pipemakersforum.com

Any advice to manage all the dust caused by a dremel. I'm currently working on a horn shape that requires a lot of shaping to be done by a dremel and the dust is out of control. I have a good shop vac and in lieu of a real dust collection system I've been able to bush rig a decent contraption for my lathe and sanders, but not sure what to do about this dremel. I tend to hold the stummel up against my chest and stomach as I work it, but good grief is is throwing out a lot of dust.

One possible improvement is to use carbide burrs insted of abrasives, they create tiny chips instead of fine dusts, which is a bit more more manageable.

A bit of flexible ducting attached to your dust extractor so you can place it as close to your work area as possible.

Imma gonna bet you're right handed so it shoots straight up in your face, too.

Yuk

I mounted a collection horn on a cast-iron-based music stand (so it can be placed exactly where wanted/needed). A gated, detachable hose from the dust collector robot then hooks to it.

I have a 4x10 vent attached to the dust collector, parked right at the front side of my wood lathe (another at the back but that's not relevant here). This thing allows me to use the lathe bed as a sort of work bench, and I do lots of filing and dremelling there, right over top the vent, essentially - a little bit of expanded steel mesh in there keeps anything big from going down. It's like a downdraft table, without the table. Anyway I can carve the shit out of stuff and you still get sprayed and make a mess, but dust... it goes down.

Conversely if you have lots of space, one of those air-cleaner units can be plopped right on the bench top, and it does the same job, just pulling sideways instead of down. They move a lot of air and are less noisy than a DC proper.

Pastuch, that's a good idea. I'll give it a try.

George...you're dang right! Right smack in my eye balls. BTW...do you feel like sharing a pic of that dust collection you described?

Chris...I was running it, but I just keep the dumb pipe to closely pulled into my chest as I work. So, it just tends to be too far away to work very well.

Sas...I may look into rigging something like that up. Currently I'm just moving my shopvac hose to each tool. It's a pain, but it's working alright for now until I get some more pennies.

JMG wrote:
BTW...do you feel like sharing a pic of that dust collection you described?

.

The stand is steel, and the base is heavy enough that tipping isn't a concern. The horn is ABS plastic, and the tube connected to the rear of it (with the silver bolts sticking out) is steel.

The end of the hose is a soft rubber step-down widget that's attached to the vac hose with a hose clamp. The blue and yellow cables with the plastic balls are extension cord/speaker cord wrapper things that are stretchy like rubber bands. The rubber step-down is pulled tightly against the end of the horn's steel tube by the elastic doo-dads, which are hooked over the bolt heads. The seal is tight and the connection firm. Takes only 5 seconds to connect or disconnect, and the stand w/horn can be placed anywhere the hose can reach. When disconnected, the hose (yellow arrow) stays on a couple hooks near the floor against the bench where it's out of the way until needed.

The horn, hose, and stand came from a local outlet of this chain store: https://www.woodcraft.com/

Everything else came from a common hardware store.

.

Thanks, George. I know my church has about a billion of those old, heavy music stand bases stuck away in some dank closet. I'll have to see if they will let me snag one.

This is the pipe that is causing me all the fuss...

BTW, George...bend or no bend on that stem? I think I'm liking it straight. (It's got a lot more shape to go yet currently)

VERY nice piece. Should be worth the hassle & effort.

I agree that straight is probably where the stem should and will end up, BUT... if I were making it I'd be tempted to give it a super-slight 1/8" bend (over most of its length, not just the last inch) to echo the stummel's curve + remove all straight lines from anywhere on the pipe, and THEN decide. You can always go back, right?

.

Besides the dust collector build one of these air cleaners. http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/port ... post108939
After you have it built, set it on a timer so that when you leave the shop it can run an extra 15 minutes to clean the dust out of the air.

I wear a plastic poncho (piece of plastic with a head hole cut in it) and occasionally a dust mask ( or just blow out brown snot when I am done). I have found the rotary tool and the small sanding drums to be indispensable for intricate shaping and decided to live with the dust.
As a 72 y/o codger, I am not as safety minded as you guys.
DocAitch