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Howdy all,
Our garage is 20×25 feet, and the last eight feet of the slab were raised a couple of inches for a shop area, effectively making an 8×20 foot area for my workbench, shelves, tools, etc. My question is this: things like table saws, crosscut saws, and such tend to generate a tremendous amount of sawdust. Should I plan on taking these tools outside when using them? Does anyone have a good suggestion as to a layout? Should I plan on having a giant vacuum system? Blow the shop out after each use?
I am still in the planning stages so I have a fair bit of flexibility at this point.
Thanks for help!
Cheers,
– Gary
Replies
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whole shop vacuum systems exist.
using your shop-vac, with an attachement to the machine works for some.
I have a 2-stroke leaf blower and find that works great once in a while, to get the leaves, woodsies and other crap out of there (got the idea from Carl Spackler, Bill Murray's character in Caddy Shack - saw the movie, ran outside and tried it and never looked back!).
Of course, using the leaf blower makes an even bigger mess, but it does push it all out of the door (wear a respirator for when you are standing inside the cloud and trying to push it out the door).
Once you get the technique you learn when to sweep and when to blow (makes smaller cloud and gets the rest of the neighborhood less dusty).
*In my part of the country, working outside can get very soggy and cold for many months of the year. There are a number of dust collection systems available from several different suppliers. Jet, Delta, Grizzly, and a number of others have systems starting at about double or triple the price of a decent shop vac. These systems are typically just a blower with 3" or 4" ducts bringing material from the saw or other equipment and then propelling this into a couple of cloth bags where most of the chips and sawdust is retained and the air excapes. Some bags trap more sawdust than others. Some other systems use a drum or trans can to catch the larger chips but usually have a bag to filter the air. Unless safeguards are taken, there can be a minor chance of sparks or static eletricity igniting the fine sawdust. The sparks can be a problem if you cut through metal and the fine metal shavings hit the steel blades of the fan. I have not set up my shop but I have a small Delta unit that sits on a drum to capture the larger particles and I will exhaust to the outside so I probably won't use a bag. This unit has an aluminum impeller to guard against possible sparks. Be warned that most of these dust collection systems are even louder than most shop vacs...You can search on most power tool sites and find prices for the dust collection systems. You can also search on http://www.google.com and find article on dust collection systems or shop layout at the many woodworking sites on the Web. Such as:http://www.woodweb.com/KnowledgeBase/KBDCSPO.htmlorhttp://www.woodworkingtips.com/woodtips/snlayout.html
*Mr. Gattis,We never had dust collection at our shop until this year. What a difference it makes.For a small home shop running one tool at a time, you should be able to set up a decent system pretty cheap. The warnings about sparks ring true. Get a book on collection systems and read up. I bought a single bag Powermatic unit at first. Then I had to buy a much larger unit for a surface sander which I no longer own. But the larger unit is a real treat. I now keep the single bag unit on the router table, a shop vac on the spindle sander, and the big Delta system for everything else. The shaper and surface planer fill them up the fastest.A squeekey clean shop is a sign of a sick mind.But dust collection can help keep the mess workable.Ed.
*In my part of the country, working outside can get very soggy and cold for many months of the year. There are a number of dust collection systems available from several different suppliers. Jet, Delta, Grizzly, and a number of others have systems starting at about double or triple the price of a decent shop vac. These systems are typically just a blower with 3" or 4" ducts bringing material from the saw or other equipment and then propelling this into a couple of cloth bags where most of the chips and sawdust is retained and the air excapes. Some bags trap more sawdust than others. Some other systems use a drum or trans can to catch the larger chips but usually have a bag to filter the air. Unless safeguards are taken, there can be a minor chance of sparks or static eletricity igniting the fine sawdust. The sparks can be a problem if you cut through metal and the fine metal shavings hit the steel blades of the fan. I have not set up my shop but I have a small Delta unit that sits on a drum to capture the larger particles and I will exhaust to the outside so I probably won't use a bag. This unit has an aluminum impeller to guard against possible sparks. Be warned that most of these dust collection systems are even louder than most shop vacs...You can search on most power tool sites and find prices for the dust collection systems. You can also search on http://www.google.com and find article on dust collection systems at the many woodworking sites on the Web. One such is:http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Choosing_a_dust_collector.html
*I do both i have a collector a jet 650 on wheels, on nice days i push the t/s out side and hook the dc up and do my work even got my wb on wheels to do the same thing w/ my bench top tools (planer , jointer ect you wont go wrong w/ a dc
*Yah, I run a big shop. We panelize walls, make our own trim, prefinish interior doors, and so on. Have the cheapest Grizzly dust collector there is, and blow everything right outside into a bin. Dust "floats" around out there, but not enough to cause the neighbors any disturbance. Get some good suction, and there's only a light sweeping at the end of the day. And we use nothing but plastic hoses; I've always wondered if the whole "friction and sparks" thing is actually that prevalant or an urban legend. I mean, if you're blowing everything outside where it dissipates, what's the harm? Seriously, though, I've never heard of a CONFIRMED case (e.g., someone on this forum who's had it happen), of an explosion caused by dust blowing by the plastic and igniting. Any takers on some true experiences?
*My detached garage and shop is the same as yours. Never had a car parked in her yet (too much raw lumber and such stacked there)! The accumulated dust from the tools just collects and collects. I guess I'll put in dust collection sooner or later. Building stuff though is first priority. A fresh layering of dust makes the whole place glow like the Emerald City on Wizard of Oz.
*Unfortunately, I don't think my wife will let me get away with that... I'll have to share the space with her car at the very least. But my truck is very happy outside :-)
*Mr. Gattis,Don't worry. Once she sees her car covered in an inch of dust, the garage will be all yours, or she will think a dust collection system is not such a bad idea after all.Ed.
*As an interesting side note... our house is currently flooding because of our unfinished roof and all the rain we have been getting here in Texas. I have been sweeping up all the sawdust to put on the floors. When you don't want it, you have it all over the place. When you need it, there is never enough ;-)
*You can get by with a shop-vac vs a dust collection system if you only use the shop occasionally. I am a part-timer with several other hobbies, so a shop-vac is fine. If a vac attachment is not available, make one. I have made my own attachment for my belt sander, for a drum sander, for my router table, and for my table saw. Helps a lot; noisy but so is a dust collector. The shop-vac has a universal motor so its lifetime is a fraction of that of an induction motor.
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Howdy all,
Our garage is 20x25 feet, and the last eight feet of the slab were raised a couple of inches for a shop area, effectively making an 8x20 foot area for my workbench, shelves, tools, etc. My question is this: things like table saws, crosscut saws, and such tend to generate a tremendous amount of sawdust. Should I plan on taking these tools outside when using them? Does anyone have a good suggestion as to a layout? Should I plan on having a giant vacuum system? Blow the shop out after each use?
I am still in the planning stages so I have a fair bit of flexibility at this point.
Thanks for help!
Cheers,
- Gary