New Shop in basement question - Woodworking Talk

AA8R · 08-21-2007, 08:10 PM

Needs some guidance on a new shop setup. I’ve move into a much small retirement house and the only place I can set up shop is in the basement. Below is the raw layout:

Configuration:
v I have partition off a 20’ x 24’ with 7’ concrete walls on three sides.
v The furnace, water heater and laundry area are all in the other half of the basement.
v I have sealed the concrete floor and painted the concrete walls white.
v I have 3 - 20amp circuits available for the new shop.
v Floor joist above are exposed.
v Heat and cold air return run through new shop area
v Water pipes and PVC drain pipes in basement ceiling
v Living space above

Equipment:
v 10” Jet table saw with 4’ table extension.
v 15” Jet band saw
v 6” Jet jointer
v Router table
v 15” Jet floor drill press
v Oscillating Spindle sander
v Shop vac for dust collection.
v 30” x 60” assembly bench.
v Varity of clamps, hand tools, etc.

My biggest concern is the dust getting into the heat/air condition ducts and also up through the new shop ceiling into the living space above. I hope you all can help me with the following thoughts:

v Is it worth taping all heat/air condition ducts?
v Is it worth insulated between the floor joist?
v Is worth nailing a sheet of heavy gauge plastic to the bottom of the floor joist in an attempt to keep the dust from sifting up into the living space above?
v Adding a 1 – 1 ½ hp “Dust collector” to my equipment. Not knowing how much noise one makes I am thinking of constructing a small, insulated room to try to keep the noise down. (I’ll have to duct in fresh air into that small room). Or I can build that small room out in the garage. This shop will be in Michigan and it gets pretty cold. Will this cause any problems being outside?

Thanks for the help,

Randy

Peter Bosse · 08-22-2007, 07:32 AM

My 2¢ :

You've gone a long way already, with the partition and the floor prep. If dust is your biggest concern, then I would do two things.

a. buy an air filtration system, mount it about in the middle (left to right) of a wall, up near the floor joists. Make sure that you run it any time that you're making dust and leave it running for at least an hour after you're done for the day.

b. Put a sealer of some kind all around the door going into the other side of the basement, and add a good sweep at the bottom. When I had a basement shop I used a strip of that self-adhesive felt stuff that you put on the bottom of chair legs, etc. I would not use the plastic/rubber weather stripping because any little imperfection will allow dust to escape into the other space.

If you vent the dust collector to the outside you'll create a negative pressure in the shop, which will help a lot. Or you could put an exhaust fan in a window.

I also have a couple of questions:

1. What will you do about heat in the shop? If the shop will be sealed off from the rest of the house it will get cold. If you have warm air heat you would need a return, which present a whole other set of dust control problems.

2. You say that you have three 20-amp circuits. That doesn't seem like very much for the size shop that you have. Just a thought.

AA8R · 08-22-2007, 11:04 AM

Thanks Pete for the reply and your suggestions.

Cold air return. Good catch. I didn’t even think about that and creating negative pressure in the basement and I sure don’t won’t that dust all through the house. There is a heat run on the shop side of the basement feeding the upstairs living area and it has one vent feeding the shop side of the basement. There is a cold air return chase that is between two floor joist. That chase is nothing more than aluminum foil backed cardboard stapled to the bottom of the floor joist making the chase going into the gas furnace. I suppose should rig up some sort of vent with a couple of filters. I can do the exhaust fan in the window and will do the ceiling “Air filtration”. Any thoughts?

Electrical. I wished I had more available. I’ve only got 150amp service to the house. The 3 circuits that I have are coming from a 60amp sub-panel I installed for the shop. The main circuit panel is now full. I’ll just have to be careful of what’s running at the same time. The “Dust Collector” and the lighting will not be drawing from those 3 circuits.

Really do appreciate the help. I haven’t been woodworking long so I’m still in the sharp uphill part of the learning curve.

Randy

Al Killian · 08-23-2007, 02:05 PM

I have heavy plastic stapled to the ceiling mostly to control the dust when finishing. That is when all them little specs fall from the beams and land in your finish.

I also use felt on the bottom of my doors to help keep the dust in. The three circuits that you have should be plenty for a one person shop. If possible run a sub-panel to the shop area.