Computers in the woodshop - dust protection?

[Richard Link]

For those of you who have pc's in their woodworking environment, do you take specific precautions to protect the machines from dust? I've seen some "industrial style" enclosures that are supposed to keep out dust. For a woodworking shop with a decent dust collection system, has this been a problem for you?

Rick

[Leo Graywacz]

I built a small office to use it in. It still gets tons of dust in it. I blow it out every 6 months or so, you should see the cloud.

[Rick Hutcheson]

I always wondered about that too. But I have a computer that has been set up for years right between my CNC and scrollsaw. The Monitor back touched the table on the scrollsaw and I still used the saw. So there was plenty of dust. The keyboard gets covered in dust all the time. I just blow off the keyboard and blow the tower out once in awhile. And I have not had any more problems with that computer than the one in the office. I think we are fed a old wives tale that dust will hurt a computer. I know I don't worry about it anymore than any other tool in the shop. Only been doing it since 2002 so maybe in the long run it will hurt it.

[Leo Graywacz]

I have a printer that has problems because of the dust. It won't suck the paper in because the rubber feeder wheels get dust covered. So I have to give it a little push and then it feeds. I can clean the wheels and that'll last for about a week. Then it's back to pushing the paper in.

[Don Abele]

I have one in my shop and it has no special protection. I do, however, have a routine of cleaning out all of my computers once a quarter to keep the dust at bay.

Dust buildup in the computer will do several things:

-In CD/DVD drives and those that still have floppy drives it will eventually cause read/write errors.
-The fans will develop a coating of dust on them that will decrease their ability to move air.
-This decrease in air and the coating of dust inside the machine will increase heat (which will eventually kill components like CPU, memory, video, and front side bus).

As I said, an occasional cleaning (compressed air) will keep the level of dust at a manageable level and have no ill effects.

Be well,

Doc

[Zach England]

This is prescient because just today I got a 28 inch monitor to use as a TV in my shop.

I think the biggest concern would be dust clogging the vents and impeding heat dissipation.

Anyone know of a good way to mount a LCD monitor so that it folds down from the ceiling?

[Thomas Syrotchen]

Dust will be a concern with computers, primarily tearing up the small fans that help cool the processor and trapping heat. The way we deal with it in an industrial environment is a Nema 4X enclosure and sealed touchscreens mounted in the doors with a sealed keyboard. However, for a homeshop, way overkill. Preventative maintenance with blowing out the case periodically should help considerably. You can normally set up the computer to shut down if it gets too hot or warn you of a processor fan failure. The other option may be to try and reduce the exposure of the equipment by building something around it to help keep out most of the dust, however, the other concern will be trapping heat. If your looking for real world evidence, I'll gladly send you a processor, hard drive, power supply and cooling fans that have all been destroyed by dust trapping heat over the years. I've just found its cheaper to replace the parts than it is to prevent the damage.
If you want to try and prevent the failure, you could build a box to cover the main unit and use an HVAC type filter and some type of fan to move air through the cover. Or build a very large box. If you make a small box to just cover the computer, you'll trap the heat and have the same result as the dust.
You'll likely find that the newer the computer, the more likely it is to fail as the newer processors tend to generate a lot more heat than the older ones as well.

[Richard Link]

Thanks everyone for the input. Very helpful.

I've built a bunch of water cooled computers in the past, although in most cases the coolant circulates through a radiator assembly that moves a lot of air (and dust). As an alternative, there are some large "fanless" radiators available that might eliminate the need to force dust-containing air through the radiator. I imagine that even a home-built enclosure around the CPU unit attached to this external radiator would work for both heat removal and keeping the dust to a minimum.

At any rate, more of a Rube Goldberg solution (although that's half the fun). If I end up building it, I'll post some photos.

Thanks.

Rick

[Robert Reece]

You'll likely find that the newer the computer, the more likely it is to fail as the newer processors tend to generate a lot more heat than the older ones as well.

I would dispute this claim. A pentium 4 processor, which is still quite available on the used market draws probably about 25% more power at idle then a newer intel Core 2 processor. At load, the difference is greater I believe.

That being said, I run a laptop in the workshop sometimes and it is a Pentium 4 and the fan is always running full tilt. I'm trying to kill the laptop but it just won't stop working, so I'm guessing dust isn't a problem.

I would not build any special protection for it. Just blow it out when you feel like it and keep good backups of anything on that machine. When it dies, go buy another used for cheap.

[Thomas Syrotchen]

The increasing size of heatsinks over the years would be the first indication that thermal loads have continued to increase. The fact that they continue to stuff more transistors into the processors would be the second indication as each transistor will generate heat. The last AMD machine I built I was stunned at the size of the heatsink. It was at least twice the size of the processor. The first machine I built 15 years ago had a fan about 1/4 of the size.
However, in god we trust all others bring data, so here you go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...er_dissipation

Only one pentium IV broke the 100W threshold, most of your dual core machines on the market today are above 100W. Take a look at the pentium III that sat at ~25W. Don't confuse idle power draw with the Thermal design limits. Just because the technology has improved in terms of power management doesn't mean that the newer processors don't ultimately have a higher thermal load. The link attached shows thermal design specs for different processors and as you can see they have increased considerably over time.

Pull up a few articles on the effects of overheating and dust on computers. Not being able to "kill" a laptop doesn't dispute the fact that heat is the enemy of almost any electrical device. What likely happens with your laptop, the machine has detected the increase in temperature and has slowed your processor down to help cool it down. Run a benchmark program with the thing full of dust, then clean it out and run it again. You might find that the machine is actually faster by simply cleaning it out as it will run cooler.

Having hardwood floors and Cat, I had a box fill up with cat hair and dust one time. A good size piece of dust got caught in one of the case fans and siezed the fan. The cat hair did exactly what it was designed to do it kept my components nice and warm. By the time the machine shut down it had reached a temperature that caused the hard drive to fail, caused adhesive to fail on a fan for the video board, damaged the processor and the power supply. I actually burn my finger on one of the chips on the video board. Dust will do bad things to computers.

[Brad Wood]

I just put used PC's from work out there. give them a blow out once in a while. I've had the same one out there for a couple years now and it is fine. I'm not looking for high performance out there, I just want to be able to read PDF's, or get on the internet to look something up

[Darius Ferlas]

I can't imagine anyone doing a DNA sequencing in a woodworking shop so for the little processing power most will need I'd say it's cheaper to kill a PC with dust every year or two than too buy all those enclosures, filter bags etc.

On the cheap though, all it takes is locating the air intakes and patching them with some filtering material. If it's applied externally then it'll be easier to clean the "filter" periodically.

[Steve Clardy]

PC in shop office. Still have to blow it out every month or so.

[Zach England]

So has anyone had problems keeping a LCD TV/monitor in a shop?

[Thomas Syrotchen]

Zac,
You'll likely face the same issues as a pc and increase in heat load. Computer parts are relatively cheap these days, like I said, earlier I found it cheaper to replace stuff than prevent failure. 28" LCD's on the other hand aren't so cheap. Computers are relatively easy to clean while LCD's are not. All that said, I've had quite a few computer parts fail because of heat, but never replaced a monitor.

As far as you question for a fold up mount, they do make VESA under cabinet mounts for LCD's but most stop about 19". May try a google search for VESA cabinet mounts. A 2x4, heavy piano hinge, piece of plywood and $2 hook would probably save you $100. I've even supplied a .02 drawing. Run 2x4 between a couple of rafters. Attach the piano hinge to the 2x4 and plywood and then mount the TV to the plywood. Attach the hook the bottom of the plywood. Another option may be to set it up like the pull down ladders in attics. Keeping it in the ceiling may help reduce the amount of dust exposure and kill two birds with one stone. Neither is the most elegant of solutions but it is going in the garage.

Fancy drawing showing mount in transition
2x4 __
/_
hook-/_/-TV