Controlling Wood Dust from Orbital Hand Sanders

Abstract

One of the woodworking processes most difficult to control is hand sanding. Hand sanders are used in many processes, and although traditional controls reduce the dust emissions somewhat, there are disadvantages. To overcome these problems and control sanding emissions more efficiently, a dust control exhaust plenum was designed and installed on a hand sander. Laboratory experiments compared the wood dust particle amounts generated by the sander with and without the new control operating. The plenum reduced emissions by approximately 90 percent. Field experiments conducted at an industrial hand sanding process showed that the plenum reduced emissions 56 to 83 percent by particle count and 13 to 35 percent by mass, using real-time instruments. Membrane filter samples also collected during the field test indicated an average reduction of wood dust mass of 86 percent. All of the samples collected when the control was operating were well below the former 5 mg/m³ exposure limit set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. All of the personal samples, and all but one of the point samples, were below 2 mg/m³ when the control was in use. The advantages of this control technique are that it does not affect sander performance, does not require a special sanding pad or paper, and operates with a standard vacuum source.