Dirty Pictures! . . . Well kind of. . . Sorta

[Woodman]

OK. . . Here's what my machine looks like, uncleaned after a hour and a half worth of carving. I have a two hp downdraft system that's supposed to move about 2400 cfm. . Now confess. . . I had y'all goin there for a minute, huh? What do y'all think??? Pete

[liquidguitars]

ok now lets see the bags..

LG

[www.go3d.us]

Should have seen mine, It has "I sell saw dust" written all over it. :)

[fwharris]

Well you did just a little bit! I would have jumped if this was in "gallery"".

Looks about like mine with a 1 hp DC and 30 minutes of carve time.
How much was left on the board?
I take it you did not doing any cleaning during the carve.
Is the guide plate still at your boards width?
A lot of dust and chips get blown up to the shelf before the DC can suck it down.

Now where are those pictures you were talking about?

[Woodman]

FW: The guide plate was still in place when I took the pictures. I normally use my shopvac set on "blow" to periodically clean out the dust during a carve since I like to keep the CW as clean as possible. I posted these pics to demonstrate to those who don't have a downdraft system what they might come to expect if they installed one. Whenever I use my shopvac during a carve there's a dang site less dust laying around when I'm done. Makes cleanup very quick and easy. I do tend to blow dust around and it gets on the shop floor but I'd rather have it on the floor than in the machine. LiquidGuitars: I'd oblige ya but this is a family forum, eh??? **VBG** Go3DUS: You know, I figured that the CW would make a fair amount of sawdust before I got it but [I]SHEESH[I]! I wear a mask whenever I carve, along with foam earplugs and black noise protectors and, quite often safety glasses. I look like Mr. Industrial walking back and forth to the house for a cold one. . . Neighbors probably think I'm some sort of terrorist ah reckon. . .

[fwharris]

Woodman,

You are right the DC does make a big improvement on the dust that can get into the air. I thought my shop vac with a down draft table was doing just fine until I hooked up the DC to it. BIG DIFFERENCE FOR SURE.

I use low volume air (30 psi) some times during the carve to move the dust and chips off of the board during the carve. If it is a long carve I will also stop it a few times and brush the dust off of the tray down to the DC.

Thanks for sharing and happy carven in OK..