Cleanup tip for spilled powder...is it safe?

[97th Signalman]

I know that you are never supposed to use a vacuum cleaner to clean up spilled powder. However, I sometimes get small ammounts of powder that rolls into small cracks and seams in the wood on my reloading bench that can only be removed with a vacuum.

Here is what I am doing. I used a lady's kneehigh stocking as a filter to trap the powder residue in the hose. I inserted the kneehigh into the shop vac hose and folded the open end of the kneehigh back over the cuff of the shop vac hose. I then slipped the vaccum crevis nozzle onto the hose cuff which locked the stocking in place. I then vacuumed out the cracks and crevises on my bench top. Then I removed the nozzle and took out the stocking with the powder residue trapped inside. I took the stocking outdoors and turned inside out and scattered the powder residue to the winds so it can fertilize my lawn. I am quite sure that none if the powder got past the stocking so I am not accumulating a fire hazzard in by shop vac.

All of the powder granules (flakes, sperical balls, or cylindrical granules)seem much larger than the mesh of the stocking so I am fairly confident that nothing significant is getting through.

Do you guys think this is a safe procedure or am I going to make the 11 o'clock news when my shop vac blows up?

[jmart]

I use a vac or a little cheapo paint brush. The volume inside the vac is so huge compared to the tiny amount of powder in there, I don't see a problem.

[Kurt Reifert]

Your vacuum won't blow up.
The worst that could happen is a fire. Just don't shove the vacuum into the closet right away so you'll know if something is smoldering.

[tjcoker]

I have been using a stock Dustbuster for over a year now. Nothing has blown up or caught fire on me yet.

[SuicideHz]

Noone uses compressed air to just blow it onto the floor for sweeping later?

Is that because you smoke while reloading and just ash onto the floor?

[WillC]

what kind of powder are we talking about here?

Will