How to Remove Sawdust from Clothes (+2 ways to Protect Your Outfit)

While woodworking is much fun, some things are quite annoying after you finish your woodworking project, and one of them is the sawdust on your clothes.

What Removes Sawdust

Removing sawdust is as easy as giving your clothes a good shake until all the sawdust comes off. This should be done as soon as your woodworking is finished. Microfiber is good for lifting all the sawdust material.

You can also use a damp microfiber cloth to remove the sawdust on your clothes. Keep in mind to just let the microfiber damp in cold water, and don’t soak it.

How do You Protect Against Sawdust?

Rather than removing the sawdust from your clothes, which might take a lot of time and energy, you can protect your clothes against sawdust in the first place.

You can wear some things during your DIY project, such as a shop apron.

An apron made of leather, PVC, or a shop apron can protect your clothes from sawdust. Sawdust can easily cling to the leather material of this apron, which is good to get your clothes free of this material.

If an apron is not enough for full protection, try to wear coveralls. This apron protects your full body with a set of sleeves and pants. It ensures that your clothes are covered so no sawdust will stick to them.

Such coveralls are usually nylon and are still comfortable to use over your clothes. However, they usually come in a fit size that might not be appropriate for wearing bulky clothes like denim.

How do You Keep Sawdust from Getting Everywhere

What is worse about sawdust is not that it sticks on your clothes and is hard to remove, but the particle of sawdust can get into your lungs and danger your health.

However, sawdust is always everywhere whenever you have your woodworking projects. So the first thing to wear when you are working with wood projects is to wear a dust mask.

Protect your lungs first, then your skin, and the last is your clothes.

If possible, it is best to use pre-cut wood for your DIY project to reduce the sawdust from sanding, sawing, and cutting your wood.

How to Get Wood Chips Out of Socks

Sawdust usually sticks all over your clothes, boots, and socks. You have to deal with every part of what you wear.

When it comes to removing the sawdust from your socks, it is harder than your clothes because of the fabric material of common socks.

You must wear long boots to cover your socks if you still get some wood chips after work. It is best to avoid exposing your socks with a combination of long pants and boots.

If you have some wood chips, shake your socks right after finishing your project. The rest wood chips left can be washed out later.

How to Control Sawdust in Garage

While it is impossible for your workshop to get free of sawdust, you can still eliminate the amount to protect your health and clothes.

If you are really into woodworking projects, why don’t you invest in the best and largest dust collector? It helps reduce the amount of sawdust in the air by working like an air filtration system.

Complete the dust collector with an air filtration system installed on your ceiling, and always have your dust mask.

These are some ways to control the amount of sawdust in your garage, so you won’t have to deal too much with this.

Can You Vacuum Up Sawdust?

Just because you already have the best dust collection system doesn’t mean your garage will be free of sawdust. After a woodworking project, it is almost impossible to be free of sawdust.

There are always some left, especially on your floors.

Vacuuming up sawdust is easier and quicker, but it is better not to use a regular vacuum cleaner as the sawdust can damage the tool over time.

Moreover, a regular vacuum is not designed to clean dust, so it will not effectively remove the sawdust from your garage.

Use a dust collector instead, which is specially designed for this purpose. It has a large filter than can catch a huge amount of dust to ensure that all the sawdust from your garage is completely removed.

How Do You Stop Inhaling Sawdust?

Inhaling sawdust is bad for your health. It will not immediately negatively affect your health but slowly damages your body over time. Before it is too late, it is better to stop your lungs from inhaling sawdust.

You need an air filtration mask, a dust collection, and an air cleaner to clean the air from sawdust, and you need to think about where you will work.

Working in a garage with an open door can help eliminate your garage’s sawdust. The sawdust will fly outside to your yard instead of staying inside the garage.

Always clean your garage after working by vacuuming the floors and wiping down all the tools with a damp cloth.

Is Breathing In Sawdust Harmful?

Sawdust contains small particles of wood, which can enter the lungs easily. The human upper respiratory system is designed to filter larger particles, while the smaller ones are usually inhaled into the lungs.

Imagine how much sawdust builds up in the lungs if you breathe it in too much.

Moreover, sawdust contains wood particles and some chemicals from glue, formaldehyde, and resins. Breathing in sawdust can cause lung cancer and asthma, while the sawdust also irritates your eyes.

It becomes worse since sawdust can also damage your skin through dermatitis and ulceration. So not only leads to high risks for your lungs, sawdust is harmful all over your body.

That is why it is essential to control the sawdust with some tools and clean the garage every time you finish working.

You don’t want to bring the sawdust home, so don’t forget to clean yourself completely before leaving your garage.