What dust extraction for sander?

racey2005

Hi, I’ve refinishing some of my old timber furniture in my garage but the sanding dust is giving me sinus problems (even when I wear a mask).  What’s the best dust extraction machine to use when sanding timber?  I use both a palm/detail sander and a random orbital sander.  Thanks

JacobZ

Hi @racey2005,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community and thank you for your question.

Most powered sanders will have a dust extraction port that can connect up to a dust extractor. I am assuming your tools will also. If not, can you let me know what tools you have so I can look into it further?

For most circumstances, a basic wet and dry vacuum is all you'll need. I have this Ryobi 20L Wet And Dry Workshop Vacuum, which I regularly hook up to the dust ports on my tools. It has served me well so far and keeps the vast majority of airborne dust at bay.

For timber dust, workplace health and safety regulators recommend using an M-class vacuum such as this Ryobi 1500W 30L Wet And Dry M Class Vacuum. This is the standard of vacuum that would be expected on a construction site.

If you are looking for the best you can get, an H-class vacuum such as this DeWALT 38L High Performance H-Class Dust Extractor is what you'd want to look at. These dust extractors are recommended when you are working with extremely fine dust, such as concrete dust.

For your purposes, I would consider investing in an M-class vacuum, but you should be fine with a cheaper, more standard, wet and dry vacuum.

Let me know what you think and if you have further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob