Dust and refuse removal from woodworking machines

The purpose of this pamphlet is to set forth the principles of ventilating engineering, relating to dust and waste removal from machines used in the woodworking industry.

It is addressed to factory owners, factory proprietors, contractors, and ventilating engineers, who, having problems to meet for the removal of waste from woodworking machines, may be guided by seeing what others have accomplished along this line to attain the end of guarding such machines having dangerous revolving cutting parts, removing refuse and working in a clean shop, whereby the fire hazards and operating hazards are reduced to a minimum.

It necessarily is confined to the processes and machines which are in more common use, the illustrations relating to which, with some changes, may be made applicable to many other special machines.

Helpful service has been extended by those who have permitted photographs of various devices and conditions to be taken in their factories, from which the accompanying illustrations have been prepared, and to them our thanks are extended.

HENRY D. SAYER,

Among the industries of New York State, Woodworking holds a place of principal importance.

In every city, and in many villages of the State, there can be found factories which are engaged wholly, or in part, in the sawing, dressing or shaping of lumber or wood during the process of which there is usually a large amount of waste material created.

Since the time that industry in the State of New York first developed, the production of raw building material and articles of wood has been carried on.

Wood, technically considered, is the aggregated tougher parts of the vascular bundles of seed and fern plants. Only the seed plants yield wood which is of any value as lumber and among them nearly all Woods of commerce are produced by conifers and dicotyledons; the monocotyledons produce but a small amount. In the latter class only the large bamboos and a few of the palms yield timber of any importance. Other divisions of plant life do not produce merchantable woods and are therefore disregarded in this connection.

Wood consists of a ground work, or structurally of a substance known as cellulose, permeated by material collectively known as lignin. There exist also secretions within it such as resins, gums, oils, sugars, coloring matters, balsams and mineral salts which vary in amount according to the wood and its age. In the particular kinds named herewith are found certain acids, resins and alkaloids which is the cause of terming some varieties "poisonous".

This pamphlet is prepared to serve as a guide for the construction of ventilating systems and devices to be used in connection with woodworking machines, and to remove waste material produced by them. Under the term “woodworking” are included such industrial processes as log cutting, lumber cutting and dressing, cooperage work, cabinet making, pattern making, wood carving, the manufacture of household articles, ornaments, novelties, implements, house-trim, carpenter shop work, veneer cutting, and the manufacture of smoking pipes.

In numerous establishments, new wood is not always the material which is worked. The sawing, shaping and smoothing of wood which has been painted with pigments containing lead in the form of hydrated carbonate, chromate or other form, or stained with solutions which contain sodium bichromate or certain dyes, or treated with preservatives, such as creosote, disengage a highly poisonous dust which has been found by medical inspectors attached to the Division of Industrial hygiene to have caused in several instances occupational illness among those who inhaled such dust. The removal of dust containing all of the above substances, by properly constructed exhaust systems with intakes capable of adequately catching all the dust at the place of origin, would prevent the occurrence of illness to the operators.

Sand drums, sand belts, sand discs and column sanders are extensively used in many branches of the woodworking industry to produce smooth surfaces. These devices not only create a volume of wood dust which is soft and in a state of fine division, but in addition, a considerable amount of inorganic material composed of glass, quartz, garnet, corundum, alundum and magnetite which is detached from the sand paper attached to the discs, drums and belt sanders.

These particles are sharp, angular and of irregular form, being made up of broken massive material, fragments of crystals or of both, the effect of which, when breathed, is to produce bronchitis, laryngitis and pneumonokoniosis. Therefore the removal of dust containing the objectionable irritants above referred to, should lie performed by adequate exhaust systems attached to the machines, as a means toward preventing the breathing of this material.

The amount of waste material in the form of chips, shavings and sawdust thrown off from the machines naturally varies according to the machine, the size, rapidity and manner of operation. The health hazard of the operators is one which results from the mechanical irritation to nose, throat, eyes and lungs, for the reason that the material is soft and organic, except in the case of the dust created while working the woods heretofore named which contain poisonous principles and of material disengaged from sand belts, sand drums, column sanders.


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Engineering principles and practical data relating to dust and refuse removal from woodworking machines