haven't paid attention to whether it made a difference with the DC.
 
JC said:
This subject is a little confusing to me. How great is the danger of explosion, particularly in a humid environment where there is not much static electricity in general?

When I lived in the high desert I got shocked all over the place around the house and shop. Here on the coast I cannot recall ever getting a static jolt of any kind in the 20 plus years of being here.

I know this is real and it happens but how great is the risk really? I also know that some Spanish only speaking children have choked on small toy parts that must be warned about but really?

Can we be honest? How many of you here have been running dust collection without "proper" grounding and for how long?


JC
Click to expand...

I live in Denver and we don't have much humidity. My dust collection is a Dust Deputy/Shop Vac with a single hose that I move from machine to machine. I didn't use to ground the hose. One day running my CNC taper machine I heard a "pop" in the Dust Deputy bucket. It wasn't a solid chunk of something that got in there. Was it a small explosion? I think so. I have grounded my hose ever since and haven't heard any more pops.
YMMV,
Gary
 
Dave38 said:
First, NEWS FLASH, you ARE dealing with the General public
Secondly, No offense was meant, and I have no desire to argue with you or interfere with your sales, I was only trying to help. But the fact you are marketing your product here on this forum, we as members, are allowed to voice our concerns. I suggested using lexan / polycarbonate to you back when you first suggested this project. You are free to use what you want, but need to realize that if something breaks and the acrylic shatters, and those shards injures the user, you will be at fault for not using a better suited material knowing that the potential is there.That's basic reasoning, and basic design work and the basis for a lawsuit. I designed a very similar box 3 years ago for my Atlas lathe using Polycarbonate and spoke to a friend that is a lawyer about patent and liability issues and he is the one that informed me about the risks which made me decide to not make them as a product to sell due to the liability involved. If your going to start producing a product and for a profit, then you have to protect yourself and your customers. It's your choice to use what you want, but there are reasons why a lot of companies have stopped making things certain ways and either gone bankrupt due to lawsuits or have drastically changed how they make stuff. In the end, it's your choice, but if you bury your head in the sand, like it seems to be now, Good Luck with that... hope all goes well.
Dave
Click to expand...

Polycarbonate has my vote. Amazing stuff. The poly means more plastic. You can bend the stuff 90º in a sheet metal break press. Try it. Not kidding. HIT IT with a hammer and see what it does.

That said, I have countless designs I haven't shared for fear of liability? I'd like to think we are all good people but stupid is as stupid does. Not worth loosing my Hightower over. :)
 
63Kcode said:
Scotty used plexiglas. He traded the formula for transparent aluminum. To pay for the plexiglas.

Oh and it was on a Klingon battle cruiser.

Larry
Click to expand...

Think that maybe why Tom at Deco Cues made his dust collectors out of Aluminum.

Thank goodness I have some Kilingon Blood, I swapped my doors for transparent aluminum. Works great.

001_zpsfckhq5bn.jpg
[/IMG]
 
I think there is to much associated with dust explosions. The vacuum cleaner hoses sold with most modern cleaners is anti static plastic hose. If anyone is worried about it, it does not take much to run a wire around the tube to earth it to something.
I very much doubt the box being offered is capable of gathering any static due to the way it is mounted on the lathes. If people are not using modern antistatic hosing it is their own issue, not the problem of the product supplier.
Taking anything to the extreme, nobody could sell anything as their at times are really stupid people in this world who can find ways of miss using even the most simplest of things.
As a guide, if you are getting static shocks from the cleaner or the like, fix it.
I have some old Shopvac hose, it is terrible for static, I fixed it with a piece of wire taped to the hose and earthed back to the lathe bed.
Neil

As someone said, "there is no fix for stupid"
 
DanO said:
Polycarbonate has my vote. Amazing stuff. The poly means more plastic. You can bend the stuff 90º in a sheet metal break press. Try it. Not kidding. HIT IT with a hammer and see what it does.

That said, I have countless designs I haven't shared for fear of liability? I'd like to think we are all good people but stupid is as stupid does. Not worth loosing my Hightower over. :)
Click to expand...
I kind of got lost as to the distinctions between acrylic, polycarbonate, and lexan - well, more specifically are we equating lexan = polycarbonate?
In any case, you can bend lexan in a sheet metal brake as well - I used to do so to form lightweight battlebots.
My 2 cents,
Gary
 
GBCues said:
I kind of got lost as to the distinctions between acrylic, polycarbonate, and lexan - well, more specifically are we equating lexan = polycarbonate?
In any case, you can bend lexan in a sheet metal brake as well - I used to do so to form lightweight battlebots.
My 2 cents,
Gary
Click to expand...

Lexan is a brand name, polycarbonate is the actual material name. Same thing. Plexi-Glass is acrylic.
Dave
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top