Hey folks. I'm moving into my new house ( and shop) next week. I am a bit concerned about the setup in my shop however. There is a woodstove for heat, and I do not have a dust collection setup. Am I looking at a fire hazard here?
Yes. And you might be, even *with* a dust collection system, because of fine airborne dust that comes through the filters or is never collected in the first place (dust collection systems are not 100% effective).
Best solution is to have the woodshop and the wood stove in different rooms.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
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Combustible material in the presence of flame is an obvious fire hazard. Who said anything about explosion?
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
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As far as fire hazards, with reasonable caution and good house keeping, not particularly.
Now if you are talking trouble with finishes, glues, possibly rust and if you live somewhere where the shop will go below freezing regularly you'd best be thinking about what to do with them. For the most part they don't fair well at low temperatures.
Also keep in mind that if you crank up the woodstove and shop is warm and toasty it doesn't mean the various items and liquids in the shop have reached good working temperatures.
Congratulations on the house and shop.
It looks like such an obvious hazard to me. But you do have a point about them coexisting for years. Wasn't any dust collection back in the day, and they only had wood or coal to keep em warm.
I respectfully disagree. This has been debunked many times and a simple google search will reveal ample converstion on this very topic. Your woodshop will not generate the concentration of particulates necessary for combustion. Woodstoves, open pilot light furnaces, etc. exist in woodshops all over the place and there are just no substantiating cases of fires, explosions, etc. If this were truely a problem, you'd be at equal risk from the spark that occurs everytime you throw a common household light switch in the garage. Those that continue to advocate that a woodstove can be a source of explosion due to airborne dust seem to overlook that little spark that eminates from their light switch.
I think some of us saw that as implied in your original reply Doug. Your reply below would seem to only apply to explosion since airborne dust burning is not a very realistic concern.
js responds:
I thought seriously about a woodstove in my shop a few years ago. I have a good friend who runs ye olde basic woodstove, cleans the flue when he remembers (not often), knocks the dust off the top when he lights the stove, has a pretty close to code set-up, and has never had a single problem. It sometimes makes me nervous.
I know another guy, nice guy but I don't know him well enough to call him a friend. Interviewed James for Woodshop News some years ago and discovered his shop had wood heat. You'd never know it: The stove is in the basement, almost totally separate from the woodworking area. He is in the shop ever day, follows every known care, and has never had a single problem.
You figure it out. I put in an electric furnace, free from a local HVAC dealer who had pulled it out as he installed a completely new set-up for someone (this is common, and sometimes the dealers have to pay to get rid of the stuff, so at least check it out).
Charlie Self "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics." Disraeli as quoted by Mark Twain
No more than any other kind of direct heat. Gas, oil, or electric all provide ignition sources. If you want to be completely safe from the risk of having your heating system ignite the dust then you have to go with steam or hot water or a heat pump without backup (regular electric heat uses a red-hot filament, heat pumps don't get much if any any hotter than the backside of an air conditioner).
Do keep the dust swept up, especially in the immediate vicinity of the stove.
You bring up a very good point here Mike. The front part of my shop is a separate room, and I saw thinking of using it as a finishing room. I think an electric heater is the way to go for that part of the shop to keep finishes from freezing. excellent point.
Depends what sort of work you do. Neander-only is fine, a sawbench wouldn't worry me, but if I was regularly routing MDF without dust control I just wouldn't do it.
You may also find that local safety rules simply forbid woodstoves in workshops.
I wouldn't worry too much about it. Remember wood stove's where the only = source of heat for many hundreds of years and people still did wood = working in heated shops. Obvious precautions should be taken like not = storing wood too close to the stove ect. Puff
MDF dust generated from common woodshop practices (sawing, sanding, etc.) is far to granular and far too sparse in density to pose a fire/explosion risk. Though... it is nasty stuff. Messy!!!!!
I'd not worry about the dust collection as much as solvents and the fumes from them.
One big caution. Wood stoves may be cool because it has not been burned for a day, but the can still be a hot coal or two under the ashes. You may think you are safe and start using a solvent based finish and BOOM ! ! ! If you are using a kerosene or propane heater you know the flame is out. Wood or coal, not so.
FWIW, solid fueled heaters are not allowed (National Fire Code) in garages attached to a house. You may have other local code issues. Ed
It depends on the ratio of hand tools to power tools you use and how messy you are. My grandfather had a wood stove in his woodshop for 50+ years and never had a fire. He was very neat and was afraid of power tools too. :)
Tim
Didn't have power tools making fine dust though.
And in the 19th century, exploding workshops _were_ a hazard.
no. I used to have a propane heater right next to the bandsaw with no DC. all that happened was the sawdust that landed on it smoked. it takes a very dense dust cloud to burn.
I recently read about storing finishes in a cabinet with a 60W bulb and a thermostat to keep them at a stable temperature. This would seem to be a much more economical solution than using an electric heater to keep the whole finishing area warm.
-Rick
js wrote:
So when did a work shop in the 1800s that was making something other than gunpowder explode?
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