Cyclone DC & Gas Water Heater ?

[Steve King]

I’m in the process of building the “cyclone” dust collector. I would like to locate the DC in a small room that is in my garage. This room also houses a gas water heater. The door has louvers and I have installed an A/C outlet.
My question, will this be safe or could the cyclone and gas water heater located in the same room create a fire hazard?
Below is a diagram of the room layout.
Thank,
Steve

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<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~sekingusa/dc.jpg">

[John Miliunas]

I’m in the process of building the “cyclone” dust collector. I would like to locate the DC in a small room that is in my garage. This room also houses a gas water heater. The door has louvers and I have installed an A/C outlet.
My question, will this be safe or could the cyclone and gas water heater located in the same room create a fire hazard?
Below is a diagram of the room layout.
Thank,
Steve

<br>
<img src="http://home.comcast.net/~sekingusa/dc.jpg">

Steve, I am by NO means an expert on this but, if it were me, Satan would be hosting the Stanley Cup you know where, before I did something like that! My reasoning (again, just logic and not substantiated) is, the minute particles which may escape the DC system are the MOST volatile. Introducing them into an environment in which they can easily find open flame, IMHO, is NOT a good idea. I saw the results of a friend's wife helping clean his shop, with tragic results. He had a barrel fire going out back for the unusable scraps and such. She took a trash can, which had a bunch of paper laying in it, walked over to the barrel and upended it. She failed to check under the paper and there was nothing but fine sawdust. It went up instantly, giving her some extremely nasty burns on her left arm, from about the wrist and clear past her elbow, plus singed hair, eyebrows and such. Fortunately, she did not receive any burns to her face, but it could've been much worse. In other words, fine sawdust and open flame just don't mix. I guess had I not personally witnessed that, I would be quite so anal about it, but NOT something I'd wish on anyone! As usual, just MHO and you get what you're paying for it. Best of luck in whatever way you decide to install you system! :cool:

[James Buxton]

Steve ---
Lemme get this right. You're going to air-condition your dust collector? I've heard of babying tools, but......!!!!
Jamie

[Steve King]

Steve ---
Lemme get this right. You're going to air-condition your dust collector? I've heard of babying tools, but......!!!!
Jamie
James,
Doesn’t everybody do that :D
Steve

[James Buxton]

Steve ---
<G> Okay, I'll stop teasing you. But, a little more seriously, I don't understand why you'd air-condition this room. The gas water heater must have combustion air. I believe that all modern building codes require that combustion air to come from outside. In addition, there is a second port to the outside that is required high in the room. That is, you're going to have outside air flowing into this room -- at whatever the temperature the outside is in Plano in the summer. Piping cooled air into that room seems like fighting with Mom Nature.

But that issue is all an aside to your primary one -- putting a dust collector near a gas flame. Unlike the other poster, I'm not super-concerned, as long as the cyclone is operating correctly. Properly sealed cyclones don't put much sawdust back out into the atmosphere around them -- after all, that's the point of having a dust collector. They reduce the amount of sawdust in the air. To create a sawdust explosion, you'd have to have more sawdust than the cyclone puts into that room. Of course, if a duct ruptures and suddenly spews lots of sawdust into the room, maybe you'd be in trouble. Have you considered putting a wall in the middle of the room to separate the DC and the water heater, moving the door to access only the water heater, and removing the wall between the DC and the shop?

Jamie

[Steve King]

Steve ---
Okay, I'll stop teasing you. But, a little more seriously, I don't understand why you'd air-condition this room. The gas water heater must have combustion air. I believe that all modern building codes require that combustion air to come from outside. In addition, there is a second port to the outside that is required high in the room. That is, you're going to have outside air flowing into this room -- at whatever the temperature the outside is in Plano in the summer. Piping cooled air into that room seems like fighting with Mom Nature.

James,
I installed the A/C vent when I installed a HVAC unit in the garage. The room was always hot and the louvered door would not keep room cool.
That is where I store my lumber; so with the door venting into the garage I added the small vent and it will return through the louverd door. The water heater has a good vent out through the roof and I have checked for leaks.
Steve