Dust Collection / Elimination - Use of Lock Line

[Copp3r]

Hey Folks,
having been doing more and more cutting in recent months, despite the fact that I've got a tray under my table with the turbo fan purchased from this site (which is AWESOME I might add !!!) which eliminates probably 90% - 95% of the dust, I'm still finding a layer of fine black dust just about everywhere.

What really caught my attention was showering at the end of the day and noticing the black dust coming out of my nose (sorry if that sounds gross). I began to wonder two things; how much was I inhaling into my lungs and secondly... over and above the turbo fan underneath the cutting surface, was there someway of hopefully capturing some of the particulate on TOP of the table as the torch was active?

Now, I've seen this product - Lock Line - used on drill presses and the like to blow away metal shavings, etc. ...so why not use it to vacuum up dust?

So, as of today... I've made a simply mount on the "Z" axis of my system and made a loop to hold a shop vac tubing to which I've inserted some Lock Line with a "V" on the end directed towards the torch. The shop vac hose is zipped tied to the boom arm of the table and out to the vacuum which I've encased in 2" foam to help reduce some noise.

Time will tell if this will help eliminate any of the dust.

Lock Line - dust collection.jpg

Lock Line - dust collection #2.jpg

Lock Line - dust collection #3.jpg

I'm VERY curious as to what other users think about this idea or other methods in use to help keep your work environment easier on the lungs.

Cheers !

Copp3r / roger

[bigcreek]

Interesting, let us know how it works out for you.

[mdwalker]

Interesting idea but I would think there would be too much heat generated that close to the nozzle. May have to use metal parts. Plus the hot metal that gets sucked in to the shop vac may become a fire hazard. I would keep a close eye on it.