G
Guest
Guest
How do you keep shop dust off, or at least down to a minimum, on the stuff in your shops? Amongst us we probably have every perspective from “Never cleaned the shop” to “HEPA filtered industrial exhaust system and shop Roomba”. (Actually a Shop-Vac Roomba running around the floor after hours would be pretty cool)
I’m somewhere in between, and even with a real dust extraction system I think I’d manage to dust up the shop, and depend on other best-practices. Wheeling the benchtop sanders over to the open garage door helps. Unless it is windy. Running window exhaust fans and one pass airflow helps with fumes, less so with sanding dust, useless with a circular saw or router.
The shop vac hose adapted for those benchtop sander ports helps a lot. If I don’t, as usual, “Eh, it’s only 20 seconds on the sander” skip it. Worse, I don’t like using an RO dragging a shop vac hose, it interferes with my sander balance, touch and feel, and I think years of sander glass & resin dust helped kill one shop vac.
I have some small canoe gear and other stuff I really don’t want dust covered stored in the shop, but it is in sealed boxes. Some of the tools and materials are in (still dusty) cabinets. So far, so good.
But I usually have a few boats stored in the shop. Even the open canoes, stored gunwales down, quickly get dusty, both inside and out. So much stuff manages to settle inside the decked canoes that I eventually cut some 3” thick pink foamboard and carved out a conforming cowling groove (didn’t want the cockpit storage covers left on exposed to shop fumes and pollutants).
Best I can do to keep the shop “clean” is hope for a warm day, put away or anchor down anything loose, open the garage door and hit every object, shelf, bench and floor with a leaf blower. Twice blown if it is warm enough to keep the garage door open, the once-again after the remaining airborne dust has had a chance to settle. Eh, that second time always includes an interlude where I retrieve stuff that wasn’t anchored down quite firmly enough. Or “That’s where that washer went” fetch parts at blew out from under the benches.
Love the leaf blowers. Often as not, after a day’s sanding session, I take the battery op leaf blower outside and aim it at myself, clothes, face and head, before (and after) I take any PPE off. Kinda fun in the face, and really sheds the beard dust. Same thing working with a friend. Dare I say something about blowing each other off. TMI.
The worst of it in my shop is dust (and dead stink bugs) accumulating in the open top storage boxes.
P3020014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
I will not change storage system from those shallow no-top trays; in part because that shelving unit has 30 years of over-built sentimental history, designed specifically to accommodate shallow trays, with shelves only 6 ½” deep. I can slide a tray half way off and pick out what I need, or just pull the tray out onto the bench if I need to sort through.
Cleanliness is next to happiness. The shop is only three steps through a mud room into the house; I can’t be tracking and shedding dust when I go inside, especially since that is one of the floors I vacuum.
OK, I know I am kinda anal about at least having clean shop benches and floors, and clothes and shoes Maybe I’m overlooking some helpful practice or technique.
What is your shop dust strategy?
I’m somewhere in between, and even with a real dust extraction system I think I’d manage to dust up the shop, and depend on other best-practices. Wheeling the benchtop sanders over to the open garage door helps. Unless it is windy. Running window exhaust fans and one pass airflow helps with fumes, less so with sanding dust, useless with a circular saw or router.
The shop vac hose adapted for those benchtop sander ports helps a lot. If I don’t, as usual, “Eh, it’s only 20 seconds on the sander” skip it. Worse, I don’t like using an RO dragging a shop vac hose, it interferes with my sander balance, touch and feel, and I think years of sander glass & resin dust helped kill one shop vac.
I have some small canoe gear and other stuff I really don’t want dust covered stored in the shop, but it is in sealed boxes. Some of the tools and materials are in (still dusty) cabinets. So far, so good.
But I usually have a few boats stored in the shop. Even the open canoes, stored gunwales down, quickly get dusty, both inside and out. So much stuff manages to settle inside the decked canoes that I eventually cut some 3” thick pink foamboard and carved out a conforming cowling groove (didn’t want the cockpit storage covers left on exposed to shop fumes and pollutants).
Best I can do to keep the shop “clean” is hope for a warm day, put away or anchor down anything loose, open the garage door and hit every object, shelf, bench and floor with a leaf blower. Twice blown if it is warm enough to keep the garage door open, the once-again after the remaining airborne dust has had a chance to settle. Eh, that second time always includes an interlude where I retrieve stuff that wasn’t anchored down quite firmly enough. Or “That’s where that washer went” fetch parts at blew out from under the benches.
Love the leaf blowers. Often as not, after a day’s sanding session, I take the battery op leaf blower outside and aim it at myself, clothes, face and head, before (and after) I take any PPE off. Kinda fun in the face, and really sheds the beard dust. Same thing working with a friend. Dare I say something about blowing each other off. TMI.
The worst of it in my shop is dust (and dead stink bugs) accumulating in the open top storage boxes.

I will not change storage system from those shallow no-top trays; in part because that shelving unit has 30 years of over-built sentimental history, designed specifically to accommodate shallow trays, with shelves only 6 ½” deep. I can slide a tray half way off and pick out what I need, or just pull the tray out onto the bench if I need to sort through.
Cleanliness is next to happiness. The shop is only three steps through a mud room into the house; I can’t be tracking and shedding dust when I go inside, especially since that is one of the floors I vacuum.
OK, I know I am kinda anal about at least having clean shop benches and floors, and clothes and shoes Maybe I’m overlooking some helpful practice or technique.
What is your shop dust strategy?