Dust bomb
That little hand blower I talked about recently has become a constant companion. It hasn’t replaced my air compressor, though, because there are still two important things it does that the…
That little hand blower I talked about recently has become a constant companion. It hasn’t replaced my air compressor, though, because there are still two important things it does that the hand blower can’t. The first, obviously, is run pneumatic tools. Although to be honest, my cordless tools are rapidly taking over that job.
The other is being able to create a strong, continuous blast of air that dust simply can’t withstand. That little blower does a great job at that, but it can’t handle the once-every-year-or-so tornadic deep clean ritual I perform.
I have a great dust collection system running to every tool in the shop, plus an air cleaner that sucks up the micro-fine powder that seems to hang in the air forever. They’re a great team, but they simply can’t get it all.
No dust system can, really, because the super-fine stuff gets into thousands of nooks and crannies not part of shop airflow patterns. I’m talking on top of shop lights and cabinets, in and around hanging tools and accessories, and anywhere else it can hide from a shop vacuum.
So once a year when the weather’s nice, I set off a dust bomb. First, I do a thorough regular cleaning, then open the slider at the back of my shop, as well as the door at the top of the basement steps. Local wind usually comes from the southwest, creating a nice draft from upstairs, down through the shop, and out the back. Boost that with a large fan placed against the sliding door screen and you can easily feel the breeze moving through.
Then, I fire up my old trusty compressor and start hosing down every high surface, working from the basement steps toward the back of the shop. The air blasts all that dust into the air where it’s carried right out the back via the draft. Usually, the dust cloud isn’t that bad; it is, after all, dust left over after a thorough cleaning, and it’s moving at a good clip out the back. But I’ve had a busy year, so the hidden dust has piled up.
You can bet that not long after shooting that photo above I opted to put on a dust mask.
A.J. Hamler is the former editor of Woodshop News and Woodcraft Magazine. He's currently a freelance woodworking writer/editor, which is another way of stating self-employed. When he's not writing or in the shop, he enjoys science fiction, gourmet cooking and Civil War reenacting, but not at the same time.
