George Koller on sun 28 mar 04
Hi Folks,
There are real experts out there on dust control so i'll keep my =
comments
to what i know - not much - but a couple of lessons we've learned from
first hand experience:
(pictures of booth & strain gage posted to yahoo by steve slatin as
noted below - thanks steve!)
#1 if you design those furnace style filters into your system make sure
you allow for the simple fact that darker glaze dust will get shook =
around
when you are spraying light colored work. we dropped our small both =
with
dust problems for an open booth but went too far....
#2 we built a nice (economical) booth from wood frames and shower=20
curtains with a table. it was "ok" and easy to clean. on the table we
positioned 4 of those saw dust collection units they sell to wood =
working
shops. a single 1HP type dust collector blower did the work. all in =
all
i think this was a decent start but NOT really well considered for dust
control.
recently (when you spend 3 hours spraying per day ideas do occur) i =
needed to get=20
more serious about dust control and decided to try wrapping thing up in=20
plastic. wrapped our wood frame and shower curtain booth up like a big
christmas present with $3.95 worth of 5 Mil (?) plastic used most of =
the=20
whole 10' by 25' sheet in one piece. nipped and tucked and even cut a=20
"flap" to fold down under the saw dust collector units. (also used =
shower
curtains to partition off a whole area of the studio for even better =
control)
this thing is now pretty darned slick - in my humble opinion - it's big =
and roomy
so yesterday's black dust does not settle on today's white pieces - but =
the air=20
now can only come in to the booth from behind me just like a much =
smaller booth
for the same size blower. total cost still much less than what we see =
on the market.
keeping the area where i stand and wave my arm around to a minimum has =
been=20
the key to improving dust control. now if i hold a foot of toilet paper =
where i=20
stand the paper is getting pulled into the booth at about a 20degree =
angle - not
a lot of flow maybe but it has made a huge difference in the dust in the =
studio. =20
now can't tell that i've spent 3 hours in the booth..... before dust =
was settling
on items in vicinity of the booth.=20
and the booth has kept an important characteristic - it is easy to clean =
- i can
just pull down the shower curtains as before from the inside. they wash
down easily with a hose and hang back up in minutes. i hated scraping =
AND it
was another dust control problem. the "sawdust collection boxes" also =
clean
easily and allow me to go for many weeks between cleanings - this =
because they
are below the work - dust will not raise up against the air current.
THE FRESH IDEA:
#1 - I'll just add that i also built a strain gage into the booth =
from parts
from a $39 scale - a 3 or 4 hour project that went very well. i can now =
glance at
how much weight my pieces have gained AS i'm spraying. this is an =
effective
tool for precision feedback that is helping me control my glaze =
thickness better
than ever before. the strain gage settles quickly and it only takes a =
second to
see what you've done. * see note below
epoxy a lazy susan race onto the weigh pan and you're ready to spin your =
pots.
the weight "to this point" compliments the visual cues, does not =
replace. smarter
to try things and see the result in the spray booth rather than looking =
at pots after
a firing and trying to remember? impossible to sort out then. this is =
working out=20
several times slicker than i thought - it turns out you can learn alot =
from the weight=20
added that is just NOT available from reliable visible cues. =20
now, after hours of use i'd compare spraying without the strain gage =
feedback to=20
driving without a speedometer... sure you can do it, but.....
now that i've gotten use to this, you could not "tare" it away from me! =
george koller
sturgeon bay, wi - door county
northport, mi - leelanau county
two great places separated by 100 miles of great lake.
George -
I did the following (1) created a Yahoo Group called "Homemade Pottery =
Equipment"
Which has a mailing address of=20
HomemadePotteryEquipment@yahoogroups.com and posted your notes and
Your photos to the group. This is an attenuated hassle (but I do not =
now have
Any web space of my own to use, and Yahoo is free, open, and loads =
reasonably
Quickly) and is nonetheless better than not having access at all.
=20
You have to 'join' the group to get access, but once you do, you can =
read
messages, post messages, and look at photos. So far I have only one
photo 'album' and it's just your three pictures, but I believe this is a =
reasonable approach, and if I'm right, other tinkerers can do the same
to put their ideas up.
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