Moving Shop

[Jason Morgan]

I have a question about shop placement.

I am about to move my shop from one end of my basement to the other. Total basement size is 23x35 and Im moving from the 23x23 open end to the 23x12 end so that we can finish the 23x23 end. I know, not too often you hear about people dowsizing their shop. I am actually looking forward a little bit to the challenge of utilizing my space efficiently. Anyway. The end I will be occupying will also contain the furnace and hot water heater. These are currently "walled off" with a plastic curtain. Do I need to worry more about these since I will be that much close to them. I have an Air cleaner and a DC that work to get most of the dust, and I use a dedicated shop vac when sanding. Im also not spraying any finishes.

My thought is that its not going to be a problem, but I thought I would ask the group for some advice.

[Eric Shields]

Jason,

I am currently converting about 1/3 of my basement into a workshop where a heat pump and hot water heater are located. I've decided to frame up and wall off this area for a few reasons, astetics of the shop, minimize dust entering the utilities and most importantly to maxamize wall/storage space.

In your circumstance, where you are actually downsizing, I would think that my last reason would be most beneficial to you.

Just my thoughts :rolleyes:

Eric

[Bryan Rocker]

I grew up with my dad's shop nestled in with the furnace and eventually taking a wall out to make use of the old coal room for additional space. Back then the dust collector was the floor with me sweeping it up occasionaly :) Never had an issue. The only issue I ever had was when I had my own shop in a crampt area with both the water heater and furnace. I found some of the sawdust got into the duct work and increased the rate of dust collection around the house......

[Jason Morgan]

Thanks for the advice guys. I figure that the amount of dust I would be generating would be many orders of magnitude less than a "flash point" and the draws for those pieces of equipment should be isolated anyway. Im willing to live with a little more dust upstairs and a little less space to have a finished room in the basement. We have 3 kids and 1700sq ft and its getting a little cramped.