# workshop in basement



## JoeMemphis (Jan 19, 2013)

Hello all, looking at setting up a workshop in the basement but was concerned about sawdust getting everywhere in the house & breathing it in...plus half the basement is a rec room. Anyone have sawdust issues in the house working in the basement? 

Thanks, 
Joe


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## Tman1 (Jan 14, 2013)

I don't have any issues and my shop is right next to our furnace room. But, before I made a couple of changes, I did have some issues with a film of sawdust settling on anything in the basement. I added an overhead dust collector and more importantly, a door (at first it was an old sheet hung over the opening). Whenever I do something that creates lots of dust, I just close the door until the dust has a chance to settle. I use the dust collector to reduce the time and minimize the film thickness that settles inside my shop.


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## vinnypatternmaker (Mar 27, 2011)

Hi!
We started with a basement workshop (*very* complete) and adjacent to an oil fired heating system, in Brooklyn, NY, no less :huh:!
With the implementation of:
1) Great weatherstripping on all doors to shop
2) Great dust collection (Grizzly/Penn state)
3) Overhead dust collectors (many shop built from air conditioning squirrel cage motors)
4) Downdraft sanding tables, a few shop-built
5) Good cleanups after day is done
6) Loving parents (noise-wise understanding)
7) Hepa air filters on upper floors for Parents
8) Lousy workbench clutter, but sleek work enviornment
9) Shop vacs (3)

Not perfect (never is!), but not too shoddy either :thumbsup:!
It can be done, but not with some $$ and creative thinkin'!
We're sure our friends on this forum will come up with things we 've missed, but that's why this is such a great forum :thumbsup:!
Best,
Marena and Vinny


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## mobilepaul (Nov 8, 2012)

JoeMemphis said:


> Hello all, looking at setting up a workshop in the basement but was concerned about sawdust getting everywhere in the house & breathing it in...plus half the basement is a rec room. Anyone have sawdust issues in the house working in the basement?
> 
> Thanks,
> Joe


Joe, I will add my 2 cents in. The large sawdust is the easy part. The stuff that is not so easy, well, not easy at all, is the particulate down in the .5-1.0 micron range. That superfine dust that you cannot really see but gets deep in your lungs. That's the stuff that you don't really see on the surface of everything but the slightest breeze with reactivate into the air. Vinny made some very good suggestions. Dust collection is difficult. You should read all you can on this site http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm and this site http://www.jpthien.com/. That will get you started down the road to thinking about dust in the right way.

In a conversation I had with Bill Pentz he told me about his daughter working out in the shop on some hardwood. She was merely using a hand plane and planing the edge of a board. She had taken about 7 swipes at this point. There was no appreciable/visible dust in the air. He sat his dylos dust meter down on the table next to her. The needle pegged in the bad air quality range. HE said the air quality would have failed, miserably, in an EPA or OSHA test environment. Even with hand tools, microscopic explosions of dust particulate are taking place as the plane blade is forced through the wood.

You need to look hard at what machines you use and try to capture all the dust you can. The over-the-blade device on the table saw, sanding, etc. It's not straight forward and you cannot get it all, but you can capture the lion's share if you are smart about DC and read all the current lit on it.

I've watched countless numbers of threads talking about DC and what you need and what to use and, a good bit of it is misinformation, IF, you believe a few well educated individuals in the dust collection game. I happen to agree with Phil and Bill and Alan (the guy that invented the incra I-box) when they talk about DC.

That said, you can spend an inordinate amount of money on DC. Heck some DC systems are the budget of small countries  but, if you are smart about the size of your ducts, the type and size of your DC unit and how to capture the most with the least, you will come out a winner....

Oh, in an added note, Bill Pentz said that the only way to be sure you aren't re-breathing the superfine dust, taking for granted that you are even able to capture it, based on your DC system design, is to vent to the outside. He says that any filtering on the inside of the building will allow whatever sized particles that the filter cannot capture, to reenter the inside airspace.

Ok, so I gave you 3 cents worth, sorry!

Paul


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## JoeMemphis (Jan 19, 2013)

This sounds like it might get expensive... maybe I need to just suck it up in the cold garage... the 0 degree weather just has me antsy to use my new power tools. Thanks for all the advice.

Joe


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## mikeintexas (Oct 25, 2011)

Everyone's given you good and correct advice so far. It's just that not everyone has the money to just plunk down on ducting, filtration systems, etc. My workshop is in my garage, which also stores all the crap we can't fit in the house. On a rare ocassion that we might get hail, I shoehorn our car in there and have to climb out the window to get in or out. (not kidding). So I understand "double usage" of space.

If you're just starting out, make sure you buy a good shop vac. I just bought a Rigid 14 gallon vac to replace my very old and abused 6 gallon Shop Vac. I love the Rigid. Along with that shop vac, buy adapters to fit the shop vac hose to whatever equipment you happen to have. You will have to move the vac hose from piece to piece as you use it, but it will get at least half the dust. I have a shop vac, a 2HP dust collector and a Thein Baffle; yet I still have to move the hose from piece to piece as I go b/c I cannot install permanent ducting b/c all my machines are on wheels. It's a PITA, but it works.

Try to put a barrier b/t the shop and the rec room areas. Thick, plastic dropcloths will work very well. If the SO doesn't like them, well, that's something we all deal with.  Better that than dust everywhere. Start small, think practical. You'll be amazed at how well you'll do.


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## bradnailer (Nov 11, 2008)

Don't do what I did. We lived in Denver for a short while. Our house had no A/C but a huge attic fan. One August I was in the basement doing some woodworking. Had the basement windows open. The attic fan was on and commenced to suck saw dust over the entire house.


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## mikeintexas (Oct 25, 2011)

bradnailer said:


> Don't do what I did. We lived in Denver for a short while. Our house had no A/C but a huge attic fan. One August I was in the basement doing some woodworking. Had the basement windows open. The attic fan was on and commenced to suck saw dust over the entire house.


 <--that was you when you walked back into the house, right? 

LOL! That is a great story! Not great at the time, I'm sure...but now you can laugh about it! :laughing:


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## Bonedoc (Jan 14, 2013)

Wow that is priceless now but I bet wife did not find it in the least bit funny... Thanks for sharing that brightened my day


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## bradnailer (Nov 11, 2008)

Bonedoc said:


> Wow that is priceless now but I bet wife did not find it in the least bit funny... Thanks for sharing that brightened my day


Yep, we laugh about it now. My solution at the time was to get the leaf blower and blow out the house. That, wasn't well received either. :laughing:


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## Bonedoc (Jan 14, 2013)

Oh my that is what I would've done holy cow we think alike. Too darn funny laughing laughing


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