Dust Collector Necessary in small space with double doors?

[Charles Li]

I have an approximately 10x20 space (with some unusable nooks) that has one door to my house and double doors to the outside. I just got into woodworking in the spring. Weather has been fine so I normally air it out by keeping the double doors open. Well, winter is coming and it's already cold enough that I leave the doors closed. I cut some mdf and wow is that nasty! Now I've been wearing my respirator the whole time then after I'm done, open the doors and run a box fan for a few hours. After that I leave an air purifier (I know totally wrong but have no other use for it) on in there.

Is that enough to clear the air? One problem is there's no venting other than the door. It's basically like a garage space. My only other thought was to get a dust collector, cut a hole in the wall to exhaust it to the outside and vent fresh air from the attic above. However, would that even be enough where I could ditch wearing a ventilator? Seems like a lot of work when I can just open the door at the end. Although, maybe that won't even be an option when it's super cold? I only get an hour max to work at a time.

Besides protecting me, I really don't want it getting into the house. Thanks for any insight.

[Lee Schierer]

Before I got my dust collector, everything in my shop had a light coating of dust on it. You could tell how long something had been sitting there by how thick the dust was. After having the dust collector my shop is much more dust free. My set up isn't perfect, so I still get some sawdust on the floor, but not the general fine dust coating on everything in the room. I don't work with mdf, but if I did I would certainly want to wear a respirator and have a dust collector to suck up the sawdust.

My DC vents into the shop. Outside vented units will suck the heat out of your shop in no time. In order for your DC to move air out, air has to get from some place. If your shop has 10' ceilings it contains about 2000 cubic feet of air. Even a small dust collector is going to move at least 500 cfm, which means that the air in you shop will completely change every four minutes with an outside vented unit. Not a happy thought when it is 10 degrees outside in your area.

[Mike Wilkins]

Even with open doors, you need a dust collector to remove dust/chips during machining operations. A respirator will protect your lungs, but not the stuff that can get into the house (your spouse will love that). You will still be able to work there even in cold weather, without the need to open the doors. It will make clean-up much easier, protect your lungs, keep your house clean, keep the significant other happy, and give you an excuse to shop for another tool.

[Rebecca Jameson]

I have a 12x30 space with double doors and I waited to buy a dust collector. I now have one and definitely notice the difference. I wish I had made it a higher priority and gotten one a lot sooner.

[Charles Li]

Thanks, this is the kind of info I was looking for. Sounds like it's time to start looking at DC's (or rather overdue). I do get a layer of dust despite opening doors which I just assumed was unavoidable. Hopefully this will take care of that.

I liked the idea of venting outside to avoid dealing with filters plus there's an off chance I could keep the DC outside. The cold air replacement I didn't think about though. I could vent fresh air from the house. Is that a bad idea for my house/furnace? My other problem would be sealing that vent when I don't need it (just cover with one of those magnet deals?). I didn't realize how quickly a DC can cycle the air. There's radiant heating but never really used it much as I've never had to spend time in there during winter. I doubt that could keep up against the DC?

[Ed Wood]

I have a work shop about your size 12x14 and a dc would take up what little space I have left . I use a shop vac at each tool it works for me.

[David Kumm]

If the shop air isn't very good and you have negative pressure in the house from the furnace ( slightly ) your wife will complain about the dust cloud every time you open the door. Dave

[Lester Sak]

My shop is the same size as yours, also with double doors (old detached garage). I also have a smaller wooden shed that shares one of the shop walls. I installed an Oneida V-3000 in the shed and ran the duct work through the wall. The difference is amazing! As someone else said, it's the first thing that you SHOULD buy when you start woodworking, but usually it's the last thing. I heat my shop with a wall mounted propane heater and was concerned about heat loss from the air being sucked into the shed and not returned. But so far I haven't noticed a difference, although I only run the collector when it's needed, so usually no longer than 20-30 minutes at a time and usually less than that. If when it gets colder I'm losing heat quicker, I'll add a return.