Dust extractors and dust collectors ultimately do the same thing: remove dust or particulate from a workspace or the air.
Both are common in woodworking or manufacturing facilities, but they’re not the same thing.
Lapp Millwright specializes in large, high-efficiency dust collection systems for commercial facilities and businesses of all kinds, making workspaces safer and more efficient for employees and the business.
While dust extractors have their place, for most growing businesses a central dust collection system will save time, save money, and make for better business in the long-run.
- Dust extractors are essentially over-sized shop vacuums, generally small enough to be portable, and they can usually be hooked up to individual machines in a facility to grab dust immediately where it’s being produced.
- Dust collectors generally refer to large-scale, centralized dust systems with a series of tubing and ductwork that pulls dust from multiple locations inside a facility. They are far more efficient and create greater cost-savings in the long-run.
As your business grows and your facility with it, a dust collection system just makes sense.
Dust Extractor Versus Dust Collector: What’s the Difference?
Think of a shop vac sitting next to your table saw. This is the quintessential dust extractor, and for most hobby woodworkers and one- or two-person businesses, they can work just fine!
But dust extractors quickly become a burden for businesses growing beyond just a few employees and increasing output to keep up with customer demand. They can impede efficiency, create added expense with time, contribute to workplace hazards and reduced safety, and they can even damage the end-product.
Dust collectors, by contrast, offer incredible efficiency for growing business by centralizing and reducing the amount of work for employees as well as improving the work environment and quality control issues. Done well, a good dust collector can practically eliminate cleanup in the workplace, with virtually zero airborne dust and almost no cleanup directly at the machines.
Imagine no debris all over the floor, less sweeping up, and a more enjoyable place to work. That’s a dust collector.
Dust collectors work through a series of tubing and ducts that connect machines directly to a central, usually outdoor vacuum and filtration system. With high power and fine filtration, dust collectors make life a whole lot easier and safer for businesses.
The Problems With Dust Extractors
Capacity is the first issue with dust extractors.
Most dust extractors that you’ll find in woodworking shops or poly grinding shops have a capacity of about 5 to 30 gallons – the size of a few large buckets. Because of this limited capacity, employees and team members are emptying their dust extractors quite frequently (even daily), reducing their time spent on truly making products. Carrying dust bins out to the dumpster is simply an inefficiency you can’t escape with small dust extractors.
Compare this capacity to Lapp Millwright’s dust collectors, our smallest of which holds over 140 gallons, and we’ve done projects that use entire shipping containers for debris storage. The sky’s the limit with a dust collector.
Power and dust-pulling drawbacks.
With less power, dust extractors catch less debris and particulate compared to a high quality dust collection system. This can contribute to airborne hazards as well as debris that can contaminate final products, like finished wood products.
Dust collection is best measured by a CFM (cubic feet per minute) rating.
Extractors may be as high as 100-200 CFM. Compare that to Lapp Millwright’s smallest dust collector at 2,500 CFM, and some of our biggest projects have run as high as 70,000 CFM!
Safety problems with dust extractors.
Airborne particulates can lead to health hazards in the workplace, and even dust or sawdust buildup on the floor can result in slips and falls.
Airborne dust is our primary concern due to the potential for long-term consequences (and liability as an employer)!
Quality control problems with dust extractors.
With efficient dust removal at every single machine, a dust collector can help reduce the risk of product contamination – for example, with a fine finish on woodworking projects – and make machinery last longer!
A CNC router machine piled high with dust and grindings is more likely to require additional maintenance over time, in addition to contributing to product issues.
Ultimately, compared to dust collection systems, dust extractors cost your business more money in multiple ways.
While dust collectors carry upfront costs, we find that most growing businesses will save money in the long-run with a Lapp Millwright centralized dust collection system. You’ll save on:
- Additional employee time spent cleaning the shop
- Additional employee time spent removing waste from extractors
- Potential risk and liability from health hazards due to airborne particulate
- Potential risk of product mistakes due to dust or debris presence
- Added maintenance cost due to particulate and debris interfering in normal machine operation
With a high-efficiency, properly functioning dust collection system from LappMillwright, cleanup work can be practically non-existent! Our systems are perfect for:
- Fiberglass
- Rubber grinding
- Woodworking
- Cleaning products
- Poly manufacturing and grinding
- Food processing facilities
- Metalworking and machine shops
If your business is growing and you’re ready to upgrade from a small dust extractor, we’d love to connect. You’ll be surprised just how much time and money you might save.
