Yes you can do it very easy as was shown with the big gulp,plus other attatchments,but the big thing is the dust collector.I have a delta 1hp 650 cfm's that catches most of the dust pretty good,but I am upgrading it next year to one with about 2 hp 1500 cfm's that will do a much better job.A friend of mine has one that will suck his 7 nyr old son up if he don't watch him :laughing: that sucker will suck up anything that gets near the opening.So what it comes down to is the bigger the better. harbor frieght has one on sale right now for about 189.00 normally sells for about 249.00 I'm getting it.
http://www.harborfreight.com/2-hp-industrial-5-micron-dust-collector-97869.html
Be sure to upgrade the filter bag. Mine is set up with the Wynn 35A spun bond poly. A MERV 11 rated filter (not sure of the exact number, but finer filtration than MERV10 paper blend filters which are 99.99% effective at .5 microns) with EASY installation to most single stage DCs, especially the HF DC... Add a Thien separator inline to the system and you have the basis for good dust collection without a huge hit to your budget...
Check Wood Magazine, they FREQUENTLY these days have a coupon for the HF 2 HP DC #97869 for $139.99 which is the best price I have seen on any decent DC ever...
Now as far as effectively collecting the chips and shavings that come off of the lathe, remember that when you present the tool to the workpiece, you are doing that in front of the workpiece / lathe, and from the top. Any dust hood you can install there, would get in the way of the tool, and possibly pose a safety hazard. When you are sanding and creating the fine, dangerous dust, you are doing so from the bottom which makes the dust shoot backwards, which is where most lathe dust hoods mount (See the photos in the post above), because you are sanding from the bottom, just in case that tool gets grabbed and taken away from you at high velocity...
So the exotic chips, which should be too big to inhale, are spewing over you as you turn yes. But unless you have a contact allergy to the wood oils or something, it should be a non issue aside from shop cleanup... BUT, if you run your DC and add a hood behind, the exotic FINE dust is getting sucked up before it hits your lungs...
Now unless you somehow miraculously got your DC system, and hoods all perfect, you are going to miss some of the fine dust. You will need some sort of ambient air cleaner to protect you and your family. I use a Grizzly G0572, with a PSI primary filter (washable, the Grizzly wasn't...). I orginally used a simple 20" box fan with a 3M filtrete filter taped to it. It worked, as long as I used it close to the machine, and took forever to clear the air after particularly dusty work, if I was stupid enough to let my dust collector, oh say not run when I was cutting or whatever...
If you have any members of the family that are very sensitve to wood dust, I would also HIGHLY suggest good quality respirators... 3M has the 7500 series half mask respirators that are EXCELLENT, especially considering they offer down firing exhaust which helps keep your safety glasses from fogging up, which is one of the main reasons I tend to take respirators off...
