Small Turners Workshop Questions

[Thomas Wilson80]

I am pretty new to woodworking of any kind and have become addicted to turning. I just moved and will have a small heated shop in my basement (11' x 15' with a row of shallow shelves on one long wall) and wanted to get some advice/opinions on how to best plan it out. I know it is small, but up to this point I have been using a 4' x 10' strip of my garage so this feels palatial!!! It will be used almost exclusively for woodturning. I have a Laguna 2436 lathe and a Laguna BX bandsaw and will need a workbench area/grinding station. After reading some past posts on this forum, I have drawn it out to scale with cutouts of my tools to move around and see what best fits, but wanted to post here and see if anyone with a similar sized shop has any pictures or advice.

I have room in my garage for a separate finishing station and storage of any tools/finishes that don't need to be used at the lathe.

Another question I have is regarding dust collection - in my old garage shop I had no DC and was saving up to buy a ClearVue 1800, though now I'm wondering if that is too much machine for this small shop with only the 2 tools and considering that I won't have the space to add table saws/planers/etc.? any advice on dust collection? I'm willing to pay for quality since my shop is inside and I want to minimize dust tracking to the rest of the home (I've even thought about drilling through the concrete that makes up one wall of the shop and directly venting out the side of our front porch but don't know if that is really a feasible option or if that would leave a mess on my lawn).

Again, any opinions/advice/plans/photos would be appreciated as I have zero experience with dust collection or setting up a shop.

Thanks,
Tom

[Jim Becker]

Position your sharpening station near your lathe in the position that is "most natural" for you to turn to from where you stand at the lathe to do the work so you can easily and quickly do your touch ups and return to the spinning thing. I have my sharpening station actually mobile so I can reposition if necessary for a given project. The bandsaw can be anywhere since it's largely used for preparing workpieces to become spinny things at the primary tool.

Regarding dust collection....you cannot really do dust collection at the lathe other than when sanding on the tool. A big old cyclone isn't the right tool for your small shop to clean up shavings and deal with sanding. A small, mobile unit that can connect to an articulating sanding hood behind the workpiece and connect to the bandsaw when in use is what I'd do and with pre-separation to make debris disposal easier.. But I'd also put an air cleaner in there. I recently bought a cheap particle sensor for my shop and used it for the first time yesterday. It was incredibly surprising how the count spiked when I was using my larger tools WITH good dust collection alone and then with the air cleaner also running. You should also consider a small, benchtop down-draft sanding station for hand sanding, too, especially in a small workspace.

[Thomas Wilson80]

A small, mobile unit that can connect to an articulating sanding hood behind the workpiece and connect to the bandsaw when in use is what I'd do and with pre-separation to make debris disposal easier.. But I'd also put an air cleaner in there.

Thanks for the info Jim. For a small unit, do you have any recommendations? Something like the Oneida mini-gorilla (though those seem like they would be really loud in such a confined space). Also any recs on an air cleaner?
I just started turning a couple years ago, but other than that have zero woodworking experience and am just trying to learn as I go but I appreciate the advice I've gotten on this forum, probably more helpful than anything else I've done!

Tom

[Jack Lilley]

My woodturning area is kind of in the corner of my shop. My lathe comes away from the wall at about a 45 degree angle, near the corner. I have a rolling tool box base directly behind me against the wall and a tool rack above that for my turning tools. My sharpening station is just to the side of the tool box, everything is in easy reach, behind me so I'm not reaching across the lathe for tools.
I have a 3hp Oneida dust collector with a big gulp (or whatever you call it) behind the lathe and a 4" hose on the turning side when sanding, it works great. I think for your setup something like the mini-gorilla would work well but your right that noise may be a factor.

[Jim Becker]

I like that portable mini-Gorilla for small shop use because, if I'm not mistaken, it can adapt pretty well to higher static pressure situations that come with smaller tools. It's not going to be quiet for sure, but you'll only be running it when you are actually sanding or cutting blanks on the bandsaw. Hearing protection is a must, especially in a small space when using something that generates big noise. The mini-Gorilla is listed at 80 db.