Daily Tip

If you've ever tried to use a compressor to blow out the dust from a fragile cutting, you know that it can be a nerve racking experience.

Here's a couple tips that may help.

First, turn the pressure down on the compressor to about 40 or 50 PSI. The regulators on most compressors turn off the compressor at about 110 psi, that is way too high for all but the most sturdy cuttings.

Secondly, put something behind your cutting to help keep fragile pieces from blowing out. I keep an old window screen in the shop for just this purpose. I know you're sitting there thinking a window screen? What good will that do.

A window screen will help to keep the air pressure from blowing delicate pieces out, by holding them in place. THe nice thing about the screen that you don't get with say a piece of scrap wood is the holes in the screen allow the air to pass through with the dust particles. If you use a board the stream of air hits the wood then spreads outward from there which may cause some of your pieces to snap off.

If you have trouble envisioning this try this. Take a piece of scrap wood and shoot water at it at about 50 psi when the water hits the wood it will explode violently outward in all directions, this is exactly the same thing that will happen with the stream of air.

For extremely delicate pieces blow the majority of the dust out before you un stack the wood, then you can use canned air (available at Walmart in the electronics section) to blow off any dust that remains.