Dust control in garage workshop...

[Matt Benton]

I just moved to a new house, and went from a one and a half car garage shop to sharing a 2 car garage with my wife's SUV. All of my tools are mobile, so I'm okay there.

My question is regarding dust collection. I am very concerned about tracking dust and debris into the house, and am wondering if I will have any success operating my tools at the opening of the garage with a large shop fan blowing the dust out.

I'm thinking I may get more dust that way than using my dust collector. Has anyone tried this?

Thanks!

[Matt Benton]

Sorry, meant to post in workshop forum.

[Prashun Patel]

I think you should have both. Can you exhaust your dc out a window AND have an 'ambient air cleaning' fan that blows out the door?

[jason lambert]

Is this on top of the colection? I use a dust collector and also a jet air cleaner anything left on the ground I sweep up. Seems to work pretty well but depends ont he efficency of the dust collection in the machine and collector. I would not have a big fan blowing dust around for health reasons a nice through breese for fresh air is good though when it is nice out.

[Matt Benton]

In my old shop, I used a HF dust collector and exhausted outside. I got good airflow, but still noticed a fair amount of dust. This could be due to not having all tools hooked up (bandsaw), as well as crosscutting with hand saws.

I'm thinking the dust collector attached efficiently to all machines as well as an air cleaner should be sufficient...

[Mark Patoka]

Whenever I open my garage doors, it always blows the dust back in so I can't see how a large fan will create enough positive pressure to force all the dust outside or draw it out.

I have a dust collector I hook up to most machines as well as an ambient hanging from the ceiling. It gets a lot of the dust but often times there is still a very fine layer that is on the floor. You just have to get in the habit of wiping your feet but my wife hasn't complained that I'm tracking in dust that is causing a mess in the house.

[James Jaragosky]

Whenever I open my garage doors, it always blows the dust back in
Ditto:( Even when I am 3 or 4 foot into the driveway the dust blows back into the garage, I cant see a single fan no matter what size preventing the dust from finding its way back in. You would need a air curtain to archive a dust free zone in the garage and that's if you were working in the driveway.
Some type of solution that includes a dust collector would be the best, and even that's not perfect.

[glenn bradley]

Like Mark, I have the wind coming in the big door and I vent it out the side door (small). Along with a small DC and an ambient cleaner, this does fairly well.

[Rob Cooper]

Matt,

I share a 3 car garage with my wife's van and all the toys that come with three daughters. Dust on bikes, helmets, strollers, etc. I installed a ceiling mounted track (hospital style) with a floor to ceiling - front to back clear plastic curtain. It hepls my air cleaner by limiting the area and more importantly seals off the non-workshop part of the garage.

The open garage door is great for general clenup (leaf blower and compressed air), but I have to do this 2 or 3 times in a row to beat the winds. Just keeping the garage door open while working never seems to help much.

The curtain helps keep the kids away from tools and also keeps eyes off of a sometimes messy workshop.

Finally, DC at the source is a must. I have a 2.5 Dust Gorilla on order - I can't wait!

Rob

[Matt Benton]

Rob,

I love the plastic curtain idea. Can you help me with sourcing something like this?

Thanks,
Matt

[Fritz Musser]

I'm in the same position as Mike... moving into a two car garage, only difference is that I'm sharing mine with a minivan. I'm interested in hearing more about the plastic curtain idea, I got a source for old sail cloth that could fit that bill. I am also tossing around the idea (in addition to a decent DC unit) of installing a few cheaper bathroom exhaust fans in the ceilings. I know its a bit crazy but heck, it might work.
Fritz

[tom tangie]

Just get a heavy duty plastic paint tarp from Home Depot (maybe its 10mil?). They are 10ft or so high and in my case plenty long enough to cover the entire length, front to back of garage and I have a deep 3 car garage. I use small long strips of scrap lumber to attach it to cealing and I have a long metal round bar to hold it down on the bottom. There is a slit for access. It keeps all the dust out of other side of garage except for what I track in by foot. I have my shop set up inside the 1 car end with a HF 0.5 micron filter dust collector that is plumbed with 4" pvc pipe and blast gates to every machine. Each machine has a purpose built plenun/manifold. Even the miter saw has a hood piped with DC around it to catch dust and the bandsaw the same. Still dust gets thrown off the blades out of reach of the DC but its all contained within the plastic barrier. Id guess the DC system I have is >90% effective but that 10% is a mess especially if not contained behind the plastic. My wife has a sewing business on her end of garage and except for the noise and the occational dusty footprints I leave, you would never know I had workshop there.

[Rob Cooper]

I used a track assembly from curtaintrax.

http://www.shop.curtaintrax.com/category.sc?categoryId=5 (http://www.shop.curtaintrax.com/category.sc?categoryId=5)

I went with the Recmar 4184 Aluminum L Beam kit. It works fine, but I would probably go with the heavy duty track if I were doing it over. I think the nylon rollers are a little undersized for the length of my curtain. I used 6 mil clear plastic from the blue big box. It is sold in large rolls, 10' x25' or 25' x 50', primarily as a crawlspace moisture barrier. Figure about one roller/hanger every 6 inches to keep the plastic from tearing.

To hang the plastic, I installed grommets every 6" about 1' from the top. My curtain is in two equal sections so that I can open up from the middle or the two ends. To install the track simply snap a line on the ceiling and screw it in.

The plastic has held up with no tears for about 3 months now. I will try and post a picture later.

[Rob Cooper]

If you go this route, order a few extra track rollers. I ran short 3 rollers, gotta order just 3 :(

[James G. Jones]

I work out of a two car garage as well. Since it doesn't have A/C, Texas weather dictates either the open door or only woodworking about 3 months a year. I have had a great deal of success by using DC, air cleaner, and a floor fan like carpet cleaners use to dry the carpet. I have to move it around some depending on where I am working, but it will blast sawdust off the floor and right out the door.

James