Page 89 - Australian Wood Review №103 2019

WORKSHOPS

1. An externally
of performance. Along the way I’ve been the fortunate
installed extractor
recipient of some sage advice on the topic. Which brings in its simplest form.
me to my second confession. The ideas for improvement A stripped down
2hp impellor with
listed below are not my own. Rather, they represent a inlet ducted through
summary of the guidance from the broader woodworking the workshop wall.
The fine dust is free
community that I found useful as I invested both time and to disperse and the

money in improving my own system. larger wood chips
are later raked for
compost. Photo:
1. Extractor location and workshop layout David Bedford

For those fortunate enough to be designing a workshop 2. Cyclones can be
from scratch there is an absolute requirement to consider noisy. Mine required
installation in a
effective dust extraction as a critical element of the design. soundproof enclosure.
An early consideration should be where to locate your Shown here with the
door open for viewing.
extractor. As noted above, I was committed to ensuring my
1
extractor remained outside. By nature, this ensures that 3. An indoor cyclone
system with insulated
fine dust collected at the source isn’t recirculated in the exhaust duct being
workshop environment. vented through the
window in the upper
right. This ensures
Advice from a number of sources suggested that if you there is no exhaust
dust being recycled
only make one improvement to your system, it should be into the workshop.
the relocation of your extractor outside the workshop.
4. Basic Air Filtration
If you’re fortunate enough to be located in an open area System to capture
there are some low cost solutions possible that can be very fine airborne dust.
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 2
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. 3
I chose air filtration (photo 4) for my workshop as the
suburban location meant managing external noise was

a material consideration.

2. 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
4
system of 3 or 4hp and above.

www.woodreview.com.au 89