Ski Builders Forum

So it would be great to be able to pull the dust away while cutting the flashing from a pressed ski, and then again when profiling the sidewalls. How does everyone go about doing this?

I've been looking at HEPA certified Festool dust extractors as a way of doing this, but there are a few complications.

So there seem to be different classifications between North America and elsewhere as to what a HEPA designation defines. Here (in NA) is it is defined as filtering 99.97% of particles 0.3 micron and greater. Elsewhere it's difficult to pin down.

So my question is:‌ are American HEPA designated vacuums safe to use for composite dust removal? fiberglass, carbon fiber, etc. If someone with composites expertise could clarify on this subject that would be great! I'd really prefer not to just be aerosoling composite dust into my shop.


‌Here is a European counterpart that is composites dust compatible:
‌https://www.darkmattercomposites.com/co ... tion.html‌

These have H-class filters which trap 1 micron and greater (this is tremendously confusing as many research articles show composite dust at much smaller sizes, as low as 0.3 microns)

Change your thinking. You produce too much waste for a shop vac. Except you want to empty it all the time. Get a cyclone dust extractor. On this you can connect a standard shop vac, a hepa one or even better some big vac (can be only the motor) staying outside of your room.

On my system i fill a 100l bucket, in the same time my shop vacs bag is still empty. Cyclone works nice. You can find the parts for cheap on ebay

HEPA vacuum as suggested absolutely waste of money for this kind of job. Cyclone dust collector is a way to go. I would say at least 1.5 hp. I'm using 2 hp dust collector with cyclone attachment. If flash cutting done inside the shop which many people do outside dust collector alone is not enough you will need air filtration unit/units and proper PPE. Also, different approach if you using only hand tools to do the job like jigsaw and router downdraft table might work too