http://www.woodreview.com.au 89WORKSHOPSof performance. Along the way I’ve been the fortunate
recipient of some sage advice on the topic. Which brings
me to my second confession. The ideas for improvement
listed below are not my own. Rather, they represent a
summary of the guidance from the broader woodworking
community that I found useful as I invested both time and
money in improving my own system.
- Extractor location and workshop layout
For those fortunate enough to be designing a workshop
from scratch there is an absolute requirement to consider
effective dust extraction as a critical element of the design.
An early consideration should be where to locate your
extractor. As noted above, I was committed to ensuring my
extractor remained outside. By nature, this ensures that
fine dust collected at the source isn’t recirculated in the
workshop environment.
Advice from a number of sources suggested that if you
only make one improvement to your system, it should be
the relocation of your extractor outside the workshop.
If you’re fortunate enough to be located in an open area
there are some low cost solutions possible that can be very
effective (photo 1) respecting that dense suburban areas
can require greater acoustic and dust management to
avoid impacting others. In my own situation, locating the
extractor outside required an acoustic enclosure to be built
(photo 2). If you can’t locate the extractor outside then
I would strongly recommend you vent the extractor
external to the workshop (photo 3).
Recognising you will never capture all fine dust irrespective
of your extraction should have you also considering
ventilation as part of your design. In warm climates,
designing a workshop that ventilates freely is much simpler.
In hot or cold environments that require air conditioning
the challenges to efficiently ventilating your workshop
increase. Opening up your workshop to natural ventilation
is a great option, but may not be possible for a number of
reasons including climate, security and noise.
Forced ventilation is the more commonly used solution
to remove airborne dust and can be relatively economic
to install. The final and most expensive solution to
removing remnant air borne dust is air filtration.
For cold climates this may be your preferred option.
I chose air filtration (photo 4) for my workshop as the
suburban location meant managing external noise was
a material consideration.
- Choice of extractor and ducting design
When it comes to choosing an extractor and ducting
it’s generally a case of bigger is better. A 2hp extractor
should be considered an absolute minimum connected to
an individual machine. If you’re intending to run duct to
multiple machines then the advice suggests you’ll need a
system of 3 or 4hp and above.
- An externally
installed extractor
in its simplest form.
A stripped down
2hp impellor with
inlet ducted through
the workshop wall.
The fine dust is free
to disperse and the
larger wood chips
are later raked for
compost. Photo:
David Bedford - Cyclones can be
noisy. Mine required
installation in a
soundproof enclosure.
Shown here with the
door open for viewing. - An indoor cyclone
system with insulated
exhaust duct being
vented through the
window in the upper
right. This ensures
there is no exhaust
dust being recycled
into the workshop. - Basic Air Filtration
System to capture
fine airborne dust.
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1
2
3