*Putting* water in your DC collection bin?

[Joe Emenaker]

Okay, this is probably is going to strike most of you as a horrific idea... but the more I thought about it, the more sense (or, at least, the less nonsense) it made.

Back when I was making my own Biesemeyer clone

I was cutting a lot of angle-iron and steel tubing on my RAS fitted with a metal-cutting wheel. Boy, did that thing make sparks like the dickens! I thought it was going to ignite the sawdust which had accumulated behind the RAS from earlier projects.

Well, I'm about to buy a DC and make my own cyclone for it. It struck me that I'd be *asking* for trouble if I tried cutting metal with a DC hooked up and running.

But what if I had a cyclone which emptied into a bin with a little water in it? The water would catch all/most of those sparks. Not only that, but it would be nice just for plain wood chips, since it would help keep them under control when you detatch the bid to dump it out... and it would help guard against some other DC-related fire hazards (like hitting a nail or something).

So, I figured I'd ask: Does anybody out there *do* this? Alternatively, has this been discussed before?

- Joe

[Dave Hinz]

...until the sawdust and woodchips wicked it all up.

I used to have an old Allis Chalmers tractor that had a glass jar as part of the air filtering mechanism, maybe was supposed to be filled with (what?) to catch things going by, but I think the water would rapidly turn into slightly moist sawdust and a hard cake.

[J. Clarke]

Now you end up with damp wood with an oxygen source. Can you say "spontaneous combustion"?

[Mark Hopkins]

Have you ever tried to bathe a cat?

[Andy Dingley]

IMHO, you shouldn't cut ferrous metals on woodworking machines. Brass or aluminium maybe, if you have nothing better, but steel swarf is hard to clean up and can cause a lot of wear and damage. It's also filthy stuff for things like "iron stain" on oak.

Bad idea IMHO. If you have a steel cyclone, you're asking for corrosion problems - especially if you then fill it with greenish oak dust, or something equally acidic. It wouldn't even work - the sawdust will soak up any free water, so you'd have to be adding gallons of it to have any effect.

I'd just empty the DC collector before throwing sparks into it.

[George]

I've "tried" it. Sort of. Put a dehumidifier in the workshop and forgot to turn it off while working. You know, they make paper out of wood fibers, and that's what I had in the wet cooling vanes and in and on the collection bucket.

The kind they make to catch lint from the dryer doesn't work that well, either.

[JGS]

[J. Clarke]

Flashed on a friend who loved cats and loved his wife, who was allergic to cat dander. Solution--remove the dander. So once a week he bathed six cats. Surprisingly, the cats got to where they liked their bath, would line up to be bathed, and became petulant if he didn't bathe them on time.

[Robert Bonomi]

When I was growing up, our cat felt the need to supervise people baths. Sitting right on the edge of the tub. With his tail dangling _into_ the water.

I don't recall ever finding out his opinion of a -cat- bath. But he did like to be _vacuumed_. Directly by the hose of a regular canister vacuum.

We also had a big Chesapeake Retriever who would 'shake' _on_command_ -- no, not 'shake hands', though he did that too, but after a bath. We would tell him 'stand still', tent a big towel over him, and say 'Okay, _now_ shake', whereupon he would. Was also _real_ handy when bringing him in from outside when it was raining or snowing.

[TeamCasa]

Joe, I do a fair amount of cutting and welding in my dual purpose shop. I put the DC in primarily to keep sawdust from building up and becoming a fire danger when I weld, grind or cut.

I never use the DC when working with metals. This can have very devastating results, fire being the greatest danger. A hot piece may smolder in the sawdust for a few minutes or even hours, then combust when you are sleeping!

The steel swarf, if left un-attended too, will rust the cast iron tables. It is a pain, but when switching between wood and iron work, a good cleaning is required.

I just finished a project that involved both trades. Pictures are in ABPW - A very secure cabinet.

Dave

[J. Clarke]

Never encountered a cat that wouldn't run in terror from a vacuum. OTOH, the neighbor's cat used to like to come over and get swept with a broom.

Probably a big surprise for those who can't resist giving orders to somebody else's dog too.

[Robert Bonomi]

What can I say. The cat was practically bigger than the vacuum was. Anyway, he'd just lay down on his side, and when one side was done, he'd roll over.

I don't remember how he got _introduced_ to it, but this was an _old_ green Eureka canister. It was extremely quiet, despite having a lot of pulling power. Did a _great_ job of pulling out the old winter under-coat, come spring time.

I gotta tell ya, vacuuming the livestock is a whole *lot* more efficient than having to vacuum all the furniture, rugs, etc. to pick up shed hairs.

Chesapeake's are *smart* -- _ANNOYINGLY_ smart. However, in this case, he knew the difference between 'sit' / 'shake', and 'stand still' / 'now shake'. Heck, for 'shake' (hands), if you put out your left hand, he'd use his left paw, and if you put out your right hand, he'd use his right paw. And if you then said 'the other one' he'd drop whichever paw he had up, and offer 'the other one'.

The 'stand still... OK, now shake' DID impress the hell out of any visitors who happened to see it -- almost invariably the reaction was "I wouldn't have believed it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!"

[Charles Spitzer]

under-coat,

_on_command_ --

i shower my 4 cats pretty regularly. with 2 of them, i have to bang them pretty good with the vacuum to get them to move. they're not afraid of it at all and must think i'm pretty annoying when i want them to move.

[Eric Tonks]

--------Or a great source of MOULDS.

[Old Nick]

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 13:56:33 -0400, "J. Clarke" vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

Hehe! Hate em. Had one the other day. As soon as he saw the dog he commented that she was "Juuust not overweight" (she's not overweight), and then told her to sit (which the bugger did much faster for him than for me, but hey, it was probably surprise) for no reason at all. Then he said "shake, and held his hand down to her paw. I said "She doesn't shake" ......and he just held his hand there. It felt good to see her just Sit, as ordered and look at him! .

I reckon they are just one step form the guys who can't help hitting on everyone's partner. It's a power thing.

I can understand why you get the average retriever to learn to shake water on command! However, all my dogs have learned that one. As was said it's very useful.

***************************************************** It's not the milk and honey we hate. It's having it rammed down our throats.

[J. Clarke]

My favorite in that regard was the mutt (i.e. of no identifiable breed--the closest one could narrow it down to was that it wasn't a cat) that learned a command that sounded an awful lot like "sit". He didn't know or do "sit" but sometimes if someone told him to "sit" he'd do the command that he did know.

[Robert Bonomi]

Ah. _That_ breed is often described as a 'purebred Heinz'

Then there was the time a guy took one of those critters into a bar where a bunch of dog fanciers were holding session. Who immediately start ridiculing the new arrival. Eventually, one of the guys asks the newcomer "Just _what_ kind of a dog *is* that, anyway?" The reply: "he's a Mexican Spitz." Which sets the crowd off, again. Somebody deigns to explain "There ain't any such animal." Whereupon the dog looks up, and says "Señor? Ptui!"

Mistakes _can_ happen, when you let somebody with a sever lisp try to teach him to expectorate on command. *grin*

[Mark & Juanita]

On your tractor, that glass jar was supposed to be filled with .... air. The use of glass jars as dust traps was a simple, easily replaceable mechanism for filtering air prior to the engine intake. It may also have had an adjunct oil-bath air cleaner that used oil to further trap particles.

[Dave Hinz]

Oh good, because that's what I always kept in there.

It did, indeed, have an oil-bath air cleaner. Nice little old tractor, but that magneto was a perpetual problem. It has gone to a better place now, though. (No, really, a friend who collects 'em bought it for parts to restore another of the same type).

Dave

[Robert Galloway]

Do you have any record of spontaneous combustion coming about from dried wood, subsequently rendered wet as he describes? Don't think it happens.

rhg

J. Clarke wrote: