Collectiing the dust from exotic woods

[John Bertotti]

Well, the topic gives an idea of my thought and question. I use a Festool ct 26 vacuum for sanding and portable dust collection and a 1hp Jet dust collector on bigger tools. I was thinking about inline ways to collect the finer dust to use in epoxy or glues for inlaying the same wood. Maybe not a good idea. There are separators that would collect but they seem quite expensive and my money currently isn't including that in the budget. Perhaps just collecting some sanding dust is still the best approach. How do you all do it? Or do you even try? Thanks for any thoughts, it may prove to be just a silly question in the end.

[Jonathan Ward]

That's an interesting idea. I've thought about it in the past and pretty much found it to be more trouble than it's worth. You could probably do something like the world's smallest cyclone collector inline with your Festool dust extractor, but it seems like it would be really hard to maintain the purity of what was collected. Unless maybe you cleaned the sander and the hose to surgical standards between jobs.

Given the small quantities of dust needed for fillers, etc., I just grind some up when needed, then store it in little glass paint vials from the art supply or hobby store. It doesn't consume enough time or effort for me to worry about it. This approach also guarantees the fillers made from the dust will be specific to the project, not generic, so you're sure of a good color match.

[MikeEdgerton]

I wouldn't pull anything out of my dust collector because it has a multitude of things mixed into it but I have small zip lock baggies of Brazilian, mahogany, ebony, and spruce dust that I have purposely saved from past projects for future repairs. You rarely need large quantities. Years ago at a flea market near Nazareth, PA I hit a real find of a jewelry box with a real rudimentary pearl inlay on it made of rosewood that became my source for patch wood. I also collected a mahogany tray at the same sale. They both looked like they came off the scrap heap at a nearby factory where they made guitars. If they didn't I'd be shocked.

[Rob Roy]

I just put a small strip of sticky back 150 grit on the table saw table and sand a scrap of the ebony, bone, etc. I need the sawdust from. It only takes a few seconds to accumulate the dust I need. I also have an old bottle of ink that I use for blackening epoxy.

[Cameronium]

Same here....I have a bunch of small jars with different wood dust in them to make my own filler. I have even been known to take card scraper shavings (when I do a lot of it on one piece) and put it in a coffee bean grinder to make the dust finer....works pretty good, but I would never take it out of collector or anything that has been mixed.

[pops1]

I will usually make dust for filling by using a file so I am only getting the dust of the wood and no sandpaper particles. The finer the file the slower it goes, but the finer the dust. II usually have small bottles with dust in them so if I am doing a project where I am filing a piece of wood I will try keep some dust and add to them so I keep ahead.

[sunburst]

Ever since I saw this I quit saving dust and instead save scraps. Rather than scrape with a chisel ( I hate to do that and dull an edge sharpened for a different purpose) I simply use a scraper.

[Richard500]

For better color match, do any of you save sawdust samples mixed with the glue you’re using?

[sunburst]

For a better color match, using dust lighter than the wood works best for me. Walnut sapwood in glue/epoxy gives a color very close to the heartwood of the same piece. Sometimes I mix different dusts sort of like a painter does. Powdered pigments can be added and so forth.

[pops1]

I do like John and use lighter dust, Mahogany for Rosewood. Whatever you use seems to darken.

[John Bertotti]

Great thanks, everyone! Yea in my head I see a mini separator that I could have different bottles attached to and a little 1/4' hose with the ct vacuum turned way down to get the dust to separate. But it sounds like it would just be a waste of time to figure that out when it is just so easy to get what you need later on from a piece of scrap. I just need to be more diligent in saving scrap. It tends to find its way to the grill for some smoking. Mmmmm cherry. I like the end grain scrapping idea. I do have several scrapers and a couple of old handsaw blades I can use to make more. Thanks again for the thoughts and ideas!

[Exoticwoodzone]

<Removed by Moderator. Posting Guidelines violation>

[Charles E.]

You might want to keep commerce confined to the classified section.

[John Bertotti]

You just never know it was probably a bot that hit on the exotic wood tag.

In the end I just hand sanded some of the wood and brushed up the dust. Really didn’t take as much as I thought it would to fill a small spot I wanted filled. The reason I used the sanded dust was because I was already doing a finish sand anyway. I do like the idea of using the scraper.

[Tavy]

I'm not sure if this has ever been discussed/suggested before, but for super-fine gaps, so for example there may be a super fine on-the-surface-only gap between binding and wood if the binding ledge has become a bit "rounded" when cleaning up: you can apply a very small amount of thin CA, and then *immediately sand while still wet with CA* the area. The sanding dust will immediately bind with the CA and go hard in the gap straight away. Job done!

Now, I have to caution that this works better with darker and/or patterned woods as the CA will stain the patch darker.... unless you're really super careful, and get a really tiny amount of CA on there, in which case you'll just see the tops of the fibres and their true color sticking up, with only the bottoms of the fibres darkened with CA. Hope that makes sense!

Works better with heavier grade papers for some reason. So don't wait till you're on the final grade.

[John Bertotti]

Sounds like something I better practice with on a scrap piece before trying it on the real deal!

[sunburst]

Sounds like something I better practice with on a scrap piece before trying it on the real deal!

That applies to nearly everything!

[Tavy]

Sounds like something I better practice with on a scrap piece before trying it on the real deal!

Oh yes!