Thinking about buying a MK2 system. It will be used in a semi-finished basement area and I’m very concerned about dust. I’ve looked at a lot of the videos and read all the discussions on dust that I found on this site. Bottom line, assuming I put in a very good dust collection system how much dust will still be left on the part/area? Mostly planning wood but some MDF work as well. Thanks in advance. Pete
@Pete1 I guess that I will start. I have a wood shop in my semi-finished basement. I have a 2HP dust collector that I quick connect to whatever machine I am using, including my Long Mill. From the dust collector, I run a 4" hose through a reducer at the LM to 2". I am using the Sienci dust boot. I made a dust boot that did a better job of sucking up chips, but it had other issues.
With this setup, there is still some dust/chips left on the material. Much depends on the kind of cuts you are doing. You will never catch them all. Since I am in my basement, I also have an air filter running to catch and trap the fines.
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Thanks for the feedback
I run my mill without dust collection and overall that’s good enough in my garage. Yes there’s a fine layer of dust on everything you don’t touch and I use that as an indicator to get rid of stuff. My wood get mostly milled i to chips that stay close to the mills workspace.
MDF however is another beast. It can’t be milled into anything other than fine dust. I have miled MDF once (spoilboard), and ended up standing there following the mill with the hose of my shop vac. I know for sure, my shop vac will be connected to the mill full time when (if) I do ever mill that demonic material again.
I rather flatten my stock than milling that glue saturated sawdust into an explosive mixture.
It gets trough everything, sticks on everything and gets into everything.
Not a fan.
A ‘very good dust collection system’ will capture 99.9999% of the dust!
Having said that, how do you quantify ‘very good’? I don’t have my Altmill yet but I do have a 5HP chip collector that moves a hell of a lot of air (6" ducting) and I have no doubt that even if there is the odd spec of dust remaining on the table, there is no way any MDF dust will remain in the shop (I vent outside). Also, if you fully enclose the mill, you will more than likely have zero problem with MDF (or any other) dust in the shop area.
If you recirculate the air (through a cyclone and then a filter of some kind) back into the shop then you will definitely get some dust into the basement even if your mill is totally enclosed. I suppose you could do HEPA filtering but the bottom line is that if you do not vent to the outside then there will be some dust and only you will be able to say what level of dust is acceptable.
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Thanks for feedback.
Thanks for feedback, I’ll look into venting outside.
I use the filter below (which I built) in addition to a Dustopper cyclone with a Dewalt vacuum.
I’ve since added four ordinary filters on top of these HEPA filters to catch the “course” dust particles keeping the HEPA filters fairly clean.
This will reduce the shop air to normal levels from “VERY POOR” within 30 minutes (measured on a Dylow air quality monitor,) but if on all the time while cutting it just keeps the particles down. (I still get fine dust in the shop, though maintenance cleaning is important to handle that.)
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