Outside shop

[DReicht]

Unfortunately I don't have the greatest conditions for a shop, a large amount of acreage, nor a well ventilated basement, thus I am left with my forge and anvil and quench tank outside and my tools (vice, workbench, angle grinder, etc) inside. Because my basement is not very well ventilated I'm sort of worried about working with micarta, g-10, stabilized woods, etc. A respirator of course would be orn, but it doesn't solve the problem only postpones it. I was thinking an outside shed but once again, dust particles would remain a problem and it would only prevent me from goign down stairs.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I.E. safer woods/materials to use for handles? Or maybe some sort of makeshift ventilation system? I was thinking a shopvac taped down to my bench/area would absorb the majority of the particles?

 

[jdm61]

someone on here posted a pick of a really cool ducting job they did with a medium size dust collector. He ran the ducting overhead to each machine or work station and just hooks up or opens the appropraite duct. Most of the decnt sized machines will let you run 2 hoses at once. That is what i plan to do when I set up my new shop. Right now, I put the water bucket under the KMG platen and make lots of soggy steel wool and slightly fewer black boogers

 

[crex]

DR - any dust in your lungs is not desirable. Some may be more readily toxic and/or carcigenic, but they are all bad.
Do your family a big favor and spend your first bucks on a decent dust collecting system. Otherwise your family will have to figure out what to do with all that dusty rusted equipment you can't use anymore because you're in a hospital bed on a respirator. You can't spend a more valuable dollar on equipment.

 

[JCaswell]

My favorite is to run a big (32-plus) inch louvered fan in the wall right behind, or to one side of your grinder. The big stuff still goes down, but all that little aspirable stuff goes right outside away from you.
It's best if you can move big CFM through the shop in general when making dust or fumes.

In addition to this set up around my grinder, I use a powerful (2 hp 1500CFM) dust collector with 6-inch plumbing in an integrated system with individual gates for each machine. This services four of my larger grinders including two surface grinders.

I'll run it all and still use a respirator.

 

[DReicht]

Well thats the thing, there's nothing more important to me than my family's health and mine. I would prefer to do it outside only problem is a clamp. Thinking about it I could probably clamp down the blade onto a picnic table and run an extension cord for bevels, but handle material still raises a problem.