Dustless Technologies

[ablownranger]

Hi everyone,

I been a member to this site for sometime now but i have only posted once or twice. I mostly just sit back and read, boy is there alot of info on here. I have a 72 16' Caravell that i started ripping everything out back in the summer. Its your typical old boat that had rot everywhere. This boat was pretty much gave to me so i'm able to spend some money on it. So far I have pulled the top half off and tore out all the old wood and have done just about all the grinding. I know there will be more once I start putting it all back together tho. I had planned on doing that this winter but i fell off a ladder back at the end of Sept. and ended up with a tibal plateau fracture. So now i can't get started on the boat until i'm back on my feet. The reason i'm posting this is because i found something that some of you might be interested in. Everyone knows how much dust the grinding makes right? Well I don't have any idea if this would work but i came across this on google. http://www.amazon.com/s/qid=1228112133/ref=sr_nr_seeall_12?ie=UTF8&rs=&keywords=dustless%20technologies&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Adustless%20technologies%2Ci%3Atools The item i was looking at is # 5. Have any of you seen this or used it? Looks like it would work good for flat areas and things like that.
Well I just thought i would post this and maybe it will help someone. I plan on buying it but not until i'm able to walk without crutches and are able to move around on my knees.

 

[oops!]

Re: Dustless Technologies

the only thing i can see wrong is.....how do you see what you are grinding?

boat work is delicate.......and uasually just the edge of the grinder is in contact with the area to be ground....it is allmost never that we are "flat on a surface...so i just dont understand how we would be able to see.


there is a dustless sander.....actually a air powered long board....i was invited to try one a while back....that was after i finished all the sanding !

 

[ablownranger]

Re: Dustless Technologies

Well i was thinking you could use it after you have cut out the stringers and where the bottom of the hull is flat. Like places that need to be cleaned up. Large flat areas. I know its going to be in the way when you are working on small places. Like on my boat after i cut the stringers out there was a thick layer of resin at the bottom of them that had to grinded down to the hull. I thought it would be useful for that. To me if it only picked up half of the dust it would be worth the money.

 

[oops!]

Re: Dustless Technologies

glass dust is one of the greatest inconvieniences of this sport......its a real pita....one of the tricks we use is a big shop vac right by the area....i grabs 20 % of what the grinder throws....i think somthing like that product would work on a flat sander .....possibly a 6 inch with a sponge pad.

the only thing is that the use for that type of sander is using a finer grit like a 220 and higher so the dust level is lower.....

but still.....any thing that cuts the dust is ok in my books

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Dustless Technologies

interesting, but an expensive experiment. it would have to have a satisfaction guarantee for me to drop $100, to try it out.

 

[Cougar_15]

Re: Dustless Technologies

I found something similar at Harbor Freight for around $8, it attaches to a standard 4.5 inch grinder :

It works ok for open/flat areas and does seem to catch quite a bit of the dust but Oops! is right about not being able to see where you are grinding. I would not recommend it for any area where detail/fine control are needed. I'm using it to grind the top off of my old stringers in prep for removal, works great for that no detail and I'm a long way above the hull.

 

[sschefer]

Re: Dustless Technologies

Everything helps for sure. There are a lot of products out there that work well enough to capture most particulate matter but few are designed well enough to completely contain dry wall and fiberglass dust. The thing to pay close attention to is the filtering ability of the bag and filter, (usually indicated in microns).

Over the years I have collected quite a few Festool tools. They all use a common dust collection system. Fein is another company that makes very good tools and dust collection systems. These are the only two systems that truly contain fine particulate matter.

Please notice that I didn't say vacumm anywhere. A vacumm will not contain dust as fine as fiberglass and drywall because the prinicipal is wrong. If you don't believe that then ask a house keeper why they always dust after they vacumm.

 

[redfury]

Re: Dustless Technologies

That is something along the lines of what I was thinking of using. The difference is that I plan to run the actual vacuum out of the area I'm grinding in so that any dust thrown by it isn't clouding up my work area ( probably going to be the one advantage to working outside! )

The thing about that grinder cover is that you could open up the front end of it. If you have a good enough vacuum, it won't matter there and you can see your work area...not to mention being able to get up to the edge of your work. Our floor sanders ( edgers ) work on the same principle.