Dust collection and sanding

[bobmaes]

One of the most important jobs in boat work is sanding. Unfortunately this produces a lot of dust creating a real mess and a potential health hazard. Has anyone figured out or found specific tools or equipment (sanders and vacuums) to help deal with these issues. Also do you have favorite brands and grits of sanding discs / sandpaper for various tasks? My current project will include a lot of grinding and sanding and I would like to improve my methods if possible. Thanks.

[Fuzz]

AA has the nicest set up I have ever seen. He uses Merka air sanders and has a commercial vac system. Unless you have a really good/large air compressor his system would not work for you.
If you want an electric system I think Festool is about as good as you can get. The only problem with Festool is it is a spendy option. I bought a Festool vac and two sanders last X-mas and as soon as my wallet quit hurting I love it. Depending on what I am doing I use disks from 40 grit up to 220 grit. 80 grit will do 90% of all work.
I just made a post in "anything else and for sale" showing the badest glass cutting disk I have ever seen.

[fallguy1000]

Shop vac is the most used tool I own.

Get the best one you can and buy two air filters so you can swap em out.

If you buy the right sanding equipment; you can hook the suction to it.

I even have a suction fitting for my 4" trim saw.

The glass in my shop is absolutely horrid.

I cannot wait to finish the boat so I can clean the shop for a month.

[terrulian]

Instead of filters, why not a Dust Deputy?

Let me just say this: Over 30 years ago I built my shop and started doing a lot of furniture building and did not use any kind of safety gear. I'm an old man and when I was a kid, no one ever gave a thought to things like this. Wear a dust mask when grinding bottom paint? Use eye protection? Use ear protection? Wear a PFD? Wear a helmet on your bike? You think I'm some kind of wuss? About fifteen years of that and I developed a cough and congestion that has never left and won't. My hearing ain't so good. Luckily, and just luckily, I haven't put an eye out.

Don't mess around with it.

[OrangeQuest]

Some of the really little areas I have had to sand were to small to get an vacuum hose on the tool. I still wore the dust mask but also set up this little fan at the top of the opening I was working on and it sucked the dust away from me.


It created enough low pressure that dust and fumes (when I was priming the compartments) were pulled away from me. It did not work on large areas and doesn't pull anything that is not airborne. I use large shop fan, at a 90 degree angle, to blow dust and fumes away from me. Then another shop fan to blow it out of the shop. Cross ventilation is very important. Dust suits and baby powder/baking powder when sanding fiberglass. I cut the legs out of one suit for sanding in our summer heat.

[piperdown]

Well, either rolling whatever I'm working on outside. Inside using a shop vac hooked to my sander. Fine bag filter for the shop vac. I always wear my half-face respirator when mixing or spreading epoxy and my full face respirator when sanding. I've had asthma since I was 1 year old. In and out of hospitals due to it up until I was about 17. I don't take chances with my lungs.

And....since I'm the ESH manager for our company always use hearing protection when needed; safety glasses when using the half-face respirator; and the appropriate gloves for whatever I'm using at the time.

[wegcagle]

I use a fan to blow the dust away from me in combo with my electric ROS hooked up to my shop vac (with a proper filter). Works well, but the shop vac tubing does get annoying sometimes. With this set up, gone are the days of total itchy body.

Somewhere along the way a really smart person also told me to baby powder my exposed arms, legs, and face before sanding. Then afterwards you just take a shower and no more itching arms! Works well for me.

Will

[pee wee]

Using a good dust collecting system not only keeps the air cleaner, it keeps your work area cleaner. The more expensive ones like the Mirka and Festool cost significantly more, but they work well, are made well and are (almost) a pleasure to use.

A random orbital sander can't do the same as a long board, and even the good systems don't capture 100% of the dust, so good ventilation of your work space is still a worthy goal.

[Jaysen]

Only time I felt that I had decent dust control was sanding outside ramping up/down around tropical storms and hurricanes. Mom Nature provided plenty of ventilation and airflow

Other than that it's all about the compromise. When i did real woodworking I had multiple shop vacs for dust control. One big boy (with partical separation) for central install for all large tools. A couple small units to allow attachment to tools like RO and belt sanders and to use directed pickup (duct tape) at the work site.

Good luck

[Chenier]

My weapon of choice is a shop vac that runs through a Dust Deputy. The DD captures most of the dust before it gets to the vac, extending filter life. It's 5-gal bucket is easier to empty than the shop vac, too. Regardless of the Dust Deputy, a HEPA filter goes in the shop vac when I'm sanding epoxy. 15 feet of 1.25" vac hose connects to my ROS and is easy to maneuver into most corners of my shop - it's my "go-to" for cleaning up after hand sanding, planing and scraping. The bigger hose (2.5") comes out for the tablesaw and the mess circular saws make.

For sanding I've a 5" random orbital sander that uses hook & loop sanding disks. The ROS hooks up to the vac hose and pulls the sanding dust through the machine so there's very little that escapes. Like Fuzz, I use sanding disks from 40 up to 220. So far I've been using 3M disks from the local hardware store. They work well but are a bit spendy.

When I started building my boat, some wag said that 80% of boat building was sanding. They lied. It's 80% vacuuming!