Metal (and related abrasives) dust collection solution

[JordonMusser]

Ive seen a few posts on this including this one:

Questions on Garage Dust Collector/Vacuum Setup

I am looking to build a whole shop dust collection and vacuum setup using my Shop Vac 12 gallon vacuum. I believe it is either 4.5 or 5 HP. My question is regarding vertical runs and lengths. I would be storing my shop vac in a corner of the garage with a remote power switch. I would then be...

www.garagejournal.com

But I want to expand on a few elements.

This is for a home shop, so relatively small duty cycle. Right now I simply move my shop vac around and vacuum up messes as I go, sometimes rig something to put the pickup in a way to grab dust as I drill/cut etc.
I of course do drill wood, etc on occasion but I try to do that outside generally (all my wood tools stay folded and away)

Since I am basically happy with the power of a shop vac next to me I first considered just running a pipe system with some drops and valves so I didn't have to keep carrying around the shop vac. The I thought, might as well buy a bigger 600cfm ish ~1hp dust collector setup from Grizzly etc (cheap, etc) and run 6" ducts.

After reading a bit about that, it was clear that it was not recommended due to potent fire (hot metal chips into dust cloud) and it may not be powerful enough for metal.

Yet its probably 5x what my shop vac can do. and I have never had a fire.

So trying to bridge the gap b/w these two things. Note that most of what I would do would be post-work cleanup, not insitu dust collection although I would do that too (chop saw, belt sander).

I would intend to use a cylcone style dust collector into a bucket vs the dust bags a wood unit would use (so not running "through" the motor). Was thinking maybe a little bit of water in the bottom of the bucket as well.

 

[matt_i]

I try to do all hand grinding outside. Ditch the abrasive saw for a true coldsaw or a bandsaw.

It took a lot of convincing at work that a weld booth bench shouldn't double as an angle-grind bench but now one can go weld and not come out looking like a chimney sweep.

 

[JordonMusser]

Ya, I do heavy grinding outside generally. I plan to build a little down draft table, either using the high(er) cfm collection system , or build something with box fans if i don't go that route.

Most of the time I use my carbide tipped metal chop saw or my band saw.. even those both have chips an dust (although from a health perspective, not a big deal.. but it makes a mess)

I tend to try to take care of my lungs, but do want to help with the mess

 

[JordonMusser]

ive been looking at how to manage metal+wood in one location. I understand the risks, but what I can't quite figure out is if I use a can/cyclone its no different than using a shop vac which I do now?

I think part of my use case is that this is more of a whole shop - shop vac, vs a dust collector if I am using the terms correctly. most of my metal tools dont have true dust collector hookups.

 

[JordonMusser]

anybody? or simple answer: dont do it

 

[Captain Spaulding]

I’d be concerned about the chance of creating a combustible dust scenario using anything used for sawdust while operating spark generating tools. I don’t know where the risks are, so I just stay far away from mixing them.

 

[JordonMusser]

ya, I agree. Wondering how a typical shop vac doesnt blow up. I would not use the mesh bag (cyclone+ bucket) for the dust collector