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Woodworking is Great. But the Sawdust Isn’t.

We make signs. Plain and simple. But in order for us to do that, there’s a process. And the process doesn’t begin with me, or with Amy. It doesn’t even begin at the lumber yard. It begins somewhere in the forest when a tree is chosen for logging. Or is when the seed is planted? I guess we could just keep on going, couldn’t we, but let’s not!

Click on image to see specs

So let’s stick with when a tree is chosen for logging. That’s the beginning of the process…and the process of cutting a tree down, then slicing the tree into usable sizes, refining those rough boards into common sizes and then sanding them down into rough and finish lumber to be sold in lumber yards.

That’s when we come into the picture. We then engrave, cut and sand the wood into unfinished creations, ready to be painted and possibly framed.

My point….that process involves a heck of a lot of saw dust. More than half of it is left in the forest and at the mill. The rest, without a dust collector, ends up on my shop floor, on the computer, my desk, and everything single thing I have in that shop.

The solution is a nice, $4,900 Grizzly cyclone dust collector that measures about 8 ft tall by 4ft wide….if you have the space. It should be able to handle most of your sawdust, from multiple stations just fine, and without a whole lot of noise, which is another issue entirely.

Click on image to see specs

However, if you’re like me, having limited space, or your budget simply doesn’t allow you a $5k expenditure, there’s still a cyclone setup for you.

If you have a shop vac, you’re in business with a much smaller cyclone dust collector kit that won’t catch 100% of the dust you create, but will help significantly. If you’re using a CNC machine like we do, having a good dust boot with a brush kit on it makes the world of difference as well. It keeps sawdust and wood chips from being launched by the router bit.

If you don’t know much about how these things work, it’s simple. Suction from the vacuum goes on the side port and the the top leads to the CNC boot. ‘Nuff said!

Any questions or better solutions to your dust problems, I’d be glad to hear about it.

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