The number one question everyone always asks is dust containment when refinishing old hardwood floors or installing new hardwood floors. The perceived idea is that dust will be everywhere and that plastic must be 2 layers thick to keep everything out of the areas you want clean. The idea you need to do this is not without warrant. For many years hardwood professionals have used anything from a 1hp blower, to bags on machines and shop-vacs from home depot. I get why people are worried, I would be too! But, the Bona Atomic Trailer changes everything. Below are pictures and even a video of A-Max Hardwood’s Atomic trailer running and showing why it is the only option in dust collection for hardwood flooring.
Most shop-vacs are 100 CFM and can run just 5 feet without losing CFM’s. Even the best stand alone vacuum on the market by Clarke is 200 CFM and can run hose only at 15′ without losing CFM’s! The other bad news is once the bag/filter starts getting dust in it (almost instantly) the CFM’s keep dropping to almost nothing till it is cleaned. That means your 200 CFM’s in the first 5 min of sanding is to 150 CFM’s and after 10 min is around 100 CFM’s That is horrible and awful for dust collection. Dust will be everywhere.
The good news is that the best vacuum system on the market really does pick up 99% of the dust. No, it isn’t some made up idea that the Atomic trailer picks up 99%, it really does! The vacuum has a 27 horsepower motor that is water-cooled and runs all day without clogging and is mounted to a 14′ trailer. The vacuum hoses can reach 300 feet without dipping below 400 CFM’s. The reason CFM’s in t his vacuum are so high and always constant is because our bags are outside.
A little Look at our Trailer (we have 3 of them!) and Vacuum:
A-Max Machines + Bona Vaccuum
Our machines have all been fabricated with dust containment as well to keep our CFM’s from the trailer as high as out of the hose. To do this we created special dust shrouds around our machines. These dust shrouds actually make the machine create a suction to the floor which forces the dust even more so into the suction created by the trailer vacuum. The suction is so great that you actually can hear the air making a whistling sound as you sand the floor. This whistle really signifies just how good the vacuum is. Below are some pictures of the shrouds created for our machines.
Starting Up the Bona Atomic Trailer
Below is a video of the engine starting up. The blue round metal drum is the huge bag system that separates the dust from air.
Bona Dustless Vacuum in Action with our Drum Sander
We use the Bona Vacuum with every machine we have. Using a bag for any machine would be insane since the Bona vacuum is so good. Below is a video of Allan Jerman showing how the vacuum works and in action with the Hummel Belt Sander used on every job.
So dust, seriously there is none?
There really is so little dust made by our machines that 1 swiffer will clean your whole house, yes 1 swiffer pad used by one of employees will get all the dust off the counter-tops and cabinets. We still put up plastic if you desire for your peace of mind. The vacuum coupled with the massive blower system in the trailer keeps constant suction to all our machines.
If you want “dustless” in your house there is no question the Bona Atomic Trailer is the leader and only option for refinishing your hardwood floor. No other vacuum on the market has as much power of suction as the Bona Atomic. It is easily 400% more effective than anything else on the market.
Update 1/31/16 – We have become even more dustless with our new addition of our Oneida Vortex for our belt sander. This setup is virtually dustless at this point.
