Interesting Sanding Tool

[sailingdog]

Since Spring is here, or at least is supposed to be here... I saw something that might be of interest to those of you who have boats to sand. Even though it is meant for drywall sanding, it might be useful for bottom paint or fiberglass sanding. Probably also pretty good for sanding teak, where the dust is pretty unhealthy for you.

Sand & Kleen Dustless Drywall Sanding Dust-busting drywall sander

Sanding drywall is messy and nasty— it's hard on both your tools and lungs. With this system the majority of the dust is sucked up right at the sanding pad. The sanding head, which uses standard sanding screens, is attached to a hose that runs to the Aquair Water Filter, a five gallon bucket that has a another hose you attach to a Shop-Vac (not provided). As you sand, the dust is sucked through 36 little holes on a pad attached to the sanding head. When the dust hits the water it goes into suspension, and doesn't reach (or ruin) the Shop-Vac. Note: after a good bit of use, you will need to change the water.

You can see the item here.

[Quickstep192]

A few years ago, I had my boat hauled at a yard that mandated dust free sanding. After some grumbling, I rigged my Random Orbit Sander's dust port to a shop vac using some cheap sump pump hose. I was AMAZED how much more effective the sander was with the dust getting sucked through the holes in the sanding disk. Also, I wasn't head to toe red when I got done.

[sailingdog]

Mind you, I don't recommend sanding, especially fiberglass, teak or bottom paint, without wearing a protective respirator/dust mask and googles at a minimum... plus a tyvek bunny suit for the bottom paint and fiberglass. However, I can see that this would make clean up a lot simpler...and make the mess a lot smaller.

I also think it would work pretty well on a the dust collection port of a powered sander too.

[Faster]

Yeah, we've been hooking up our orbital to our shop vac for some time - works great as long as the filters in the vac are the right ones.

The only downside, aside from some restrictions to movement due to the hose, is the higher noise level... but there are hearing protection measures for that.

[sailingdog]

Faster-

I think the point of the water filtration is to prevent the need for filters in the shop vac. The shop vac filters tend to be expensive to replace, and this makes that pretty much unnecessary. I also think that since you'll be further from the shop vac, with this setup, that the noise level would be lower. Earplugs are still a good idea when working with power tools, unless you want to go deaf.

[poopdeckpappy]

Sander/Shop Vac worked so well for me, I sanded my entire deck in the slip, the only comment from management was to make sure I had plastic sheets from toe rail to dock finger, which I had already provided.

However, that sander above looks like a great idea and I bet you can attach your orbital sander to also

[owlmtn]

I bought a two gal. shop vac from sears, $25. It's light enough that I can attach it to my Bosch sander and, using a sling, easily carry it over my shoulder. I've used it for two years and it works great. Jim L

[toewsrus]

I've used this sander on drywall, but not fiberglass. My guess is it would work about the same.

The water does pick up most of all the dust. It leaves quite a thick layer of sludge at the bottom of the bucket. The tubes, being flexible with ridges, tend to collect a fair amount of dust in them and need a good flushing when the job is done.

I found that the water can splash out of the bucket towards the vacuum. causing a thin layer of drywall compound that hardens, if not cleaned right away, on the inside of that tube. Possibley lowering the water a little would help.

One thing I noticed was a large amount of static that built up in the tubes. It may be because it was winter and dry, but I bet it is pretty common just from the material flowing throught the pipe.

I'd still use a bag/filter on the vac as a little dust always gets though. On my vac I have "HEPA" bags. I know they're not real HEPA, but they do trap smaller dust particles.

[sailingdog]

Toewsrus-

I don't think that it was designed to catch everything... but to reduce the amount of dust that reaches to shop vac, so you're not constantly replacing the filters on the shop vac. I would guess that this would extend the usable life, in hours, of the shop vac's internal filter by an order of magnitude at least.

[CapnHand]

If anyone needs something (else) that just sits around collecting dust:http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.a...t=1,42401&ap=1