Best way to collect dust at work

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi to all

what is the best dust collector system ? and best fume extractor
system?

thks daniel

2

The best way to collect dust at work is to sit at your desk reading
Orchid all day, every day… ;}

3

I have a Handler dust collector made by Red Wing with the fish mouth
that comes out of the front of my bench. I fussed for a couple
months where to position the fish mouth but finally decided to the
right of my bench pen. Although it looks like it would be right in
the way I adjusted to it being there in a few days. I use it mostly
when I’m cutting small cabochons or small inlay at my bench but it
comes in handy when I’m doing a lot of work with the flex shaft. It
works well for my purposes. It’s designed for the dental industry and
has a disposable collection bag (can be sent to the refiner) and a
charcoal filter to cut down on the smell of plastics when grinding
dental appliances. I bought it from Rio Grande a few years ago and
noticed they don’t seem to carry it any more.

Here’s a picture of my setup:
http://rockymountainwonders.com/images/IMG_0339.jpg

The unit itself is the white box with red lettering in the lower
right corner of the picture.

Rick Copeland
Silversmith and Lapidary Artisan
Rocky Mountain Wonders - Colorado Springs, Colorado
rockymountainwonders.com

4

Hi Daniel,

As far as fume extraction for your shop. A more affordable method is
to install Fantech (or similar) in-line fans in duct work that is
vented outside. They move a lot of air, are compact, and run quietly.
Then run progressively smaller duct down to you bench, solder
stations, etc. You can then use aluminum dryer vent attached to a 4"
duct to place the inlet where it’s needed. For your kilns you need a
hood, usually 2’x2’x 18"deep for a standard single kiln. If it’s a
one or two person shop with 3-4 stations you can do it with one fan
and for less than $1000 even if you pay a HVAC guy to do it (they can
better calculate you cfm needs and then size the fan you need).

We use a chemical fume box for our plating fume ventilation. It’s
2’x2’x2’ and is made out of tempered glass with a chemically
resistant base, the back is slotted and then vented out the top.
These are fairly costly to buy but not hard to build if one is so
inclined.

A nicer looking and still less expensive option (but more than a
than the dryer vent) for a fume arm is to buy only the fume arm from
the Quatro Solderpure fume extracting station. That will cost you
about $90 with the blast gate. The bigger fancier fume arms can get
very expensive, $600 and up, but don’t always work better.

Mark

5

hi

I’m a beginner and would like to know if the dust collector using
filters are better than dust collectors with water filter such as
rainbow, when we are working on the bench? what are the advantage
and disadvantage of each system?

is there any better new alternative for collection of dust??

thks
daniel