This is something I just figured out. One of those things where once it occurs to you you wonder why it didn't wayyyy sooner, as it seems so simply obvious in retrospect. In fact I'd be surprised if I'm really the first to think of it, and this trick isn't already floating around out there somewhere I just haven't seen. Decided to share my epiphany with you guys, as I know the dust issue is one of the big bugbears of working with resin. For those new to resin discussions: sanding or filing resin produces dust which is chemically inert and if inhaled cannot be removed from the lungs by the body, so too much exposure can eventually cause
Pneumoconiosis and related health problems.
One of the ways people will use to manage the dust problem is wet sanding, wherein the part and/or abrasive media is kept lubricated with water. The water binds the resin dust as it's created, preventing it from entering the air. I've done that before, and found it to be problematic. It's VERY messy: water and the dust it bears gets everywhere, so once the water dries, you've got deposits of dust everywhere that need to be carefully sough out and cleaned up lest they re-contaminate the workspace. And the water is constantly drying, needing to be constantly rewetted, creating more mess, and so on. Huge PITA, IMO. Understandable why some people would want to avoid that by simply avoiding resin altogether.
The other common method is by using a dust mask or respirator. This does nothing to protect the workspace, so the workspace has to be somewhere quarantined from the regular living areas, and/or someplace easy to clean (such as a garage or patio). It also does nothing to prevent dust from getting into your clothes, arm hair, etc., which can then carry it through "quarantine". As above, easy to see why some people consider it simpler to avoid resin than to deal with that.
Third option is to just go "YOLO, MoFo!"/"Meh, it'll be fine", and roll without any protection at all. I suspect that's secretly the most popular one, but I don't think the most rational.
AAAANNNYYYway, my "big" idea was this: wet sand with glycerin instead of water.
Glycerin is thicker than water, and it doesn't slop and splash an spatter around like water, making it much easier to apply/use in targeted fashion. It dries very slowly, and when it does, it forms a sticky/slimy film instead of dissapearing altogether, so the captured dust stays captured. It is also water soluble, making it easy to clean off the parts and tools.
Oils would do all this as well, but would require degreasers/detergents to clean off the part. An oil wouldn't dry out, but glycerin dries slowly enough to make this advantage negligible within the timeframe of a single session.
I tried this out, and it worked really well. I put some glycerin in a dropper bottle, and used it to apply just a drop at a time to the tool (I like to use diamond needle files and emery sticks for most of this stuff, rarely actual sandpaper). Unlike with water, it stayed highly localized to just the work piece and the tool (and fingertips). Also unlike water, the resin dust stayed captured as a paste instead of returning to dust as the media dried/thinned. I could relax, and file away to my heart's content, occasionally re-wetting the tool as I moved about the workpiece. I eventually put a few drops of glycerin in the "natural snuffbox/coke spoon" part of my off hand, and used that to more conveniently re-wet the tool instead of going back to the bottle. The glycerin did not dry significantly during the session, but rather slowly turned to paste as it got filled with resin, and/or got wicked away though crevices to other parts of the mini.
When I was done, all I had to do was go to the sink and rinse off the mini and the file, and wash my hands. If you're using steel files, it might be good to swish the tool in denatured alcohol after to displace the rinse water, but that's the only added complication.
Basically, I think I've found the secret to eliminating resin-dust paranoia without making things messy or awkward. I can now safely file/sand resin parts in the same casual fashion as brush painting (i.e in an easy chair in front of the computer/TV).