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Many years ago in Gatlinburg Tn, I liked to go into a retail wood shop where they made furniture and other top dollar things out of mostly walnut..Back then tourists were welcome to go into the shop where employees were working at machines building furniture etc...They had several large wood lathes and were turning out all sorts of items to sell in their shop.
The thing that fascinated me tho, was the "fan blades" the lathes had on the out board end of the head shaft..As I recall, they were all hand made of wood and had four blades and in use they "pulled" air and light airborne dust away from the turner...back then, nobody wore a mask {45 or more years ago}
![Crazy Crazy](https://www.forums.woodnet.net/images/graemlins/crazy.gif) I had never seen that idea used before. There were no dust collectors like some use today.
Those blades could give you a nasty bruise if you accidentally made contact.. But it occurred to me that these days, fans could be made using flexible plastic for the blades which may be more 'forgiving" if you did make contact..and if I did much turning anymore, I would make one...in addition to using a dust collector.
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Jack Edgar, Sgt. U.S. Marines, Korea, America's Forgotten War
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As of this time I am not teaching vets to turn. Also please do not send any items to me without prior notification. Thank You Everyone.
It is always the right time, to do the right thing.
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Jack Edgar, Sgt. U.S. Marines, Korea, America's Forgotten War
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Cost of an inexpensive/expensive dust collector or shop vac better op today. Today majority of fans have cages or screens but even then not really healthy to operate while turning.
You can make an argument for no dust collection turning green wood but not dry wood. It’s not the chips that are dangerous to your health but dust particles seen or not-seen while turning or esecially when sanding. Fans would distribute dust particles everywhere.
So while a fan great for cooling the shop in warm weather, have no place around the lathe.
Bill
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(11-10-2017, 09:42 AM)Wildwood Wrote: Cost of an inexpensive/expensive dust collector or shop vac better op today. Today majority of fans have cages or screens but even then not really healthy to operate while turning.
You can make an argument for no dust collection turning green wood but not dry wood. It’s not the chips that are dangerous to your health but dust particles seen or not-seen while turning or esecially when sanding. Fans would distribute dust particles everywhere.
So while a fan great for cooling the shop in warm weather, have no place around the lathe. .................
No argument from me on the dust collection..I don't use a vac but I do wear a good mask....Back in the "olden days" before OSHA, they didn't use much safety equipment so the fans were one notch better than nothing in moving the dust away from the operator.
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Jack Edgar, Sgt. U.S. Marines, Korea, America's Forgotten War
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The Mark VII Shopsmith had a powered enclosed fan and it had small dust collection ports on it.
Glad its my shop I am responsible for - I only have to make me happy.
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Or maybe a soft silicone blade.........
It's what you learn AFTER you know it all that matters........
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I just set a small fan to the left of the headstock so it blows across both the lathe and the drum sander. I don't get ANY sanding dust on me.
We do segmented turning, not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
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(11-09-2017, 01:19 PM)Timberwolf Wrote: Many years ago in Gatlinburg Tn, I liked to go into a retail wood shop where they made furniture and other top dollar things out of mostly walnut..Back then tourists were welcome to go into the shop where employees were working at machines building furniture etc...They had several large wood lathes and were turning out all sorts of items to sell in their shop.
The thing that fascinated me tho, was the "fan blades" the lathes had on the out board end of the head shaft..As I recall, they were all hand made of wood and had four blades and in use they "pulled" air and light airborne dust away from the turner...back then, nobody wore a mask {45 or more years ago}
I had never seen that idea used before. There were no dust collectors like some use today.
Those blades could give you a nasty bruise if you accidentally made contact.. But it occurred to me that these days, fans could be made using flexible plastic for the blades which may be more 'forgiving" if you did make contact..and if I did much turning anymore, I would make one...in addition to using a dust collector.
These toy helicopters have a plastic ring connecting the blade. For the toy, they provide strength. For the lathe, they would keep your hand back.
I still think there are better ways, like dust collection, but a ring-around will keep your hand from approaching the blades from the outside in.
I tried not believing. That did not work, so now I just believe
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You can use a box fan (the kind that sits on a window sill) with a pleated furnace filter on the inflow side to draw dusty air away from the lathe and filter it. I use one in addition to my dust collector and filter mask.
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