Thread: Options for a rental garage

To keep your flat mate happy I would get a canvas car cover made so the car can be kept clean. Unless you have near perfect dust collection or a lot of ventilation it will get dust on it.

Pete

Sounds like you have very limited options and you will most definitely need a car cover.
Your mate might get annoyed about the cover, ie he comes home from a big night out and you've just finished WW (ie dust still in the air) he forgets to put the cover on and in the morning car will be covered in dust.

Some suggestions.
Use a DC to collect the chips and some dust and perform regular dust inspections for leaks and maybe get a dust meter to keep an eye on things.
eg https://www.ebay.com/itm/Household-P...sAAOSwCA5cf5xF
Mount a room air filter unit on a high trolley/frame and wheel it near to where you are working?
Use a hydroponics style fan to vent fine dust and wear an extra tricky when its cold.
Wear a mask.

Cant comment on so many things here, but I do have a dust filter set up on a shelf. It is not on the roof, is against the wall and reasonably high on a top shelf.

Its the Carbatec one.

Last night I did a test with 3 huge fat sticks of incense. I was curious just how the air flows worked. I was utterly amazed at how vigorously the air was moving around every shelf, corner, crevice and niche of the *entire* studio. I didn't expect that at all. It was a big vortex. Watching the incense swirl and get sucked up was impressive. I truly didnt expect it to be so effective at moving the air.

Now for science!!!! Not a good test, but I let those sticks completely choke the room with smoke, then blew all the dust of *everything* using my compressor, all in aide of creating an unholy choking smog of death. Turned on the machine, on low (which is "800" CFM*), closed the door and let it go for 3-4 minutes.

The room was crystal clear when I returned. Its no test, but it *smelled* clean. It was visibly clean**

I'll buy one of those BobL PM1/2.5 specials and see what the results are.

I've also just purchased replacement filters for the box. MERV8 (G4) pre-filter, a MERV13 (F7) 500mm multipocket bag and a MERV15 (F9) post-filter that is 4" thick. The filters I have must be clagged, but I have no test to ascertain this.

One last thing, I did use a sheet of MDF on the end of the cleaner to act as a spinnaker to redirect the output air about 30° sideways. This made a much better and vigorous vortex with the incense.



* yeah right. The other settings are 1200 and 1700. The last created a typhoon.
** I know, the worst stuff is invisible. It was only a test.

with 3 huge fat sticks of incense
you have a delightful way to describe something......we use a very different word

Originally Posted by woodPixel

The room was crystal clear when I returned. Its no test, but it *smelled* clean. It was visibly clean**

Smell is probably more reliable than visibility.

I've also just purchased replacement filters for the box. MERV8 (G4) pre-filter, a MERV13 (F7) 500mm multipocket bag and a MERV15 (F9) post-filter that is 4" thick. The filters I have must be clagged, but I have no test to ascertain this.

MERV 15 is supposedly >95% efficient against bacteria - no size specified but ~1 micron
MERV 13 is supposedly >90% efficient against Proplet Nuceli (Sneeze) - no size specified
MERV 8 is supposedly >90% efficient against 3-10 micron dust - it really just protects the other filters

Below are my actual (in-situ) tests of room air filters - RAFs (darker blue line).
So not as good as a pleated filter (green) or needle felt filter (red) for fine dust but similar at 5 microns.
The test for RAF at 5 micron is affected by the fact that fewer 5 micron dust make it up to the height of an in-situ RAF.
In practice after a while the dust layers that settle on the filters determine the filtration more that the filters themselves.
Note mid-blue (cloth bags) and orange (Vacs) lines should use right hand axis (RHA).

Screen Shot 2019-05-02 at 3.50.40 pm.png

The smoke test (sometimes called a one shot test) is better than nothing but is not the best analog for wood dust collection - the sawdust source should be making dust on a continuous basis so that the RAF is required to capture it as the dust is made. Maybe try lighting 10 sticks and leave them burning and see how well it keeps up.

Good idea about using the MDF to redirect flow.

Thanks guys for your input.

I'm definitely going to make up a car cover regardless of the potential inconvenience.

In your original reply BobL you mention a DC at the source to collect chips and some dust. Seeing as this will have to be located in the garage with me do you think there are any benefits (aside from not having to clean up the chips post-working) of this DC over a wet dry vac to clean up and air filter or fan venting outside? The vac can be positioned outside and have a long run of hose without much loss of pressure.

Also those figures for the Room Air Filters are a little surprising. Not as efficient with the small particles as imagined.

I'm currently renting, I have generic 2hp dusty with a 5m hose that I wheel outside the garage when using and swap the hose between machines.
That and a good respirator are what seem to work for the small amount of powered cutting/panning I do.

Originally Posted by Aaron9

In your original reply BobL you mention a DC at the source to collect chips and some dust. Seeing as this will have to be located in the garage with me do you think there are any benefits (aside from not having to clean up the chips post-working) of this DC over a wet dry vac to clean up and air filter or fan venting outside? The vac can be positioned outside and have a long run of hose without much loss of pressure.

Swings and roundabouts - Vacs just won't collect enough air/dust, ie ~ 100 CFM, so leave most of the fine dust behind.
DC inside with 100 mm ducting will collect ~400 CFM so more air and dust collected but subject to leaks, and even 400 CFM is not going to be enough for somethings but its a lot better than 100 CFM.
Usually a 400CFM DC even with leaks will be better than a Vac.
The more dust left behind the longer it will take to clear with a ventilation fan.

Also those figures for the Room Air Filters are a little surprising. Not as efficient with the small particles as imagined.

That's right it's very interesting to perform tests and see what really goes on.
I have posted better data on RAFs before but those results were biassed because I included my super efficient better than hospital grade RAF in the average. My RAF is a full on HEPA unit and measures at 99.9% for all particle sizes >0.3 microns. The efficiency is actually most likely better than this because the spec for them is something like >99.99% at 0.3 microns - I just couldn't measure this with my own test gear. The last time I measured it with the test gear from work was about 6 years ago when it was something like 99.997%.

What sorts of machines are you running?

I'll be running a bench top thicknesser, band saw, drop saw, hand router, and small sanding machines

Have you discussed your options with your room mate? Does your plans to run a workshop from the garage line up with the rental agreement?

Both are rhetorical questions but something worth thinking about/running it past your landlord. As woodworking is one of those tasks that involves a risk that your landlord may not want to accept. Also speaking from personal experience, kickback can cause fair bit of damage to nearby walls/garage doors etc that you may risk losing your bond over.

Although the above may not cause any real issues i feel like the bigger issue may be with your room mate, particularly if they are a car person. eg i know loads of people who would never use a car cover they tend to cause more scratches than the dust settling on the car. Also the inconvenience of having to move the car outside everytime you want to work in the garage will drive me nuts.

Also if your concerns are noise from a DC is of potential cause for a neighbour running a thicky will definitely get your neighbours attention.

If both are not an issue, i'd build a mobile dusty enclosure to keep the noise down, work outside as much as i can and only use garage to store/finish projects.

Thanks for the suggestions tonzeyd.

TBH I haven't even considered the realities of woodworking not aligning with my rental agreement. I might have to look over what I've signed.
As far as damage to walls go I'm sure I can patch what ever holes I manage to put though them. If not I can bung up some nice wooden frames and make artworks out of them

The car is a non issue really. The car won't be in there when I'm working in there.

Noise is definitely something I am thinking about. I'll be running the thicky far less than what I would be a DC. Also I figured putting any noisy machines outside the walls of the garage is going to be worse than the noise produced within the garage.
I'm not so committed to the idea of building an external DC enclosure at this place as I would be a smaller enclosure for a vac. Also pressure losses over the long runs of HVLP pipes starts eating away at any gains.

Originally Posted by Aaron9

I'll be running a bench top thicknesser, band saw, drop saw, hand router, and small sanding machines

By small sanding machines do you mean hand held power tool sanders or bench type machines?

Overall I'd say a 2HP DC (Yes I know you have to have it located inside) and Vent fan would better suit your machines compared to a vac and Vent fan.

a crazy idea, but have you thought of community workshops, google tells me there are some but what they provide ???

another options are
Ipswich Makerspace: Creative Community and Workshop
SANE Makerspace

although aussie ones there must be something around Auckland

ps hope your not renting off my brother, miserable sod

By small sanding machines do you mean hand held power tool sanders or bench type machines

Both actually. ROS and a spindle

Originally Posted by Tonto

a crazy idea, but have you thought of community workshops, google tells me there are some but what they provide ???

ps hope your not renting off my brother, miserable sod

I've actually been part of a really great Mens Shed for the last year, but having moved to the other side of the city recently it makes it not so convenient to just pop in and get some work done.
I've got my tools coming over from Aus in a container in the next weeks so I thought I would give it a go of setting up some kind of workspace. If I can't do it here I'll wait to see what my next place offers up.

I hope I'm not renting off a miserable sod too