Dust collector closets - Request for Photos

[Brian Holcombe]

I know this question comes up a lot, but the search results leave something to be desired. Rather than dig through everything, I am hoping to trouble you guys for a look at your dust collector closets?

I'm contemplating a variety of door solutions which will keep the sound to a minimum and also look nice. While I'm at it, I decided it would be handy to also enclose the area where the trash cans are, so I can hide everything ugly and noisy all at the same time.

I'm contemplating using sliding doors, but unsure if they will allow enough of a seal to keep the noise at bay.

I'm also considering ways to avoid fixing the wall permanently to the house, and instead making some sort of stand-alone setup that maybe bolts to the walls at two spots but can be removed in the future.

So, I'm sure you guys have come up with some great solutions to this issue, can I trouble you for photos.

[Ole Anderson]

My door core is 1/2" drywall sandwiched with 1/2" OSB. Wall bracket is mounted to the poured basement wall. Air returns to the shop over the door, between the joist cavities which are lined with Safe and Sound mineral batting to catch the reflected noise. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X8qwMqm3Ek

[Gary Radice]

You are welcome to poke around here to see pix of my former garage shop:

http://s216.photobucket.com/user/gra...ml?sort=3&o=38

I had the luxury of a 12 foot ceiling. I built a free standing closet to avoid transfering vibration to the garage framing. Intake air vented through the filters into the closet, up around the motor, back to a space between the closet and the wall to the left, then down to the floor, 90 degrees around the space in the back of the closet, up, and out at the top of the closet near the shop ceiling. I custom made the door with 2x4 laid flat, Roxul filler, and 1/4 inch ply on both surfaces. The closet framing was also filled with Roxul, and the closet faces on the garage side were covered with 1/2 inch plywood, greenglue, and then drywall.

I would probably not use a sliding door if you don't have to since sealing would be an issue as you imagine. It is easy to just add normal weatherstripping and a floor sweep to a regular door.

[Dave Johnson 101]

Brian,

Here's video of my ClearVue closet installed in the garage adjacent to the shop. It has some of the characteristics you're looking for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozONvHBVTec&list=PLQM2a_w-D0M1HgBoBHEYowSXPg2l2WW_p

This was the third closet I've had the DC in, and I've always been irritated at having the filter back in the corner where it was hard to clean and otherwise service. You can see that I put the DC on a mobile base so it can be pulled out of the closet for servicing. I was skeptical of how stable it would be on the base, but it has worked out great.

The key to pulling it out of the closet is removing the header above the door. After installing the door, I cut the header then screwed it back in. It takes 10 minutes to pull the DC out and another 10 to put back in.

The closet wall studs are screwed into existing studs, through the existing drywall, so removing the closet someday will be just a matter of removing the screws, patching over the holes, and repainting. Well, and removing and patching a sill that's power nailed to the floor.

Insulation all around, including the back of the doors. Noise level is very tolerable in the shop, in the house, and out in the yard.

The garage gets hot during our South Idaho summers, so I framed in a channel to force the air coming out of the filter to pass over the motor for cooling. I also put in a fan to pull extra cool air from the shop into the motor compartment.

Good luck on your closet build.

Dave

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks gents, these photos and videos are very helpful!

I've been thinking about putting in a baffled vent or vents for the return air to the shop, since this will be located in the same room as where the air is being pulled from. It sounds like many of you have ducted the return air rather to a specific spot rather than venting the closet....or am I reading this wrong?

[Jim Becker]

Old thread on my cyclone/compressor closet

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ghlight=Closet

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks Jim!

[John K Jordan]

Brian, I don't have good photos of the inside of my finished closet but I can describe it. The closet houses both a 5-hp ClearVue cyclone and a 5-hp 60 gallon air compressor. Both are loud, one painfully, one annoyingly. You are wise to consider the noise! I stole, er, borrowed this from somewhere:

hearing_2012-11-07_11-23-38.jpg

Without the closet I would need hearing protection every time I used the dust collection. With the cyclone in the closet I can carry on normal conversation in the shop.

I built a little room 4'x8' with 6" walls. I built with insulated staggered stud walls to keep the sound from being conducted through the walls by solid studs.

staggered_studs_IMG_2013071.jpg

I solved the problem of sound-insulated doors in a way most probably cannot - I made my access doors open into another room in the shop, a maintenance area, so sound though the doors doesn't get into the shop. For easy access both to install the equipment and to the dust bin I put in a 5' wide double steel door, insulated. The doors are in the corner of this picture. The smaller door to the left is to the rest of the shop.

closet_doors_AA069_IMG_3037.jpg

I had to put the cyclone in the furthest corner of the closet so the main duct could come down through the ceiling and connect since I ran all my ducts above the ceiling in the trusses. This was a major engineering project to reach every tool and minimize bends in the ducts without making a single notch in the trusses. The cyclone hangs on an outside wall so vibration is not transmitted directly to a shop wall. To plan the exact angles of the ducts and the cyclone placement I set the partially assembled cyclone upside down in a corner, made a mockup of the main duct from cardboard, then drew a full-scale diagram on the floor with multiple views. Getting everything to fit was tight. The closet is to the left in this picture:

duct_ceiling_IMG_20141228_1.jpg

That picture also shows the return air opening, important if you return the filtered air to the shop instead of dumping it outside (preferred). In order to keep noise from coming through to the shop I built a plywood air return that fit between the trusses with some insulation sprayed inside and with several baffles and bends to minimize reflected sound:

Dust_collector_baffle_small.jpg

If you put the dust collector in the closet (and/or the air compressor like I did), consider remote electrical controls (and compressed air controls) in the main shop. I wired a bin-full sensor plus the wireless remote receiver into a single box in the shop and added an enable/disable switch with a pilot light I can see from across the room. I use key fob type transmitters to turn control the DC. All the air compressor dryers, regulator, and valves are also on the shop side of the wall. (I piped air to quick-connect outlets all over the shop in the three main rooms and one outside.) Inside the closet are required disconnects, electrical boxes for breakers, 240v contactor for the DC, and 120v circuits, and a second DC enable/disable switch with another pilot light wired in series with the one in the shop.

electrical_shop_s.jpg air_comp_ctrls_IMG_20150124.jpg electrical_closet_small_c.jpg

This whole system works very well. All this, shop and all, took a while to build working by myself but I sure do enjoy it now! (I tell people I built it with my bare hands, but I lie - I used tools. )

JKJ

[Brian Holcombe]

Thanks John! Much appreciated, and that first photo is certainly worth a laugh. I have minor tinnitus from working in shops and racing cars, and while I used hearing protection for the former, I did not for the later. I'm far more careful about noise currently.

I had not thought to include the compressor in this box, but now that you mention it, I think it may be wise to put both in the room. The compressor I have is particularly loud, and also goes completely un-used in my handtools shop. It may be far better off in the 'Auxiliary' shop.

[Dave Cav]

I had not thought to include the compressor in this box, but now that you mention it, I think it may be wise to put both in the room. The compressor I have is particularly loud, and also goes completely un-used in my handtools shop. It may be far better off in the 'Auxiliary' shop.

I'm watching this thread because I'll be doing the same thing in my new shop. I was originally thinking of putting a closet on the outside wall of the shop for the dust collector and air compressor, but Utah winters can be chilly and the compressor probably wouldn't like the cold weather. I've come to the reluctant conclusion that I'll need to steal some space from the inside of the shop for the DC/AC closet, and it'll need to be pretty well sealed to keep the noise inside the closet. Noise levels have also become high on the list of selection criteria for both machines.

[Mark Blatter]

I'm watching this thread because I'll be doing the same thing in my new shop. I was originally thinking of putting a closet on the outside wall of the shop for the dust collector and air compressor, but Utah winters can be chilly and the compressor probably wouldn't like the cold weather. I've come to the reluctant conclusion that I'll need to steal some space from the inside of the shop for the DC/AC closet, and it'll need to be pretty well sealed to keep the noise inside the closet. Noise levels have also become high on the list of selection criteria for both machines.

A friend has a shop in Ogden, UT with an upright air compressor that he uses daily. He has a body shop so uses air throughout the day. His compressor is mounted outside under a small roof, but nothing else. Basically just a slanted roof attached to the outside wall of his shop. It covers the head where the pistons are located, but that is all. Certainly not heated and barely protected from the snow and rain. It is a pretty old compressor so the cold / heat has not bothered it much over the years. I would say it is at least 10 years old.

[John K Jordan]

...goes completely un-used in my handtools shop. It may be far better off in the 'Auxiliary' shop.

Ack, you mean I need to build a separate shop for hand tools? Nobody told me!! Back to the drawing board. My Lovely Bride is not going to be happy...

JKJ

[Brian Holcombe]

Hah! More like lugging 650lbs of bandsaw down an interior flight of stairs was not in the cards....so now I have two shops, one nice and comfortable year round...the other boiling hot for 3 months and freezing cold for 5 months.

[Dave Cav]

A friend has a shop in Ogden, UT with an upright air compressor that he uses daily. He has a body shop so uses air throughout the day. His compressor is mounted outside under a small roof, but nothing else. Basically just a slanted roof attached to the outside wall of his shop. It covers the head where the pistons are located, but that is all. Certainly not heated and barely protected from the snow and rain. It is a pretty old compressor so the cold / heat has not bothered it much over the years. I would say it is at least 10 years old.

I'll be in Richmond, 12 miles north of Logan, so the climate should be comparable to Ogden. My current AC is in a shed on the back wall of the outside of the shop (my shop north of Seattle) and in colder weather it's appreciably slower to start up on the first few cycles. I initially intended to put the compressor in a similar outside shed but my contractor suggested I reconsider due to the cold weather. However, if I insulate the shed well, put a 100 watt light bulb in it on a thermostat, and run synthetic oil, I might be able to get away with it. It would save some room (and noise) inside the shop.

[Jim Finn]

I built a small closet outside my shop using plywood. I installed insulation on the inside and it contained the sound just fine. I left a 6" x 25" opening to let the air escape easily. Still, the noise was absorbed by the bat insulation I had on the walls.
I also disliked working on emptying the bag because the closet I had built was too small. Last month I erected an 8'x8' metal shed on a plywood base and raised it up a foot to give me the height required for the dust collector. I moved my dust collector there. I now have plenty of room to access the dust collector and even some storage shelves in there. I did not insulate this new building and it is still not too loud. I have a neighbor right over the fence six inches from the new building and no complaints. If I ever do get a complaint I can add insulation I guess. My air compressor is louder than the dust collector but is in, yet another, large metal building.
I am careful to not run this equipment early in the morning or late in the evening when folks would be likely to have the little sound that escapes, annoy them.