I am playing with kitchen knives and trying to get better at cold end shaping. I have 4 2x72 and a 2x42, as well as a pair of buffers. I have lots of space and a dust Hogg outside with ducting along the wall. I am contemplating setting up half for sitting down and half for standing, at least one to run wet. I currently just have them all lined up along the wall and lighting is not ideal. I suspect there are some tricks to getting grinders set up that makes things easier. Eventually I would like to have a separate room to control dust

Good subject Jason! I have one home built 2" x 72" belt grinder that is a dust mill and have given some thought to dealing with getting it out of my breathable.

Where are the intakes for your dust comp in relation to your grinders? I don't see sign of one in the pic. Are you trying to clean it from the shop air in general, like a typical exhaust system? 

My old 2"x 42" had a shroud on the lower (non contact) wheel with a connector I could hook the hose from my shop vac that was fairly effective but too much got away for clean shop air.

My home build isn't adaptable to that sort of collector. So I was playing around with putting the grinder in a box connected to a much stronger exhaust system. Access to the contact wheel and grinding / sharpening long blades was an issue. Believe it or not tests with a cardboard box and box window fan with flannel filters worked surprisingly well. Too flammable for use but as tests it was educational and a potential direction to explore.

When I poured the slab in my shop I put a 3" ABS plastic down draft exhaust system in, accessible through the shop floor via "gozintas" on a 4' grid. Gozintas are 2 1/8" x 2 1/8" ID square receiver tubing like you slip a trailer hitch into. They are welded into the rebar in the floor so they wouldn't get knocked out of position while finishing the floor and so I could use them to anchor a porta power for persuading steel or maybe a trailer frame to straighten our or curve as desired. 

Anyway, I made my cutting and welding table with 2" sq tubing legs that  slipped into the gozintas and smoke, fumes, etc. from my cutting or welding tables were drawn down into the floor rather than rising into the general shop air to be removed with all the WARM air in the shop via a typical exhaust van. 

For my bench work area I'd planned a 6" duct along the wall backing the bench with Ts every 4'-6' and various exhaust pickups I could insert as needed. I tested the idea by laying the stove pipe and Ts on a table and determined I needed to put a butterfly type valve (stove pipe damper) in the pickups or the exhaust flow was too fast to mig or tig weld with it in place. 

Unfortunately I blew the planning, there isn't enough drainage slope to the ABS under the concrete slab to it tended to collect enough water it didn't work worth spit. It was successful on a limited basis but disappointing and I wasn't about to build another shop to develop it further.

However the concept was decent. Were I to set up again I'd line the wall behind my grinders with air ducting and either build the grinders close enough to use ducting or flex ducting to connect to a collector shroud on and under the dust smoke, etc. making machine, bench table, etc.

If you track where most of the dust from your grinders ends up you'll have an idea where end exhaust pickups need to go, at the source but interdicting the dust stream. Make sense?

Most but not all is being thrown off the contact wheel downwards and back from the operator. NO? Of course lots is carried by the belt and thrown up and away from the operator too and I don't believe there's a good way to knock the cuttings out of the grit on the belt. A lot does get dislodged when the belt goes around the small Dia wheels so another exhaust intake should go there.

And so on.

Anyway, those are my basic thoughts on the subject I couldn't test them without making serious mods to the shop that could need to be repaired and or revised so I didn't take the system very far. It's been almost 14 years since a traumatic brain injury (TBI) took me out of the shop for a couple years and I only piddle anymore so a large system is an old memory. Now I open the vehicle door and put a box fan to blow the worst out the door. 

My drawings were all cad, the machine died and no matter what they say new programs won't work with or on old files. That's a rant for another thread.

Frosty The Lucky.

I like the idea of under the floor exhaust lines. Too bad my concrete is already here… the dust hog is outside in the compressor shed it is ducted by two four inch tin pipes overhead. You can see them coming through the wall in the photo I already posted (above my library). I never thought to get pictures, but there are 3 drops on the north and south walls. One is directly above these grinders and was part of the reason to locate them here. I have several of these drums with plans to put a cyclone on at least one and duct to grinders from it to keep sparks out of my filters. I am looking for suggestions too on setting up my grinding area for comfort. I have greatly neglected cold work for a long time and am frustrated by these wide thin blades. ( not really as thin as they need to be) I always ground standing but have seen some who grind sitting. Does it help? The janky nature of the grinder collection I have might be a factor, as is my limited assortment of belts though I feel like it mostly an operator issue. This weekend I am going to try getting some better lighting just for the grinders.

Yeah, lifting the dust and cuttings that high is a good way to sort out the light particles but leaves plenty to fall down maybe out into the shop. 

I'm thinking you're in a similar situation as I am I'd put the duct on the outside of the wall under the white board with Tees almost flush with the inside. Keeping them capped and use a short length or piece of flex pipe to plumb to the grinder. If you change grinders frequently maybe use stove pipe dampers to keep the flow rate high to the grinder you're using.

Another trick to help a not strong enough exhaust setup is to put a fan in a far corner to pressurize the shop space. You don't want to blow on your dusty machinery so you'd need a diffuser. I put a couple box, window fans in the man door and the flow of smoke and dust got sucked out the vehicle door I'd open about 4" to maintain good flow velocity.

Frosty The Lucky. 

Good Morning,

What about a Pail of Water, immediately below the Belt? 

Maybe I am being the Elephant in the Room. It is too obvious!

Neil