Laundry for shop clothes

Status
Not open for further replies.
Howard1 said:
I am not so concerned about grease as i am about glass dust from Micarta and all the other stuff we grind. If you take that into the house, even to pee, that dust goes off like a cloud. We all wear respirators in the shop. Crazy to think that the dust is safer just because the grinder is turned off.
Click to expand...
When it's grinder dust metal or synthetic its best to either vacuum it off or blow it off before you remove the respirator and or leave the shop to enter the house. I never wear clothes with that dust into the house it's a habit to blow the dust off.
 
Busto said:
When it's grinder dust metal or synthetic its best to either vacuum it off or blow it off before you remove the respirator and or leave the shop to enter the house. I never wear clothes with that dust into the house it's a habit to blow the dust off.
Click to expand...
I never thought to blow the dust off. Thanks for that. However, just a few hours ago I set my shop vac on fire from the burning residue of AEB-L grinding. That is my first experience grinding ht AEB-L. Like nothing I have seen yet. So until I replace the vac I do not have a blower. I will need some advice on how to never do that again. If anyone knows, how long does the shop smell like smoke?
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
Do a search for "spark bong" or "spark trap".
Click to expand...
Funny you say that. I read the bong posts and thought that it seemed like a lot of work for a problem that I have never had. I have watched sparks dissapear into my shop vac for months with no problems. The AEB-L fluff stuck to my blade when I was grinding the distal taper and caught fire repeaedly. I had to dunk it to put it out. The stuff is like napalm- sticky fire. I will reread the bong posts.
 
i have several heavy denim shop aprons to wear when in shop, keeps most of dust and such off other clothes. I only work with steel and wood, so a quick shake of the apron and it washes with other dark clothes.
 
Howard1 said:
Funny you say that. I read the bong posts and thought that it seemed like a lot of work for a problem that I have never had. I have watched sparks dissapear into my shop vac for months with no problems. The AEB-L fluff stuck to my blade when I was grinding the distal taper and caught fire repeaedly. I had to dunk it to put it out. The stuff is like napalm- sticky fire. I will reread the bong posts.
Click to expand...

If you have been sucking sparks in your shop vac for months and not had a fire, you are lucky. Don't let it get you too complacent, when the shop ( and maybe house) burn down one night, it won't help to say, "Gee, that never happened before!"

I compare someone saying, "I have sucked the sparks into the shop vac lots of times and never had anything happen." to someone saying, "I have had unprotected sex with lots of gals and never had a disease or pregnancy yet." Is this a chance you really want to take when the prevention isn't all that hard to do.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
If you have been sucking sparks in your shop vac for months and not had a fire, you are lucky. Don't let it get you too complacent, when the shop ( and maybe house) burn down one night, it won't help to say, "Gee, that never happened before!"

I compare someone saying, "I have sucked the sparks into the shop vac lots of times and never had anything happen." to someone saying, "I have had unprotected sex with lots of gals and never had a disease or pregnancy yet." Is this a chance you really want to take when the prevention isn't all that hard to do.
Click to expand...
That's a bit if a heavy hand. The take home value here is that this can be a dangerous business. As a new maker there is plenty that I have been trying to improve on but not everything is so readily available. I have been researching shop ventilation and still do not have a way to go forward. If information exists, short on pricy custom creations, I have not connected to it. Like everything so far it is a work in progress. But I appreciate the concern.
 
I don't meant to be heavy handed ... but new makers need to know that fires have taken many knifemakers shops.
If it is a chance you are good with taking, OK. But it needs to be thought about a lot.

As for a low cost alternative:
A spark bong costs about $10 to build, maybe nothing at all if you have some old drywall buckets, sheet metal, and PVC pipe laying around. Your shop vac connects to it. There are dozens of build threads and photos of these in Shoptalk.

A dust collector blower connected to a hose that runs outside will remove the sparks and dust very efficiently.
This blower is regularly on sale for nearly half price, and can be found on the selling sites cheap, too. -
https://www.harborfreight.com/13-gal-1-hp-industrial-portable-dust-collector-61808.html
Don't use the bag, but instead place a 10-15 foot hose on it to send the dust outside. You can run it through a wall using a dryer vent kit.
I have one I use occasionally when grinding lots of wood that I bought for $30 at a yard sale. I have a hose that runs through the wall and dumps the dust outside the forge area. This keeps the shop vac system from getting filled up with wood dust.

The two-bag type woodshop dust collector blowers can be found cheap on the trader papers and yard sales. Just take off the blower and discard the bag system ( or save it for a future rebuild with a metal dust deputy). You use the blower just as above.

A metal dust deputy ( Oneida) can be bought for less than $100 and will run with your current vacuum. Just add a drywall bucket. There are several threads on this.

Even the plastic cyclone/dust deputy units that sell for $30-50 will work, but they will get little melt spots in them as ot sparks and dust lodge. With some creative placement of screens and sheet metal, they will work good enough to keep the sparks out of the vacuum.


I also consider a good respirator a requirement for safe knifemaking.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I don't meant to be heavy handed ... but new makers need to know that fires have taken many knifemakers shops.
If it is a chance you are good with taking, OK. But it needs to be thought about a lot.

As for a low cost alternative:
A spark bong costs about $10 to build, maybe nothing at all if you have some old drywall buckets, sheet metal, and PVC pipe laying around. Your shop vac connects to it. There are dozens of build threads and photos of these in Shoptalk.

A dust collector blower connected to a hose that runs outside will remove the sparks and dust very efficiently.
This blower is regularly on sale for nearly half price, and can be found on the selling sites cheap, too. -
https://www.harborfreight.com/13-gal-1-hp-industrial-portable-dust-collector-61808.html
Don't use the bag, but instead place a 10-15 foot hose on it to send the dust outside. You can run it through a wall using a dryer vent kit.
I have one I use occasionally when grinding lots of wood that I bought for $30 at a yard sale. I have a hose that runs through the wall and dumps the dust outside the forge area. This keeps the shop vac system from getting filled up with wood dust.

The two-bag type woodshop dust collector blowers can be found cheap on the trader papers and yard sales. Just take off the blower and discard the bag system ( or save it for a future rebuild with a metal dust deputy). You use the blower just as above.

A metal dust deputy ( Oneida) can be bought for less than $100 and will run with your current vacuum. Just add a drywall bucket. There are several threads on this.

Even the plastic cyclone/dust deputy units that sell for $30-50 will work, but they will get little melt spots in them as ot sparks and dust lodge. With some creative placement of screens and sheet metal, they will work good enough to keep the sparks out of the vacuum.


I also consider a good respirator a requirement for safe knifemaking.
Click to expand...
I must have been unclear. That scared the shit out of me. I have a respirator and I was really focusing on the knife I was grinding. the only way I knew there was a problem was that I couldn't see. I took the vac outside first and then checked everywhere else for fire. It was the vac and even after I took out the bag it continued to smolder for an hour. If the fire had actually expanded my shop would have burned! I will never use a vac for that again. I am back to using an open bucket filled with water to catch the sparks. I need ventilation for dust and I will look into everything above. As always, thanks for the help. It is completely appreciated.
 
I have been using a dust deputy cyclone filled about halfway with water. My shop vac isn’t very strong though so most of the sparks still make there way into the bucket I have.

I need to find a better way though because at the end of a session my floor is still covered with metal from grinder.
 
Try a bigger collection funnel. Stronger shop vac. Blow out the shop vac filter regularly ( at least weekly). Change the filter when it gets a year old.

Another way to get more suction and airflow from a shop vac is to remove the filter altogether and connect a hose to the outlet port, and run it out a window/door/hole in the wall. You have to be using a dust deputy/cyclone type collector to do this. It is a good idea to make a window screen cover to go where the filter was to keep larger chunks from getting through to the blower blades.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top