Ox horn dust

[clickklick]

I don't have dust collection at my lathe yet. How bad is ox horn dust? I want to turn down some for use as stem inlays but remember seeing a program where people were etching bone and they were all wearing masks. Something about the dust can make you really sick. Is the same true for horn? I have an air cleaner in my shop, just no port for local dust collection at my lathe yet.

[Oakbear]

Dust can make you really sick. I don't think horn or bone is particularly bad for you, but dust can kill you, especially with high levels of repeated exposure to fine particles. You just don't always notice until years later.
If you make significant amounts of dust you need a way to stop it reaching your lungs. An air filter isn't enough, especially if you are between the dust and the filter imho.
Pro turners often wear full air flow filter masks when sanding. It always surprises me full time pipe makers don't, although the fact the work is small and they have good dust collection might be the main reason.

[sandahlpipe]

The issue is more when you breathe in that stuff a lot. Once or twice isn't gonna hurt you. Especially not in as small a quantity as you need to make an inlay.

[PremalChheda]

Get PROPER dust collection or wear protection if your dust collection is actually small chip collection.

http://billpentz.com//woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

[clickklick]

Thanks premal, so I have a a Laguna cyclone dust collector, and a powermatic 1200 air cleaner, but it sounds like I need to exhaust my Laguna to the outdoors. I have about a 5" hole in my basement wall right next to the collector I would use, any suggestions on how to collect the output of the cyclone air and vent it out?

I also need to open a basement window when his occurs to prevent negative pressure pulling bad things from my furnace in.

Any suggestions would be great as my shop is in my basement.

[PremalChheda]

Thanks premal, so I have a a Laguna cyclone dust collector, and a powermatic 1200 air cleaner, but it sounds like I need to exhaust my Laguna to the outdoors. I have about a 5" hole in my basement wall right next to the collector I would use, any suggestions on how to collect the output of the cyclone air and vent it out?

I also need to open a basement window when his occurs to prevent negative pressure pulling bad things from my furnace in.

Any suggestions would be great as my shop is in my basement.

I am not qualified to give actual health recommendation for dust collection setup, (because mine is not so good. more of a chip collector with a .3 micron filter) but at the very least, if you have the setup indoors vs. separate building/garage, you should have .3 micron collector and filter to prevent as much fine dust from entering other areas of your home. The problem is that most of the fine dust is created when hand sanding more than on the machines that are hooked up to dust collection.