Controlling Shop Dust?

[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?

 

[Alan Gage]

I've got a big collector with permanent ducting for the big machines (or at least I will have it up again when the new shop is done). But recently I picked up an Oneida dust deputy for smaller stuff in the partially completed new shop. I should have bought one years ago. I felt kind of foolish spending $100 for the grande kit from Oneida but I just flat out needed it now and didn't want to mess around with hoses, adapters, buckets, and lids. It was money well spent and works as advertised.

I used to use bags in the shop vac for dust collection because the filters clogged so fast but this keeps almost everything out of the shop vac so I don't have to buy bags anymore. I've been using it for the track and miter saws as I prepare wood for my walls and so far it's collected 50 gallons of sawdust. Can you imagine dumping that much sawdust on the floor and then blowing it around with compressed air (equivalent of the saw throwing it around)? During that time I've cleaned the shop vac filter 3 times.

Unless it's for just a few seconds I won't run a ROS without dust collection. I have a Mirka sander that was made to be paired with dust collection so the connection is easy and it works perfectly. I actually prefer using it with a hose hooked up because the hose acts as a handle. I have literally sanded 2-3 hours solid on a cedar canoe using no mask and no respirator with no problems. No dust floating around in the air and the hull (and my clothes) are clean. Conversely just a few saw cuts on WRC without wearing a mask (and without dust collection) will give me a runny nose.

For my shop vac I have two lengths of 2 1/2" hose connected together which then steps down to one length of 1 1/2" hose. This lets me leave the shop vac in one out of the way place while I work around a project.

Alan

 

[dougd]

I sweep and push dust and shavings around a lot but in the end I wait until a warm early summer day and move a lot of stuff and hit it with the shop vac getting it out of the corners high and low and in between the cracks. Some places I need to vacuum the walls. A shop in a field means a lot of spiders and webs. Part of it laziness as I hate moving benches and the such out of the way for the yearly cleaning.

dougd

 

[Seeker]

My dad was a cabinet maker... despite a 4" duct/hood over every machine and a giant vacuum system, we had dust. about once a year, he'd open all the doors, set a fan in the downwind door, put on a respirator, and starting upwind, used his air compressor to blow out every nook and cranny in his roughly 1500 sq ft shop. we did all the shelves and drawers too. took about 4 hours, iirc, to do it all, but the shop was pretty clean when we finished.

we swept up the floor daily, or more often if needed. when he needed to spray a finish on something, he wet down the concrete portion of the floor (about 1/3 of it), sealed it off with plastic sheeting (had a giant curtain of it that rolled up, just for that), and that kept the dust down in that portion of the shop.

 

[Zac]

+1 to opening all of the doors and windows and going nuts with a leaf blower. The 36 volt (two 18v batteries) blower from Makita is the champion IMO. I should get a commission from Makita as I've had at least 4 people be so impressed by this tool that they've gone out and bought one of their own. Being so light, cordless and electric makes it just so dang handy. I use it for everything from sweeping sawdust to cleaning gutters to super-charging the charcoal starter.

That Oneida Dust Deputy looks like a real winner! I've never even seen a cyclone unit offered as a separate add-on appliance before, nor one that can be connected to a bucket or barrel of your choice.

A really cheap addition to the air quality in the shop has been a couple box fans with furnace filters zip-tied to the intake side. These scrub the air of the finer particles that the vacuums often miss and really shine in the winter when completing tasks that preclude opening windows and doors, or when using the bigger tools without dust collection. The bigger chunks will harmlessly fall to the ground but a fine 'mist' of sawdust will develop. These are by no means a substitute for some kind of vacuum, but when placed properly they make a difference in both visibility in the air and dust buildup on everything else. Filters can be found for as little as a buck each if you buy in bulk, and cheap box fans will often be under $20.

We have two Makita VC4710s, purchased to connect to electric grinders on walk-behind carriages chasing control joints in concrete slabs. Chasing, not cutting. We install polyurea joint filler after cleaning. They use two filters and automatically 'thump' the dust off of one filter at a time without pausing suction. With a bag and the HEPA filters installed, initial suction does not compare to an old, much cheaper Shop Vac we have laying around, but you actually have to clean the filters in the Shop Vac in order to maintain the CFM. On the job we will chase thousands of feet of joints and fill multiple 12 gallon bags before swapping filters. We're hoping to purchase a propane-powered concrete cutting saw paired with a propane-powered dust extractor this year and I'm definitely going to work a Dust Deputy into that setup. The Makitas do a decent job with the smaller tools such as RO sanders and power planers, especially with the extra suction garnered from standard filters and not using a bag. I wouldn't dream of hooking any of this concrete-specific equipment to a planer or a shaper, though.

Recent additions to the wood shop are a 12" table saw, 8" router (both Grizzly), edge sander (can't remember brand, auction item) and a 13" portable planer (Dewalt). Also looking to get a three-phase converter soon to take advantage of the shaper and vintage 14" table saw (Wadkin) that have been gathering dust since last summer. Needless to say, proper dust collection is needed quite badly. We don't want to install permanent ductwork so it will be a medium-sized unit on castors. Do any of you have preference for dust collector brands? Right now we're split between Powermatic and Jet. I'm going to have to put one of those Dust Deputies in front of it as well (Thanks, Alan!).

 

[Big Al]

X2 on the leaf blower or air compressor with nozzle. Do it often, let the dust settle, then sweep up

 

[Patrick Corry]

As a contractor I usually have to set up job-site tools, often in the clients home, garage, or deck to conduct woodworking projects. At minimum, I've got a tablesaw, miter saw, and usually sanders and routers onsite. I use one of these accessory switches to automatically turn on the shop vac at the same time as my chosen tool.

https://www.woodcraft.com/products/ivac-automated-shop-vacuum-switch

There are several models available, but the one I use can be configured to connect to two separate electrical circuits in case the amperage of one circuit won't handle both the tool and the vac at the same time. I've found it to be very successful in limiting (though not eliminating) dust on the job site. Often job site tools have differing sized outlets for exhaust, so I sometimes use two shop vacs (each with different diameter hoses), and often transition with aftermarket flex hose sizes to accommodate my random orbit sanders & belt sanders etc. I typically remove the dust collection bag from hand held tools and couple flex hose directly to the vac(s).

A great feature of this accessory switch is that the vacuum will remain on for 7 seconds to continue to collect dust once the tool is shut off. When the tool is turned on, the vac starts immediately.

 

[Conk]

I have an extraction system ducted to each stationary tool. Each branch is gated so that I can concentrate maximum suck to the tool in use. The gates are manual but strategically located for decent ergonomics. The system is turned on and off with an RF signal transmitted from my person.

My collector is a single stage unit, the only option I had 30 years ago. If I were doing it today, I would have a cyclone separator, but my system works well, especially after upgrading to a die-cast impeller and improved exhaust filtering.

Like Alan, I am sold on the 5-gallon Dust Deputy from Oneida https://www.oneida-air.com/dust-deputy/dust-deputy-deluxe-cyclone-separator-kit It works as advertized and catches nearly all particulate when installed inline ahead of a bagged shop-vac. I haven't changed a bag in years. It is an expensive piece of plastic at a hundred bucks, but bona fided. I have since invested in a similar separator that I found at a Home Depot for half the money. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dustopp...ia-with-2-5-in-Hose-36-in-Long-HD12/302643445 The Stopper seems to work every bit as good as the Deputy, it has a lower profile and doesn't tip over as easy as the Oneida does.

Even with my super sucking systems, dust gets everywhere, especially from sanding. I have two ambient air scrubbers https://www.grizzly.com/products/Shop-Fox-3-Speed-Air-Filter/W1690 one on the ceiling and another on wheels that can be moved close to the source. I can park it right next to the bench where I'm sanding. The one on the ceiling runs anytime I'm in the shop, both are on a timer that will turn them off up to an hour after leaving. They greatly reduce the frequency with which I have to don the respirator and blow all the nooks and crannies with the air compressor. Even after a thorough blowjob, the two air cleaners will make the shop habitable in about the time it takes to have a beer.

 

[Canotrouge]

I have 2 cheap 20x20 box fans that I instal 20x20 furnace filters in front of them and get them running a lot!! plus I dust the shop using air compressor once a week or two while I have those fans going full bore!! It does help a lot!! IT is cheap and I even read somewhere that they are actually more efficient than the big square box ceiling mount filtration system sold by a bunch of different company!!

 

[Guest]

+1 to opening all of the doors and windows and going nuts with a leaf blower.
I use it for everything from sweeping sawdust to cleaning gutters to super-charging the charcoal starter.

I have two blowers hook-hanging handy in the shop, an always charged battery op and a powerful corded electric. I agree about the everything use. Almost everything; shop benches and floors, my face clothes and head, decks and gutters, even the vented gaps on car and truck hoods below the windshield that fill with leaves and debris. Blowing leaves in the yard, not so much, a wide lawn rake is faster and more efficient.

It helps that the shop floor is smooth concrete. Helps even more that almost nothing is stored on the shop floor. Bench legs, shelving legs, and wheels touch the floor, nothing else if I can help it. All of the benches, tables and carts have receded shelving built below, so I don’t lose much floor storage space and can still blower out from underneath.

One of the little things that helps is a small cart with locking wheels, simply because it is easier for my aching back to put some of the bench top sanders on a cart and wheel them over to the open garage door. But a couple of my sanders weigh 50+ lbs, getting a bit heavy to carry around the shop. Even if I have to keep the garage door closed for cold that is my shop end dust and shavings work area, and when done I can briefly open the garage door a foot or so and blow the debris out underneath.

A really cheap addition to the air quality in the shop has been a couple box fans with furnace filters zip-tied to the intake side. These scrub the air of the finer particles that the vacuums often miss and really shine in the winter when completing tasks that preclude opening windows and doors, or when using the bigger tools without dust collection. The bigger chunks will harmlessly fall to the ground but a fine 'mist' of sawdust will develop. These are by no means a substitute for some kind of vacuum, but when placed properly they make a difference in both visibility in the air and dust buildup on everything else. Filters can be found for as little as a buck each if you buy in bulk, and cheap box fans will often be under $20.

I have 2 cheap 20x20 box fans that I instal 20x20 furnace filters in front of them and get them running a lot!! plus I dust the shop using air compressor once a week or two while I have those fans going full bore!! It does help a lot!! IT is cheap and I even read somewhere that they are actually more efficient than the big square box ceiling mount filtration system sold by a bunch of different company!!

dang I like that idea box fan and furnace filter, and will be picking up some furnace filters next hardware store run. Box fans we got. We don’t have AC in most of the house, although I run a summertime window unit in my shop for humidity control, but we have every kind of fan.

Even though there was a little ice outside this morning I am briefly running a small window fan, one of these, exhausting out a shop window.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Climatur...MI7JvjqMaI6AIVA4bICh33CAV3EAQYASABEgK9u_D_BwE

I have a third coat of spar urethane going, and with that fan set on low, a bit one pass air comes in through the opened-half-an-inch office window and out through the shop. The air is fairly fresh and I won’t lose much heat before I turn it off.

Wouldn’t hurt to find a 10 x 20 filter for that window fan, or make one. I run that window fan in the same shop window every time and the screen has two distinct fan circles.

That Oneida Dust Deputy looks like a real winner! I've never even seen a cyclone unit offered as a separate add-on appliance before, nor one that can be connected to a bucket or barrel of your choice.

I like the looks of those shop vac dust separators, maybe the $40 Duststopper Conk mentioned. Never knew there was such a thing either.

I need a new shop vac in any case, the current one is a short, wheelless non-wet-vac thing a friend gave me used a few years ago. I might set that one up with dust separator on the bottom shelf of the wheeled cart; given my degree of dust control laziness having everything from sanders to shop vac to dust separator on the same wheeled conveyance would be advantageous.

Thanks all, those are the kind of simple solutions I was looking for. I’m now unexpectedly on a mission to reduce shop dust.

 

[alsg]

A box fan? Ha. Ask your local HVAC company if you can scavenge an old squirrel cage furnace blower from their dumpster (they pull these out when they do new systems). Build a plywood box around it and slap a thick furnace HEPA filter on the front and hang it from the rafters.

Just don't let any pets or small children in the shop -- they may get sucked up to the ceiling and stuck to the HEPA filter.

 

[Canotrouge]

A box fan? Ha. Ask your local HVAC company if you can scavenge an old squirrel cage furnace blower from their dumpster (they pull these out when they do new systems). Build a plywood box around it and slap a thick furnace HEPA filter on the front and hang it from the rafters.

Just don't let any pets or small children in the shop -- they may get sucked up to the ceiling and stuck to the HEPA filter.

That is what my dad uses, the only problem with those is they are fixe, I like to be able to move mine where I crate dust, that way I get less dust in the air! I cleaned and dusted the shop yesterday, I'll use the compressor and high pressure blowing wand to dust all the shelves and beams and also to reach behind stuff on against the walls, then I sweep the floor to get rid of all the big stuff that would just clog the vacuum. The fans are running full bore and I wear a dust mask while doing this too!!
That is one thing I told my self when I built that shop is that I wouldn't let the dust pile up everywhere like in my dad's shop or like most shop I know. thick dust on every surfaces that is not used, window sills, shelfs, every containers, tool etc etc...

 

[Canotrouge]

I have a dust deputy on my shop vac(festool) and I have an other shop vac mounted on the wall over a large garbage can and a Veritas cyclone lid for the jointer planer combo machine. Not perfect but darn close!!
Mike, I have a smaller cyclone lid that I don't use, if you are interested!

 

[Canotrouge]

That is a before and after yesterday clean up, you can see the dust collector and the dust deputy on the festool vac!!

 

[Guest]

A box fan? Ha. Ask your local HVAC company if you can scavenge an old squirrel cage furnace blower from their dumpster (they pull these out when they do new systems). Build a plywood box around it and slap a thick furnace HEPA filter on the front and hang it from the rafters.

Just don't let any pets or small children in the shop -- they may get sucked up to the ceiling and stuck to the HEPA filter.

I could get a henhouse fan from a defunct eastern shore chicken farm. I worked in (and outside) a greenhouse/turtle husbandry building that had a louvered hen house tunnel fan hooked to a thermostat for summer heat exhaust. Walking past it outside when the exhaust came on would send your glasses and hat flying and almost knock you over. I learned not to set up a workstation or tools too close.

We have a couple of big box fans, I’ll give one a try with a furnace filter.

Two shop regrets I would do differently. One was a simple lack of foresight I can’t take back. The original owners of our home had a whole-house vacuum. I found it horribly inconvenient, dragging a long heavy hose around and plugging it into various wall ports, and gawd forbid something got clogged up 20 feet inside the hose. No one in my family would use it; a modern cyclonic vacuum cleaner is lighter, easier and much more effective.

The high-power motor housing and giant wall canister for that hated whole house vac was mounted in the garage. When we enlarged the shop/garage the electrician asked about it and I said “It’s all yours”. In hindsight it would have been handy left where it was, disconnected from the rest of the house and dedicated to shop use. Never even gave it a thought other than good riddance.

And, when we enlarged the shop, we had more concrete floor poured. I now so regret not extending that slab another 20 feet out past the garage door, for a contiguous “patio”, so I could roll dust making stuff fully outside the shop in fair weather.

That is also where we park the cars; eventually adding a carport roof over that pad to keep the snow and ice off the vehicles would have been easy, and enabled rolling stuff out under roof in any weather. Would have been nice just to sit semi-outside, rain or summer sun shaded, especially with friends over.

Another easy opportunity missed. The nearest to shop hard surface is a ground level deck halfway around the house, and hauling sawhorses, Workmate and tools back and forth is a PITA.

Maybe a hose bib near that shop patio too, for washing boats and cars without standing in a puddle on the lawn, or for wet sanding. Maybe someday dreaming, but it would have been cheaper and easier to have an extended slab poured at the same time.

 

[Paddlinhal]

I have a Jet filter (top notch, I bought it brand new at a yardsale for $20) at about 13' altitude that gets a lot of dust out of the air for when I'm using handheld sanders, and a Northern Tool dust collector (the one thing they have that is actually heavy duty and low cost). All my "stationary" tools are on 5" locking casters, as is the dust collector. Still working on some of the set-up, for instance the router table (don't suck from below, the router will overheat). But my favorite set-up, of course, is to move it outside on a sunny warm day.

 

[Chip]

My dust removal "system" relies on airflow through the shop. I fill the exterior door with three box fans, open the door that leads to the rest of the house, open a door to the outside in the adjacent game room, and get a pretty good breeze through the shop. The air flow limits the time available for dust suspended in the air to settle in the shop. Of course, some still does, but I can't imagine how dusty it would get without the induced airflow, and I can breath without having to resort to a dust mask.

Occasionally, I reverse the hoses on the shop vac, turning it into a shop blower. With the fans running, I blow the dust towards the fans, which very effectively transports the dust outside.

A disadvantage of this system is it brings the outside air inside. There's a wood stove in the game room, and when it is cold out I get the stove cranking to preheat the air coming through the shop. It's not very effective, but knowing the stove is piping hot provides some emotional comfort. What's worse is Maryland-summer, high-humidity, weather. The floors are concrete slab in the shop and tile on concrete slab in the game room. Moisture condenses on the tile floor. I guess the concrete absorbs the moisture on the shop floor. Walking from the shop into the game room gets dangerous and messy during summer operations. Dangerous because I've come close to breaking my arse falling on slippery wet tile. Messy because whatever was on your shoes leaving the shop becomes a slurry on the floor.

This very mild March weather we have been having has been perfect for shop-fan operation. I've been cutting a lot of sheet material for an office/library project, and the fans are pulling in air of 50-60F, perfect weather for shop work.

The advent of the door-full-o-fans harkens back to my cycling days. In bad weather I'd cycle on indoor rollers. I'd get hot! And since roller riding doesn't go anywhere, there's no cooling breeze. So, I constructed the triple box fan holder to mimic the breeze induced by cycling through outside air. Then one day I was faced with a dusty shop, dragged the fans over to the door, and the door-full-o-fans became a thing.

The band saw and the planer have vacuum ports, and I do hook up a shop vac when running those. I've created a vacuum adapter to the hand planer, too, and also will hook it to the shop vac. I've looked with envy at shops where vacuum lines are piped to all the machinery. I wish I'd long ago have installed a vacuum system, but at this point, I'm not sure I make dust often enough to warrant the investment.

 

[Canotrouge]

My dust removal "system" relies on airflow through the shop. I fill the exterior door with three box fans, open the door that leads to the rest of the house, open a door to the outside in the adjacent game room, and get a pretty good breeze through the shop. The air flow limits the time available for dust suspended in the air to settle in the shop. Of course, some still does, but I can't imagine how dusty it would get without the induced airflow, and I can breath without having to resort to a dust mask.

That is awesome but at -40 it ain't an option, not even a -10 hahaha. I'm looking at installing a Lunos HRV in the shop to help with moisture, but they are a bit pricey for e at the moment, so maybe in late summer I can get one !

 

[Iskweo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WnitgYFnE0

I made one of these this week and it works great...lots more room than the single bucket ones.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGn.....I also made this cart to go on top of the shopvac.

no more clogged filters. They both work great.

 

[Guest]

Dust extraction shop cart

I’m on a mission from the God. Or at least a dusty God, Akhlys perhaps.

The furnace filters on fans work well. An HVAC friend had some unused filters, I got a (slightly torn) 20x20 for a box fan and an intact 10x20 for the usual window exhaust fan. Works like a charm.

I made a clip-on wire hanger for the 20x20 filter, but I’m not sure it actually needs anything to attach it. With the box fan turned on that furnace filter sucks in and holds firm in place. Could be the box fan; I’ve had that beastly box fan for 30 years, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore.

P3110003 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I tried the dual fan window exhaust, which has a slightly curved face, with the 10x20 filter. No Zip-ties or clips and even on low it sucks the filter flat and sticks on the fan just fine. Filter pushed aside to better show the fan.

P3110001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Am I missing something, why do I need zip-ties or hangers/clips?

I picked up the cyclonic Duststopper Conk mentioned.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dustoppe...HD12/302643445

Maybe I just got lucky, we have a LOT of buckets and figured I’d be doing Golidlocks and the three buckets, this one’s a little too wide, and this one’s a little too narrow, but the first one I picked up, a used Deli Pickle bucket, snap fit that lid perfectly.

P3160005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

The shop vac connections got a little awkward. The connections on that dust separator fit the new wet-dry vac, perhaps designedly. The old (wheel-less) Brute dry vac I want to designate for dust cart use, not so much.

P3160007 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That short squat Brute does have a decent motor to it. I’m not sacrificing the new wet/dry vac to designated dust cart duties, and don’t need or want a wheeled vac on the bottom shelf of the cart.

Some minor adaptation for Brute to dust separator and that short hose fits fine.

P3170014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

A “universal” adaptor and a few DIY couplings made the oddball connections to the differently sized ports on various sanders and saws.
P3170018 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P3170016 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

An assortment of old vacuum cleaner tools for crevices, corners and etc completed the cart vacuum implements.

P3170019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I’ll be making considerabble dust in a few days, finishing sanding the routed edges of some seat drops, and think I’m going to like having everything plug and play on one cart. The 1” benchtop belt sander and benchtop 4 x 36 sander each weigh 50 lbs.

P3170024 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

P3170025 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

“Benchtop” is a misnomer, I like my workbenches clean and relatively dust free, so I always carried them over to the dusty end of the shop and set them on the Workmate or other platform. I’d much rather just set them on the cart and wheel them around than carry them to and fro.

My thanks to everyone for the ideas and product suggestions. I have never done much towards shop dust control before now, and those were some relatively inexpensive and easy solutions.