Building a Metal Dust Collector

[Niels Provos]

A lot of us spent a lot of our time in front of the grinder. I ended up getting myself a powered positive pressure respirator to breath clear air. However, the metal dust from the grinder gets everywhere. There is no surface in my shop where I don't get dust. On the other hand, dust collection for metal is surprisingly difficult. Many here use a water-based spark trap which also gets really messy. I found myself with some spare time and the desire to play with sheet metal. So, I am starting to build my own metal dust collector that does not require any water. As usual, I put this exploration on video. So, far I have built a Thien Baffle. Let me know if you have any advice or feedback.

 

[AndrewB]

Nice job on the video edits.  I'm still learning how to do them myself.  Not voice add ons.  How ever if you have access to an oxy acetylene torch with a cutting head you could use that to cut out the circle.  They cut through sheet metal like a red hot knife through butter.  I'm not sure if you have access to one of those or not.  But that might be an alternative.

[Niels Provos]

Here is part two:

 

 

 

 

[Alan Longmire]

That's some good HDR!  I caught myself squinting while you were welding. 

[AndrewB]

On 10/6/2018 at 4:21 PM, nprovos said:

Here is part two:

 

26 minutes ago, Alan Longmire said:

I caught myself squinting while you were welding. 

@Alan Longmire and @nprovos they do make welding lenses for video cameras that you can use.  It might help when you start filming your welding.  I'm not sure if that is a valid option for you @nprovos.  Its just a thought.

[Niels Provos]

Do you have a pointer to a welding lens? First time I have heard about it.

[AndrewB]

I did a quick search using the google shopping tool most of these are probably US sold but here are some ideas.

https://www.google.com/search?q=welding+lenses+for+cameras&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS802US802&source=lnms&tbm=shop&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3wr3DzYHeAhVS7VQKHTw6DUMQ_AUIDigB&biw=1920&bih=938

[Jerrod Miller]

That link did produce anything useful when I clicked on it (welding and lens related products, but not a good video lens for use during welding).  I can tell you that I looked really hard in the past for one and could not find anything suitable.  The best thing I could rig up was a camera operator holding a welding hood replacement lens in front of the camera right before welding started.  

[AndrewB]

1 hour ago, Jerrod Miller said:

That link did produce anything useful when I clicked on it (welding and lens related products, but not a good video lens for use during welding).  I can tell you that I looked really hard in the past for one and could not find anything suitable.  The best thing I could rig up was a camera operator holding a welding hood replacement lens in front of the camera right before welding started.  

That was actually all I found.  I could agree with that that even a eye piece rigged in front of the lense would work.  It wouldn’t even have to be the hole mask just the glass portion with the autodarkener

[John Page]

Great stuff Niels! This is a wonderful endeavor that I'm excited to continue watching- a very relevant application of engineering towards a frustrating problem.

Have you tried a stack of neutral density lenses? One or two of those on a small aperture with an IR filter thrown in should do the trick. I'm not sure if the ND filters measure strength in the same way as the welding shade intensity scale, but it might be worth a try.

Cheers!

[Niels Provos]

I have filmed welding before. It's just takes a lot of effort to set it up. Check this out:

 

[Niels Provos]

Here is an update. I get to try the sucker for the first time :-)

 

 

[Joshua States]

Niels, you were trying to cut that sheet with a welding tip. You should use a cutting head. You are going to love that plasma cutter too, and don't need the cutting torch head anymore. Unless, of course, your plasma cannot do thick stock. Looks like the dust collector is a success.

[Niels Provos]

On 2/11/2019 at 6:42 PM, Joshua States said:

Niels, you were trying to cut that sheet with a welding tip. You should use a cutting head. You are going to love that plasma cutter too, and don't need the cutting torch head anymore. Unless, of course, your plasma cannot do thick stock. Looks like the dust collector is a success.

I never tried to cut with a torch before. I should have read up on it - on the other hand, it was sort of amusing trying to chase the heat around the cut and seeing it clearly not working. The plasma cutter is a blast, I have been using it for lots of other purposes as well, e.g. repairing the side blast forge. Thank you.

[Niels Provos]

I made a little bit more progress on this project. Let me know what you think - it does involve some blacksmithing:

 

 

[Niels Provos]

Got everything enclosed today and just need to finish the inlet.

 

[Kerri Duncan]

Neils- Very cool build- I have watched this on your channel from the start- Bravo!

 

For your build consideration- putting several Neodymium Magnets of a fairly strong nature inside a Kydex shell free hanging in the HVLP airflow  stream  portion will collect some dust- but the particulate you may be trying to collect may be the ceramic/mineral abrasive component of the belt (non magnetic). For that- water-trapping  is still the king unless you are venting to the outside (even then it may be warranted).

 

I know in my old shop we had "dust baggies" suspended from the joists and we noticed a serious decrease in ambient dust (strong magnets in ziploc bags. It fuzzed the wi-fi signal and the cell signals a bit- but that meant more work less surfing- so it worked out.)

 

I enjoy your videos and respect your time spent sharing these adventures- as before- Bravo and awesome as usual!

 

KD

 

 

[Niels Provos]

Here is the metal dust collector painted in a high performance two tone color scheme.

 

[Brian Dougherty]

Cool! 

It almost needs a yellow "Type R" sticker...

[Niels Provos]

Here is the final video. Let me know what you think!