QUESTION ABOUT CLEAN UP??

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EricBu said:
I'm lazy. I use the air compressor to blow everything off the machines and benches onto the floor and out from under the shelves and from the corners. When all the crap is blown out into the room.......I run the Roomba. Then I pick through the Roomba bin and recover whatever good stuff I dropped...locating pins, bullets, primers...all kinds of goodies end up in there.
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Roomba? More like BOOMBA amirite!
 
As long as the debris you are sucking up do not go through the impeller (like many home vacuum cleaners) you are getting closer to the safety of a pneumatic vacuum as far as setting off a primer that got away.

This is a photo of the impeller out of a vacuum a friend blew up.
BA01ED69-833B-4EA1-AFB7-C3863E1FB20F.jpeg

I don’t know if it had anything to do with powder as just the dust can explode and has been an ongoing problem for hundreds of years. I can remember getting funny smells after finding a primer in carpet with one as a kid but never blew one up like that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_explosion

I use a pneumatic vacuum or a dust mop and pan (wood floors in reloading rooms for the last few decades) myself.
 
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I use a cheap 3 inch paint brush from harbor freight and just sweep any loose granules on the bench back into it's container. Then a wipe down with a damp paper towel every once and a while to get the fine dust.

My reloading room is carpeted so any bits that do find their way to the floor get vacuumed up eventually.
 
I used my hands, carefully, in shag carpeting picking up spilled Red Dot. ( I was burning up toy soldiers in the sandbox with it.) I then threw it in my Dad's ashtray sitting on the reloading table. (not intentionally, just not thinking. I was 12.) I was not there when he set his cigarette in the ashtray, but the result was that I could not sit down for about a week, and my dad no longer smoked when reloading. :p
 
The only issues I’ve ever had with a vacuum around the reloading area is a rare primer that escapes and gets vacuumed up with a regular vacuum. I’ve popped at least two of them over the decades when they get whacked by the beater-bar on the vacuum head. :what:

Stay safe.
 
Sunex sx1000 looks real similar to a cornwell brand air powered vac I like using at work. No experience with the sunex, but pretty cheap to try if u already have an air compressor. $40-50.
I used a regular floor vaccum when I was on carpet . Now in basement on concrete so just use broom after blowing off the bench with air.
 
Professor Gascan said:
I use a cheap 3 inch paint brush from harbor freight and just sweep any loose granules on the bench back into it's container. Then a wipe down with a damp paper towel every once and a while to get the fine dust.

My reloading room is carpeted so any bits that do find their way to the floor get vacuumed up eventually.
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The professor knows.
 
A vacuum. Today's vacuums are not the same as units were 30 years ago that just had a piece of fine cloth as a dust catcher. Besides are you going to use a vacuum to collect anything more that a few grains of powder. Go in the back yard and lite 50 grains of Smokeless powder. It will burn like a safety flare. Just don't do that to Black powder like I did some years back. I tossed a lit match into the powder while bending down. Before standing up straight, my eye brows were gone. lol
 
OHSA requires a non electric vacuum for powders flammable. Although I am not an OHSA fan I understand their reasoning. If you want to use a propane torch to clean up spilt powder on the floor go at it. I am sure that would work also.

We take some risks when we reload. Certainly I am not going to trouble myself cleaning spelt powder on the floor.
 
Depends on how much I have to clean and where it's located. Sometimes a paintbrush, sometimes a foxtail, a broom, vacuum, whatever seems the best tool for the job.

ghostbusters_2016_electronic_proton_pack_789386.jpg
 
I use an old Dust Buster type vacuum the dust never gets close to the motor to make a spark. Never had a problem...........yet.
 
74man said:
I read somewhere that if you spill reloading powder you should not use a vacuum, What does everyone use to clean up the stray powder grains on your reloading bench? I can understand if you spill a pound jar but the straggler grains that end up on the work space after reloading. I try to use a tray under my powder measure but still end up with some stragglers on the work area.
Click to expand...

I use a Dust Buster. Works great at cleaning all the brass dust and curly Q's too.
 
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