Any of you guys running a fan behind while you saw . I'm buying a small Honda ( 1000 watt) generator to run a fan behind me while I'm sawing .
Trying to not have so much sawdust around my being
Quebecnewf
I got my saw from a past member(gfadvm) and he had one of those big 4' fans behind him to blow the dust away. It worked well I think. My problem is that I don't have electric like he had at the mill. To do it, I have to run about 125' of extension cords, which I have done when it was really hot. Since I got power feed though, the dust is not such a problem. I stand back for most of the cut and then walk up to stop the feed at the end, so I'm not standing in the dust all the time.
One of the things I like the most about my Norwood is that I operate with a wireless remote so if the wind is against me I can just step back a bit. I also work off the loading side so sawdust is always on the opposite side.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/59254/20210801_110508.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631055465)
At my semi stationary location, Ive thought a pantograph or sliding cable arrangement (think shower curtain) and a fan mounted to the saw head would work. That way the fan would follow the operator and the fan could be smaller and aimed better than a big shop fan.
If done correctly the whole business could be easily disconnected for portable sawing.
Quote from: SawyerTed on September 07, 2021, 07:16:01 PM
At my semi stationary location, Ive thought a pantograph or sliding cable arrangement (think shower curtain) and a fan mounted to the saw head would work. That way the fan would follow the operator and the fan could be smaller and aimed better than a big shop fan.
If done correctly the whole business could be easily disconnected for portable sawing.
What about a 12v fan like they have in buses for the driver? Then you never have to be without it! (assuming you have electric start/12v on your rig).
I think @Bindian (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=profile;u=17364) does but she uses one so big it blows the sawdust out the end of the building at the same time. If the door slams behind her I am afraid it will collapse the walls with the suction. :D At least she stays cool from what I can see.
I can see where it would be nice to cool things down and keep the sawdust out of your face. Let us know how it works for you.
I have a 30" (I think) pedestal fan from Harbor Freight that I use almost constantly when sawing in hot weather. However, it's not directly behind me. It's positioned at about 45 degrees to my right blowing across me as much as behind me. It sets about 7' from me and has 3 speeds but it it usually on high. Works pretty well for me. The prevailing wind tends to blow directly at me- my worst mistake in mill layout, but I really had no choice in this. :'(
Okay. Here's my pedestal fan story.
Just before I left Cameroon in West Africa I was invited to the wedding of my maid and my gardener. I tried to hide in the back of the church but as the only white guy there several of the other maids dragged me up to the front of the church with them. We were right in front of the platform with the preacher. It was hot and the wedding took a long time. One of the deacons or assistant pastors walked over to a lone pedestal fan and was trying to turn it on but could not find the switch. I was only 5-6 ft away so in 2 steps I reached it and turned it on - and blew the preacher's notes off the pulpit and all over the stage area. Great! One white guy in the whole building! Kind of hard to hide under those circumstances. (https://forestryforum.com/board/Smileys/default/rolleyes.gif)
I sometimes put a fan behind me. It's more to keep me in clean air than to cool. I was using a large circle fan but it broke. Got a squirrel cage fan out of a furnace that I'm going to try next.
I have a 5 foot fan right behind me.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27364/Fan_Pneumatic_Tires~0.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631066860)
It blows all the sawdust away from me. It keeps me cool also.
But it is under a tarp, not inside a building like Howard mentioned. Don't know how he got a tarp and a building confused? Only Howard knows that. Maybe he got the checkerboard door in this photo confused with the tarp, fan, and sawmill and which way blows what?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27364/Sawmill_First_Tarped_Log~1.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631067722)
hugs, Brandi
I used to run a 1500 watt generator to power lights and fan as needed. Since they started all the "add on line items" to the electric bill it was much cheaper than a second service install for the small amount power used versus the actual running hours on the generator. In the winter an hour or so waiting on daylight, spring and fall not really needed unless running a power tool of some sort. A few weeks in mid summer would be the highest use here.
I maintain the electric service to my old office which is vacant. The total use for one light bulb and the DVD security system was 60KWH last month. $5.05 for the current and $23.20 for environmental surcharges and taxes plus a mandatory $18 month for garbage pickup that isn't used.
Quote from: stavebuyer on September 08, 2021, 04:52:27 AMI maintain the electric service to my old office which is vacant. The total use for one light bulb and the DVD security system was 60KWH last month. $5.05 for the current and $23.20 for environmental surcharges and taxes plus a mandatory $18 month for garbage pickup that isn't used.
That's the issue with low demand services. It still costs money to maintain the lines, read the meter, send the bill etc. Doesn't matter if you use 6,000 kw or 6 in a month, those costs don't vary.
Ours gets lumped into a "connection charge" that covers all that sort of stuff, and you pay that even if you don't use ANY power. Neighbour had that issue with his sheep shearing shed. Needed power to run the shearing plant once a year, Rest of the year it was powering an electric fence using about $1 of power a month, but with a ~$20 connection charge. A tractor powered generator and a solar fence controller might have been a better option?
Quote from: Bindian on September 07, 2021, 10:13:37 PM
I have a 5 foot fan right behind me.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27364/Fan_Pneumatic_Tires~0.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631066860)
It blows all the sawdust away from me. It keeps me cool also.
But it is under a tarp, not inside a building like Howard mentioned. Don't know how he got a tarp and a building confused? Only Howard knows that. Maybe he got the checkerboard door in this photo confused with the tarp, fan, and sawmill and which way blows what?
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27364/Sawmill_First_Tarped_Log~1.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1631067722)
hugs, Brandi
That's how I would set mine up . Directly behind me but my fan is smaller so I would raise it up to be at the height of my upper torso .
This will be a later project . Hunting season starts next week so the sawing will be cast aside.
Quebecnewf
Shed, tarp, cabin, checkerboard, cabin? This is way too confusing. :D I'm going to go saw some logs. Stay safe.
I have a furnace blower set up at about 8' off the hitch end of my mill at chest height. they move some air. I am set up in my building now so it stays there all the time. just plug it in and go. helps with sawdust and heat for sure.
I bought a little 2 stroke generator from Home Depot that you can pull 7 amps on. I run a high speed 19" diameter fan. And have a 8ft wide beach umbrella that I stay under in a heavy metal stand. I do this mainly to keep cool but I do use it to blow sawdust away sometime. Most of the time when the wind is blowing the dust towards me the fan just serves to make it swirl every which away. You definitely need a big fan if you want it to do much of anything with the dust. But that is not feasible being portable. The generator will run between 5 and 6 hours on less than a gallon of gas. It was $160 tax included free shipping delivered to the house.
Southside has a collection of those big shop fans. His antique tailgunner keeps one behind him at all times during the summer. He wouldn't last too long without it. They do make a big difference in comfort.
Wud
Yes, I run a fan behind me, all the time I'm sawing, even in the winter. I typically don't use a big barrel fan, but have a smaller one mounted up and behind me, blowing over my shoulder directly into the sawdust creating a "cone of clean air" around me.
I've ordered a 2 spd 30" fan that will move 8,000 cfm on low and 9,000 cfm on high, it's scheduled to arrive today.
My initial need is to blow the worst concentration of mosquitos I've ever had, into the next county, or at least 20+ feet away from me, but I plan to run it while sawing too when needed. I figure, if that much air is too much I'll just move the fan a few feet farther away.
I have over 6KW solar on net metering and I get money off my bill at my home for the excess my solar generates. The big issue is that once I generate more than I use they only pay me about $.026/KWH while if I use more than I generate they charge me $.18 /KWH, with all of their fees and taxes. Thus I use all I need before it goes to the grid. With all of their charges the one I object to the most is their line charge, I pay $25.57 each month to send them the power, up from $22.45 5 yrs ago. In fact I only have 1 month a year where I make less that I use, that's February, when the days are still fairly short but my electric vacuum pump for maple runs 24/7, by March I use more power in the sugarhouse but the days have gotten longer and I still make more than I use.
Those of you in drier climates likely won't appreciate this, but we've had about 2x our normal rain every month since June started. This fact made it so our mosquito population is worse than I've ever seen. For that reason I've been kept away from my project of assembling my new Woodland Mills HM130MAX. Hopefully that is over for good. As I said in my post above I ordered a 30" pedestal fan, it arrived yesterday and I assembled it. Shortly I'm heading down to where I'm trying to get the sawmill/trailer assembled. I'll run the fan, hopefully it willo blow all of the mosquitos far away from my work area. By the way, a fan, eliminated them in my sugarhouse recently was I packed 3 barrels of syrup into retail bottles and jugs, I was getting bite until I ran a 16" fan on medium from about 10' away from my work station and I then had no mosquito problems. That fan however was not enough outside to rid the work area of mosquitoes as I assembled the sawmill/trailer. This new one which blows 8,000 CFM on low and 9,000 CFM on high should be the answer. In a few minutes I'll know, I'm headed there shortly.
Success. When I got to where I'm assembling my sawmill, I still had to mount the motor , blades and guard on the fan. The pedestal was ready for them. I was over run by mosquitoes, but in the 6-8 minutes it took me to be ready to run the big fan, I kept at the task. Then, when I turned the fan on, the mosquitoes were instantly gone, as I had hoped. I got 2 more corner braces attached and torqued before it was lunch time. Then after lunch I had a "honey do" project. The next time down, the mosquitoes will not be an issue so I can work without swatting constantly. (I do you "Sawyer" mosquito repellent, it works but not well enough. Next time I'll try to remember to take some pictures.
You don't realize how much dust a fan can blow until you look at the ground about 15ft from you.
I do realize and 15' away is where my tractor can easily pick it up.
That is why I'll be using the fan, even after the mosquito issue is over for a while.