Dust collector under shop heater

Is there any way to make this safer/acceptable? I’m reorganizing my shop and making room for a new bandsaw. In doing so I realized the location of my dust collector is wasting space. Locating it under my gas heater is the most space efficient place for it but I see the obvious safety risks. When the filter bag is inflated it will come within inches of the exhaust pipe, which gets pretty hot. Eventually I plan on upgrading to a separator and Wynn filter, which may lower the total height of the unit, but can’t afford that at the moment. Also, I know the picture is sideways, can’t seem to change that. Thanks



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Um....I don't think I'd personally go for that arrangement for the obvious reasons...

The owners manual for the heater would likely recommend against it and it likely requires 18" of clearance in the back of the unit and a minimum of 1" below the unit (it appears that while inflated, the dust collector may be making contact with the heater. In addition, the air flow from the dust collector could affect the performance of the heater itself, given the proximity of the two together.

While you might be able to get by with it, what happens if it doesn't work and a fire begins (a real possibility)? Damage to the heater and dust collector? Damage to your building? All of your equipment damaged or destroyed? Your personal possessions gone? The life of loved ones or those coming to help in your time of need put to an end? Sorry for being somewhat dramatic but after a lifetime in the fire service (since the mid-1970's) and retiring as a career fire chief, I have seen a lot - much of which was not pleasant. I have a lot of 'technical' thoughts on the matter, but suffice it to say, I don't think it is a good idea.

I would definitely lean on the side of caution and locate the dust collector to an alternative - and safer - location. It appears that the dust collector is on wheels and it may be possible to keep the dust collector away from the heater and adjacent to the band saw (or other equipment), then simply moving it out of the way when using the equipment (flexible hose can adapt to a lot of situations).

I agree that the air pressure variations may be a big problem. This will affect the combustion and possibly the flow direction in the flue. At the least you should have. CO monitor in addition to the heat/smoke detector for the dc. And the CO monitors need to also be through out the conditioned areas.
Bill D.

Yeah I didn’t think anyone would approve of this, just figured I’d put it out there. Didn’t think about the air flow problems and possible combustion efficiency problem: good point.

For safety sake. Another spot would be recommend.

Do you have any other pics of your shop? Maybe we could throw some ideas your way.

I’ll try to get some other pictures later. My shop is a MESS right now. I’m taking a shop break to finish some house projects I’ve been neglecting. I’m storing lumber anywhere I can fit in my small garage shop and am planning on building some free standing style lumber racks for my shed. That should free some space up and allow me to better maximize what little space I have. That may be another post - I have a rough idea for my lumber racks but it may be over engineered and wasteful. Some expert advice would be helpful.

You could remodel the DC a bit to make it shorter. For instance, take the wheels off. For another instance, make shorter legs to hold up the ring. The collection bag will collapse a bit, so the capacity is a little smaller, but maybe that's okay.

Or do a bigger remodel. Lose the collection bag. Instead, make a plywood collection bin. It would have the same footprint as the existing dolly, but be perhaps two feet tall. Put the blower on top of bin. The filter bag would be pretty much in the same position, but a foot or two lower, so it would easily clear the shop heater. DC's are really simple machines. You can stir around the components in lots of ways, and not reduce the performance much at all.