Wow im posting a lot of threads recently, so now
My workshop is located in the basement next to the water heater. This heater is a oil burner for forced water, about 25 yo. the shop is seperated by very open bookshelves (2X4 frame, that’s it). should I be concerned about wood dust traveling over there and igniting? I do all sanding in the garage so particls come from TS, MS, and router
I’m just sayin’
Replies
andyfew322,
Oil fired burners have filters and fans that suck in the air and mix with the fuel that is sprayed across a spark. The dirty air will clog your filters and eventually prevent the operation from happening. In addition, dust can settle on hot parts of the boiler causing a fire.
Before I had DC I regularly cleaned the boiler and kept my sanding/dust under control. The DC does a great job on keeping the air clean and recently I got a fine filter for the shop vac.
I intended to box the combustion chamber on the biler with furnace filters but never got around to it.
Personally, I think you would be all right but I would sleep better at night if I had a wall or complete barrier of some type between the two. I don't like to take chances. Just saving the mess that you need to clean up each time you work would be a big factor.
Edited 10/23/2008 11:14 pm ET by Tinkerer3
"I would sleep better a night if I had a wall or complete barrier of some type between the two."
That may raise an issue of insufficient combustion air unless venting to the outside was added.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
One would assume that the builder and the installer of the furnace and water heater would have provided for sufficient air supply, but not necessarily. It is always a good idea to inspect the home for whatever problems it might have before signing on the dotted (solid) line. Personally, I like having the shop completely away from the house. I put up with that cubby hole in the basement long enough.
Edited 10/23/2008 11:25 pm ET by Tinkerer3
"One would assume that the builder and the installer of the furnace and water heater would have provided for sufficient air supply, but not necessarily. "
Probably so. What I was referring to was the act of adding a wall around it may well reduce the air supply to dangerously low levels. And simply putting venting in the wall may defeat the dust restricting purpose of the wall unless the vent is filtered. Lots to think about when walling off oil or gas appliances.
Doesn't look like Andy is considering that anyway -- just didn't want him to build a wall around his heater without considering the point.
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Well taken. I guess we're arguing on the same side. My thoughts were more general.
Most DCs have a grill over the intake to stop people sticking their hands into the impeller. The long strands from planer and jointer tend to collect there and plug up -- happened on mine. You can cut out the grill without doing any harm as long as you use the DC just for sawdust from machines.
Jim
I think this one does have that protection. That will be one of the first things I'll look at. Thanks.
adding a wall would be a PIA the shelves are a double layer (one opening to WS the othe boiler room)
I'm just sayin'
Well yes, you have to work with what you have. It's very seldom that you have a perfect situation, even in specially designed buildings.
Andy, the risk of airborn dust igniting is extreemly small -- if there were enough dust to ignite, you probably couldn't breath it. For example, I have a gas heater with an open flame in my workshop and have no worries about igniting airborn dust.
That's not to say there are no problems with this -- the main one being the accumulation of dust (that was once airborn) on surfaces and, as another poster pointed out, in filters. If you do much power tool work, like sanding and sawing, you're gonna hafta become a pretty good housecleaner, regularly checking filters and de-dusting surfaces. For example, because my workshop is in the garage next to the basement where the furnace is, I need to change the furnace filters about 2X as often as I would otherwise. And I regularly clean up any dust that settles in, on or around the heater.
Like another poster or two around here, I find that blowing air is more effective than vacuuming. I use the compressor with a blower nozzle to clean the heater, and the leaf blower to less frequently de-dust the shop generally.
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Mike
I use my Leaf Blower after any big job. Yes, I have to put away anything less than 5 pounds in weight away. And then maybe have to wash the neighbors car for her!
I vacuum all the time. Everything. After I vacuumed everything I put the shop vac. on BLOW.. More dust goes out the shop than I collected vacuuming!
I am in the slow process of making two Canopy Beds of Sapele and Panga-Panga.
If you think MDF is bad.. Try these woods. Amazing dust output! Even on the bandsaw!
The last time I cleaned my shop, I used the leaf blower. It is a back pack job and wow, I know what you mean by blowing things out. Took most of the afternoon to find the anvil. Ha, Ha.
Andy, are you using dust collection and breathing protection (mask)?? You're a young person, and have a long life of woodworking ahead of you. If there's enough dust in your shop environment to worry about explosions, I do hope you're taking care of your lungs.
Just call me momma-jamie, LOL!
I have a momma-jamie here and a momma and daddy on BT. What an iteresting family
I'm just sayin'
I guess you'll just have to cut me some slack. I never had any kids, but nonetheless was born with Maternal Instincts. Most of the time, they're lavished on the dogs, cats and horses in my life, but anyone 50 or younger gets my dust-mask lecture should the opportunity arise. ROFL!!!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
lol
I'm just sayin'
Momma-Jamie, I could stand a dust-mask lecture. I'm almost 76, just about finished enough with the shop to set the tools in place but haven't figured what I'll do for the dust collection etc. yet. I bought a little one horse jobby but once when I tried it on the jointer, it clogged up after a few seconds and I didn't try it again. I'll try it again before giving up on it.
When I get comfortable with taking and sending pictures I would like to show a little about my shop. It has been my life's dream and now it is coming to fruition! Hope I live long enough to enjoy it.
It has been my life's dream and now it is coming to fruition!
Fruition .. Not sure I have ever heard that word before... I had to look it up.
Is that Enjoyment OR Realization in your terms?
My junk shop is comming to 'Fruition' NOW! 'As in Realization' I always knew it was way to small but trying to taper eight 86 inch long canopy bed legs is gettin' to me!
Yes, I know 83 inches is the standards length, but I wanted some extra to cut off after banging them around!
As I figgure it.. 86 times two is 172 inches which is about 14 feet. Not much room for ME after that! Hard to cut a perfect taper when the 'stick' hits a wall and you have to stop the saw and back it up for the final few inches of the cut!
"Fruition" Well, I just looked up the word myself. Sometimes I have committed a word in my vocabulary in error. At least the spell check didn't indicate an error. I suppose it could be either enjoyment or realization but I think realization is probably more accurate. I should finish the paint job this week. Fourteen feet in a bed, wow, we never have more than four in ours. Ha.
Are you turning these taper of straight cutting. My little lathe only handles 36 in. lengths.
I was just funnin' ya a bit.. I had NO idea what the word was! ;>)
Congratulations on the dream come true! that's really cool. Yes, you must put some thought into dust collection. If it's clogging when used with the jointer, something's going on. Start a thread if you have trouble when you try it again, folks here will be able to help.
Looking forward to pics. Drop me an email if you need help.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
You're so kind. I will take you up on that offer. I have been shown how to send pics before but I promptly forget. And resizing the pics, that is something else. I told someone it would be a week. Well, maybe two if all goes well.
Hmmm - seems tricky, but your basement location may offer some opportunities to easily access outside air. I'd be pretty concerned about being able to see a fire in the neighbor's yard from my shop, much less to have one in there with me!
I know, I know - in the old days (whatever that means) we used wood stoves to heat the shop. We didn't have power tools, either, making airborne dust a lesser risk. I'd not worry so much about dust explosion as about gradually and inexorably collecting dust in and around the firebox - after all, the burner consumes air, and that automatically means that airborne dust will be carried in the direction of the boiler. One day enough will have accumulated to pose threat of a serious fire....and out to the shop and up to the house and .... yeah.
Segregation will do the trick - here's a suggestion:
Completely wall off the boiler with something resembling an oversized closet, and with a large enough door for maintentance and removal/replacement. Cheap, easy, no fancy materials. It could even be close quarters construction with one (or more) lightly-built wall on hinges and casters - - move the "wall" to service the boiler. (Check local codes - a plumber or boiler company should be able and willing to advise you.) Just be sure that it's easy to seal back up after service is finished.
But, if it's sealed, it can't breathe:
Run an air supply duct from the outside to the boiler enclosure (like, perhaps, 6" PVC or just rolled galvanized ventilation duct with duct taped joints....I'd avoid flex hose as its rough surface creates high drag and will require a much heftier fan.) It can be any required length. Install a small inline fan to push combustion air, and monitor the "boiler room" for pressure that's positive relative to the shop (your local furnace shop can find the differential pressure switch & gauge for you.) If you're a techie, you can find it in McMaster-Carr or the like.
If the fan can deliver more air than needed for combustion, and your wall & door joints are tight (weatherseal), then room pressure has to be positive - maybe only a little, but positive is positive and that's all that's needed. If enclosure pressure goes below shop pressure, then interlock so the boiler shuts down and alarms. You can wire the blower to come on only when the boiler sends itself a signal to "fire up." Learn the conbustion air flow for your boiler, and choose a fan only marginally larger. Squirrel-cage fans deliver positive pressure the most efficiently. There are new hi-pressure small-dia. inline fans for A/C systems, too, but they're spendy and probably overkill.
Sequence:
"Fire up"
"Just a sec - gotta get the air supply fan on first"
"Start supply fan"
"Allow firing as soon as room pressure is positve relative to shop."
"Shut down for low pressure or the usual boiler control elements."
The extra sequencing should add perhaps 5-10 seconds to your boiler's normal firing.
The idea is that for so long as boiler "room" pressure is above shop ambient pressure, then dust cannot possibly intrude into the boiler room. Feeding outside air is OK, as it's only for combustion, and it will require minimal flitering to render suitable. Be sure that it's weathersealed and caulked to a fare-thee-well!
Put enough thought into it to keep it really simple and cheap. You can call it a "boiler room", but it most certainly is not one. It's just a collection of closely-set, removable walls and an air supply designed to run at postive relative pressure. Don't get all sideways and invent a monster - remember that a lot of folks make useful spray booths out of plastic sheet! (Same relative principles.)
What if the boiler is hot, the burner is off, and there's still warm air flow up the stack and drawong iar into the enclosure? Well, how paranoid do you want to be? There's most likely very little negative contribution from that scenario - the big deal is when the burner is on a consuming lots of air. If it finally turns out that you're still getting appreciable dust migration, then you might look at rewiring the fan for constant operation. If the enclosure is well-sealed, then that passive air flow will just flow through the idle fan from the outside, anyway.
Hope that helps to get the juices flowing ....
Finally, please allow ol' Poppajohn to join with Forest Girl in admonishing about shop dust and respiratory protection. This hero finally wound up with emphysema, and it ain't fun. Wear yer gear.
Best,
PJohn
This forum post is now archived. Commenting has been disabled