Dustless Bits

By Marcus Kirkwood

September 23, 2017, was the grumpiest day the world of construction has seen in a very long time. On that day, OSHA sent their enforcement crews out with a new tool/fine in their belt. OSHA is a self-funded organization. In other words, they pay their bills with your money from your mistakes or lack of compliance. Out of the gate, you’ll end up with a $12,675 fine…for each violation. Yes, you can have multiple violations in one inspection. The fines can add up in a hurry, and they’ll stick you with a $126,749 fine for ‘willful or repeated violations.’ Good luck with that argument.

There’s a much cheaper way to avoid these fines, and more importantly, keep your crews healthy and safe. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean that silica dust, that can’t get out of your lungs once it’s there, won’t kill you. The stuff is toxic for humans, so how do we protect ourselves?

Every power tool company in America came out with a special HEPA vac that collects dust with a special, self-cleaning HEPA filter, certain CFM rating, trigger initiated vacuums and all kinds of other bells and whistles. (Check out our last article on that here). We’ve chosen to stock the Bosch 9 Gallon vac as the starting place for compliance. There are all kinds of accessories and attachments that you can get your hands on. Here’s my favorite:

Eliminate all the accessories and run hollow carbide bits. You choose how to spend your money. We stock both Driltec and Bosch’s versions of a hollow bit. Use the attachments that come with your vacuum, and both of these options will connect to any vacuum out there. The best part is, it’s plug and play. Hook up your hose, run your SDS Max or SDS Plus drill, and every bit of dust you cut with this bit, goes directly into your vacuum, keep you and your team safe and compliant. Stop putting a giant dust extracting attachment on a concrete wall and hoping you hit your hole location perfectly. Do it the easy way and cut down on mistakes. Don’t believe me? Check out this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLYaCpkaHl0

Keep your money in your pocket and keep dust out of your peoples’ lungs and off their clothes. When they go home, they just expose their kids. Do the right thing, and invest in the long term safety of the families helping build our cities.