"Larry Levinson" wrote in message
...
|
| we haven't noticed a problem with the dust going from the workshop,
| through the furnace, to the rest of the house.

Nor have I, with my forced-air natural gas heater, which shares a space with
the shop. Keep in mind that the air supply in the room where the furnace is
generally does *not* mix with the air that's being heated, nor should it
ideally. The air in the furnace room provides the oxygen for combustion of
whatever you're burning in order to generate heat. The air to be heated is
drawn in from the returns in the house and is kept separate from the air in
the shop (and the combustion gases) by a heat exchanger. The only shop air
that mixes with the heated air is what leaks around the edges of the filter
on the return plenum.

If you're going to work in the same room as your heater, you need
ventilation. I always keep a window open, even when I'm not doing anything
woodworkingly that would require it.

I shut off the heater and vacuum it out every week or so. You don't want
sawdust or anything caking up in there and being ignited. Generally I don't
let sawdust aerosolize enough to warrant the danger of explosion. You
really want to think about dust collection for the tools.

I avoid using oil-based products in that room at all, but if I have to I do
it at the opposite end of the room, under a window that has forced
ventilation outward.

--Jay