Lately I've been spending more time than usual in the basement with the lathe and twice now I've had my eyelids and the area under my eyes get itchy and puffy and stay that way for days. I would imagine that the dust is causing the problem but I don't know if it's one type of wood or just dust in general. Has this happened to other people?
I will admit that my dust control is very poor right now, I only have a shop vac and I suck up the dust occasionally as I work but the dust gets everywhere. If I want to continue my hobby working on cues I'm going to need to do something because this can't go on and I work in my basement so I don't the whole house to get contaminated. Here's what I'm thinking to improve things, please let me know if you have additional suggestions.
1.) Switching from safety glasses to goggles.
2.) Wearing dust mask/respirator whenever cutting or gluing.
3.) Made box around the Cuesmith Deluxe to keep dust in smaller area when using router.
4.) Buy shop dust collector and put a port into the Cuesmith box to suck out some/most of dust while the router is running.
5.) Buy overhead, hanging air filter unit and leave it on to collect floating dust particles.
6.) Put better quality, HEPA filter in shop vac.
7.) Possibly get portable, home air purification unit and keep it upstairs in living area to further clean the air.
I should have done some of this stuff a long time ago but I didn't have any problem for a couple of years. For the last 3 years I was gone from home a lot and not downstairs much (4-6 cues a year), now I'm home a lot more (out of work for awhile) and spending a lot more time making dust. I've got to do something because if this keeps up with my eyes I'll have to get another hobby. Any advice would be much appreciated.
I will admit that my dust control is very poor right now, I only have a shop vac and I suck up the dust occasionally as I work but the dust gets everywhere. If I want to continue my hobby working on cues I'm going to need to do something because this can't go on and I work in my basement so I don't the whole house to get contaminated. Here's what I'm thinking to improve things, please let me know if you have additional suggestions.
1.) Switching from safety glasses to goggles.
2.) Wearing dust mask/respirator whenever cutting or gluing.
3.) Made box around the Cuesmith Deluxe to keep dust in smaller area when using router.
4.) Buy shop dust collector and put a port into the Cuesmith box to suck out some/most of dust while the router is running.
5.) Buy overhead, hanging air filter unit and leave it on to collect floating dust particles.
6.) Put better quality, HEPA filter in shop vac.
7.) Possibly get portable, home air purification unit and keep it upstairs in living area to further clean the air.
I should have done some of this stuff a long time ago but I didn't have any problem for a couple of years. For the last 3 years I was gone from home a lot and not downstairs much (4-6 cues a year), now I'm home a lot more (out of work for awhile) and spending a lot more time making dust. I've got to do something because if this keeps up with my eyes I'll have to get another hobby. Any advice would be much appreciated.
I hope it will help you.
