Nothing to do with your explosion but rather your pipe. My niece wanted to make something with her uncle one day and we went out to the shop. After deciding she wanted to make a nameplate for her dad's desk we got to work with the scroll saw. Unbenounced to me while I was doing some of the more difficult cuts for her she was scooping small pinches of white oak sawdust into my Savanelli. Man did that ever taste bad ewwww. She got a good giggle out of it though so I guess it was worth it.
Puff

"sweetsawdust" wrote in message ...
Forget the dust collector the drill press is the villain here. To day while
drilling a 8" deep 1" hole with a spade bit at high speed in oak, I had an
explosion. I was about 3 1/2" deep into the hole when with a loud bang and
what appeared to be a flash, dust went all over the shop. Blinded by a layer
of sawdust covering my glasses and with the taste of burned oak (maybe from
oak dust landing in my pipe) I groped for the off switch to the drill press.
In shock I looked at my wood, which was hanging from the drill bit and it
looked fine with out my glasses on, looked fine after I cleaned my glasses
and set down for a minute too. Found some ash and smell of "smoke" in the
hole I was drilling so it must have been a real dust explosion. So dust
explosions do happen but maybe not in dust collectors.