Dust collection below garage floor -- Any Issues?

[Ken Cohen]

Hi -

I'm in the planning stages of turning the back 12' of my old garage into dedicated shop space. The structure was probably a barn in a prior life: 40' wide x 30' deep two floors: upper is currently large 2 door garage space with plywood floor, lower (front below grade) is full height gravel covered old barn space. Everything is unfinished.

Current thinking is to build a wall to separate shop and garage (live in New England and need it). Would then finish out 1/3 shop are with insulation, wall, etc.

Regarding dust collection, seems like going under the floor is the best option, particularly since the space below is full head height and unused. I would run ducts below the joists to maintain future movement flexibility. I would also like to locate the DC in the lower level for sound and dust reasons.

Questions:

1. Am I missing something obvious about below floor dust collection? (flow, fire risk, etc.)

2. Is there any problem locating the DC in the lower level?

3. If the DC is in the lower level, can I avoid the extra expense of a 1 micron solution?

Thanks for the help. And, I welcome any suggestions from others with a similar situation.

Ken

[Robert Reece]

Your situation sounds ideal to me. The dust collector on a lower level and all piping running down from the machines.

As for the filtration, if you don't care about losing the heat (if any), then I wouldn't filter it at all. I'd use a cyclone and just exhaust it out the sidewall of your barn. If you care about returning the air to your shop, then you'll need the good filtration.

[Chuck Isaacson]

Your situation sounds ideal to me. The dust collector on a lower level and all piping running down from the machines.

As for the filtration, if you don't care about losing the heat (if any), then I wouldn't filter it at all. I'd use a cyclone and just exhaust it out the sidewall of your barn. If you care about returning the air to your shop, then you'll need the good filtration.

What he said.. Vent that thing outside.. As far as below the floor mounting, I think that you would be just fine. Should be pretty easy to do..

[Kent A Bathurst]

Someday, there will be one more house move, and my dream version is I get to build a shop. The DC piping and power will definitely be below the floor.

And the DC outside the main shop.

And a finishing room.

And a room for a few antique pinball machines - the old mechanical pins I used to hammer in my misspent youth.

That should do it.

[Alan Schaffter]

Works great! my shop is above my garage. The cyclone is at garage level and the PVC duct runs along the garage ceiling. I punched through the ceiling and floor behind the shop knee wall for machines located there and up through the middle of the floor for my TS and jointer. In case I need to roll a machine over the floor ports I added trap doors that cover them.

Cyclone:



Ducting:

[Chris Padilla]

Pretty slick, Alan! I've got the same garage door openers you have...nice to have that thing out of the middle of the upper shop space!

[Joe A Faulkner]

Living in New England, if you heat this shop and plan to do much wood working November-March, I don't think you should vent outside. If you build or buy a good cyclone or have a good Thien Separator system, then spending the few extra hundred bucks on good filters will be cheaper in the long run than exhausting your nice warm shop air right out of your building. I would guess you are looking at 1-3 seasons for the filters to pay for themselves.

[Ken Cohen]

Thanks to all for the very helpful responses. My take is that I'm lucky to have the under floor opportunity -- and it's pretty easy to set up.

In a perfect world, I'd think about a cyclone, but $$ are an issue. Based on my distances, I think I need a 3HP conventional DC or a 2HP cyclone.

Question: How would I handle the filtering with a conventional DC? Does the size of the filter matter?

Specifically, say I could get a good price on the following used DC?

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/RC/AppData/Local/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.png[/IMG]

Thanks to all for the help.

Ken