# Apartment bedroom workshop ¯\_(ツ)_/¯



## M1k3 (Jan 7, 2020)

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment. Our unused room is being turned into a work space. Work bench is being put together. 1x30 belt and disc sander is on the way. 

I'm trying to figure out dust collection. Would a wet-dry vac/shopvac be sufficient? The work bench will be located near a window, if that makes any difference. I'm not going to be doing any big, major projects. Just the occasional handle and other odd small things. Occasionally metal will see use on it (I'm looking at you Wokshop Cleaver).

What are your suggestions experienced members? I'm looking for a compact, hopefully not very loud or expensive solution that won't drive the misses and me insane with dust or noise.

P.S. This room shares a wall with the neighbors bedroom...


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## Caleb Cox (Jan 7, 2020)

Even small woodworking can produce a crazy amount of dust. I'm in an apartment too, but fortunately I have a covered porch area where I can do my really messy stuff, which does lead to carrying tools in and out. I'd suggest looking into dust collection, OR maybe membership in a shared workspace (my next move will put me near one at last).


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## M1k3 (Jan 7, 2020)

Wish I had a patio. Unsure if a shopvac type would be enough. Even with a seperator thingamajig.


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## RDalman (Jan 9, 2020)

First off accept nothing will be "enough" running any belt sander. You will need a mask. Shopvac is probably the best solution, but never for metal with the fire hazard. Try to get a cheap shop vac that doesn't sound crazy bad. Sanding metal indoors; be prepared the metal dust will collect on all surfaces in the room, yes even every crevice of you roof. There will be cleaning to do


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## Matus (Jan 9, 2020)

To keep the rest of your apartment reasonably clean, you should build a small cabin inside your workshop bedroom AND us a dust extraction system that sucks in the dust at the grinding point and takes it through a filter that is located outside the cabin. Then as a second stage you mount a fine-dust removal outside the cabin (these guys are smaller). Total invest for the dust extraction will be around 1000 €/$.

Oce we move to a house I will build such a cabin for grinding / power sanding. It is not fun to have dust all around your workshop (especially steel dust). 

Also - @bennyprofane has build such a cabin in his workshop, so maybe he could chime in with some advice.

Plus a dust mask is a MUST but a decent half face mask from 3M is comparatively cheap (under 100 €/$ with filters).

I am running a 2x72 (and before 1x30) in a small, not well separated area and had to do my homework when a neighbor started to complain about MY dust in HIS cellar.


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## stringer (Jan 9, 2020)

I've pretty much given up on running the belt sander in the house (guest bedroom of 2 BR apartment) and am looking to join a local artist collective that has wood and metal working equipment. For now I just sharpen knives and hone razors on stones with a little bit of hand sanding. It's just too much mess and noise.


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## Barashka (Jan 9, 2020)

Metal, but even wood, dust is no joke, it'll mess your lungs right up. Do the filter thing.

Friend of mine just goes to a "local" smith, an hour away, and rents time on grinders by buying belts for them 

If you do have to have one in a house, build a box around it at least, use even standard HVAC filters if you have to .. but use something.

P.s. running your grinder at much lower speed and having a water cooler / water drip will keep the dust down .. but no replacement for a filtering system.


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## M1k3 (Jan 9, 2020)

Thanks everyone. Got some thinking to do now.


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## Yet-Another-Dave (Jan 9, 2020)

No personal experience, but I bookmarked an article that might help some:

https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/index.php?/topic/35813-belt-grinder-dust-issue/


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## M1k3 (Jan 9, 2020)

So seems to be A) Find somewhere else. B) Enclose the sander. C) Use a grow room tent...


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## jacko9 (Jan 10, 2020)

Oneida Air Systems has a variety of vac systems from the small stand alone to the wall mounted cyclone. They are easy to talk to and will help you pick out a HEPA filter system for your needs.


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## ForeverLearning (Jan 11, 2020)

I am in a two bed apartment too, when I have the belt sander running I just lay a big tarp down. Very primitive. 

If I were to sort a clean area I would just frame a 'grow room' style area and just get the hover in after every use. 

Community workshops are great though, for jobs where I don't have the tooling they're great. 1 charges £10/month and the other charges £5/hour


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## Nikabrik (Jan 11, 2020)

Luong (Bluntcut Metalworks) made a great suggestion on bladeforums a few years ago - to use 1x12" strips of ceramic belt in a Gough-style file jig. That allows you to grind hardened blanks by hand. I'm going to try it soon - I'll be drawing up a design and getting it cut and hardened by Jarod Todd.

Here's the full thread: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/file-grinding-a-bevel-post-heat-treat.1447491/


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## M1k3 (Jan 11, 2020)

I'm not making knives. My focus is on handles. The sander is for doing the rough sanding, then finishing by hand. Wish this was simpler to figure out....


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## ForeverLearning (Jan 15, 2020)

I hand sand on my dining table (rented appartment so its a piece of s***), I wouldn't worry about the clean up too much. The feeling I get from finishing a handle far outweighs the awkward clean up afterwards


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## inferno (Jan 25, 2020)

i dont do any metalwork inside. i can do it at work because the belt grinder has a built in suction system but its a 3 phase machine. 

i got a cheap hand held belt grinder 80mm wide belt or so for doing planks of wood i guess. and even that one is not usable indoors imo. 

wood indoors flies about 10x longer than steel. so i do woods indoors by simply rasping/filing/sanding over a trash basket. that captures like 90% of it. 

1 possible solution would be to get a very good cordless angle grinder (it will probably cost over 300 or so) and use flapdiscs with it. then you can use it outdoors. battery life is about 5-10 minutes or so i guess. 
you can do a lot with an angle grinder. angle grinders are very under rated in knife making. i have been using angle grinders since i was about 15y/o almost daily so for me its very accurate and precise. they are cheap and there are lots of different discs for this. and its fast.


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## inferno (Jan 25, 2020)

if only doing wood get a rasp, a coarse cross cut file and a fine cross cut, and then a very fine single cut. done. after that you need like a p400 paper. you could get by with just papers too. and then a japanese saw for the coarse work.


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## Matus (Jan 25, 2020)

The 1x30 sander you ordered will most likely have attachment points for vacuum cleaner. Use them - that helps a lot. I would recommend some kind of industrial vacuum cleaner rather than normal for home use as they are stronger and have larger surfaces of filters & bags.

One caveat - some woods have very particular smell. About a year ago I did 2 handles from Thuya burl - until this day when I turn on the vacuum cleaner I will still get that smell out.

Yet for bulk material removal a small belt saw is much more time efficient and produces just a fraction of the dust ammout. There is a ton on 250mm sized (diameter of the wheels) table-top belt saws that should cost around $300. With a good quality blade you can cut ti 1-2 mm from the final dimensions and then do the rest of the work either by hand or with the 1x30". 

I know you said that you only want to make handles, but should you want to grind steel on the 1x30" (what is absolutely possible), than do not attach it directly to a vacuum cleaner, because you can really put it on fire - that happened to me. I managed to notice it quickly and before actual fire started (though the paper bag inside the VC already had a fist sized hole).


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## inferno (Jan 25, 2020)

in my experience the industrial ones dont suck any better.. they are all rated at between 200 and 250 millibar vacuum. i guess its because at above that vacuum you can plop your eyes out or something.

my father built a real suction system for some orbital grinders. i could stick an orbital grinder upside down with that system, and it would be stuck there forever. but its was a lot more powerful than commercial systems. and its used 6 or 8, 3-400liter bags as dust containers... industrial size.

for saws i recommend japanese ones, the 2 sides ones with C/F no need for machines here imo. it only takes 1 minute to cut something anyway. and you can't "lose control" with a hand saw...


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## ma_sha1 (Jan 25, 2020)

Don’t do it inside of an apartment. I have a big basement, running with shop vac, & air cleaner. Still, dust everywhere! Luckily, wife never go down to the basement


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## M1k3 (Jan 25, 2020)

I know someone, that I trust, that's going to let me use their backyard. So most of my worries are gone. Thanks everyone.


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## Luftmensch (Jan 25, 2020)

M1k3 said:


> I know someone, that I trust, that's going to let me use their backyard. So most of my worries are gone. Thanks everyone.



Sounds like a good solution! You'll want to clean up after yourself so a shop vac (unless they have one) might still be worth considering. Or maybe you can hose it down.

A few notes... Like @Matus, says mixing wood and metal on the one 1x30 machine is a recipe for fire. I have a cheap 1x30 that I mess around on. The other thing I learnt is the way they pack the motor into these small units makes them prone to attracting metal dust (literally because of the magnets). Eventually the accumulation can cause your mains circuitry to trip. You can fix the problem by stripping the drive train & motor down and cleaning out all the magnetised metal dust (if you are confident doing that sort of thing - they are simple machines).

Other observation; be careful about steel dust staining. This also applies to backyards. If you hose it down or let it sit, it can stain concrete walkways and bricks when it rusts.


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