I am new to turning. I got a Jet Mini Lathe (JML-1014) for my birthday along with the bed extension. I purchased a few tools from Lee Valley and am very gung ho to start turning and learning. However, its damn cold out in the garage (shop). All of my other tools and dust collection system are out there.
My question is: (keep in mind I have never used a lathe) What type of mess does a lathe make? If it is pretty much all shavings that can easily swept up, I would be inclined to use it in my basement. However, if there is a large quantity of airborne dust (small micron stuff) that will infiltrate every crevice, duct, and eventually my family's lungs, (Not to mention get tracked all about the house) then I will have to hold off until spring.
Also, would experienced turners recommend that I learn to use the mini without the extension and then put it on after gaining familiarity? Or, is that pretty much irrelevant? Thanks for feedback.
If you are perfect and never need to sand, then no dust. If you're like most of us, you'll do a lot of sanding and create a lot of dust. A good quality air filtration system can collect a lot of the dust, but likely not all. If your furnace is in the basement, the remaining dust *will* spread throughout the house.
IMO, pretty much irrelevant.
Get out to the garage and turn some stuff to warm up!
A lathe makes quite a mess and when turn out the interior of a bowl and then look at the floor you can't understand how all those shavings were in the bowl in the first place.
Roughing out green (wet) wood creates 99.5% shavings. They are easily cleaned up with a broom and shovel but you'll be surprised how far they can fly and how they can cling to almost anything. A solution for this is to put a shower curtain arrangement around your lathe but leaving room for easy working. I have my lathe in a dedicated room off the regular shop.
Sanding dry wood is where the fine dust in created. I have a cardboard box on the end of a 4" hose off my dust collector to try and catch a lot of it. Unfortunately the nature of spinning wood and the sanding process in general means you will not get it all by any means. I also run air cleaner fans too. I don't bother to try and catch shavings with the DC because they fly in all directions so you're going to sweep anyway.
If you are smart you will wear a respirator that will catch particles at the sub-micron level. By all means whatever you do use a full-face shield and these are often combined with respirators made for turning. Do a google search for Triton and you'll get the idea if you don't already know.
You can minimize (not eliminate) what the furnace picks up by using aluminum duct tape on all cold air return ducts that are in the basement and a reasonable quality filter over any basement cold air registers that you don't want to seal. Allow part of your woodworking budget to be allocated to take your wife to dinner or whatever from time to time because you are going to track dust and the shavings that cling so well to your clothes seem to easily fall off in the living room for some unknown reason.
Buried in the above is the suggestion of what you can do now to start turning. Setup the lathe in the house and turn green wood, no dust, remember. You can rough bowls for finish turning later by leaving the wall thickness about 10% of the diameter of the bowl. You can also turn bowls to completion and even do a bit of wet sanding and then let them dry and warp into some artsy shape.
Eric, I think that you can turn frozen wood, but living in S. Florida, I don't know how much mess remains when the chips thaw out. Maybe you should try the opposite; keep the turning blank wet down with warm water. However, my advice to "ride hard and put away wet" may be as bad for wood as for horses....and not much better for woodturners or riders. :)
Eric stay out of the house. If you don't, from now on any dust in the house will be from you turning wood. Even turning in the garage or shop you will have chips that get tracked into the house. Get a wood stove or radiant heater and go do some turning, with or without the extension. Have fun and take care Leo Van Der Loo
Yes a lathe will send shavings and dust everyware within the airspace that you are working. If the garage is to cold you can turn in the basement. I can send shavings 20 feet with my lathe, on a good day. What I do is to build an enclosure around the lathe with plastic. On the jet mini a 4 by 4 enclosure floor to ceiling will work. Make an overlaping flap to enter and exit, and fit a box fan with filter into one side for ventilation. Keep a rain poncho close at hand for use inside of the enclosure and clean often. This also works to help keep the shop cleaner.
I have my lathe in the basement. In our previous house, I had a seperate shop but didn't use it 1/2 as much as now 'cause I had to go outside, trudge through snow in the winter, fire up a heater, wait for it to get warm, etc., etc. So I love the basement but until I put in a dust collector system I had a ton of dust all over the house. As others have said, it's not the turning as much as sanding and if you are just learning you will be doing alot of sanding.
Another work around if it isn't too cold where you are and you have a window, put a box fan in the window blowing out, seal around it, shut the door to the shop. It works great...sucks the air from under the shop door and causes all the air flow to go into the shop from the basement and out the window. I did that until I got the dust collector because the fan bit doesn't work when it's 15 degrees out!
Thank you everyone for your responses. I wanted to wait until several came in and now there is too much information to respond individually. I think that armed with the knowledge that you folks have given me, I will be able to work something out and get turning.
Use the lathe to determine where you would wish to place the Shower curtain. Probably your shavings may be directed slightly different from other turners. Don,t forget the back of the lathe and place the curtain if you can on your table or at least tape it to it. That's important if its difficult to get behind the lathe if its close to a wall. I find that sanding can be a major problem . Not as bad if you sand below the centre line with a fairly substantial piece of paper, I use ( mostly when hand shaving )a piece of foam backed paper about 4 x 4 inches. You can direct most of the dust downwards.Do not lathe sand in the house if you have a forced air furnace or a air heat exchanger that has a circulating vent in the room you are using unless its a vent to the outside.Otherwise dust will be circulated throughout the house.. I havn,t tried the cardboard box venting with a hose as of yet but will as other dust clearing systems are just to expensive for a hobbist..Best of luck. Enjoy!
============================ Keith, You can build an air cleaner using a 20"X20" box window fan and a pleated paper furnace air filter. Use masking tape or bungee cords to attach the filter to the back (intake) side of the fan. Place the fan/filter near the rear of the lathe in the area where most turning/sanding is done. The filter will load up with sanding dust which can be removed by vacuuming the filter or taking out side and blowing out with compressed air. Whole thing can be set up for under $20.00 (fans may be not as available this time of year, so cost may be a little higher). Running the fan on "medium" will lessen the possibility of over heating, although that shouldn't be a problem right now like it is here during a Texas summer. Good luck.
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