A furnace like you are describing takes indoor air and draws it into the
furnace to support combustion. The heat produced by combustion is transfered
through a metal heat exchanger and the vented outside through a flue to
prevent carbon monoxide from getting into the house. The air that goes
through the filter will be pulled into a fan and then blown through the
house along with any dust that makes it pass the filter. My shop is in the
garage, but in your situation I would consider installing pleated filters as
a minimum. Even with pleated filters you will still see some of the smaller
particles make it through and into the rest of the house.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Howdy,

I have an oil furnance in my basement, which is also where I want to
place my woodshop. My concerns are not over blowing up the house.
They are over the air quality of the rest of my home.

I have no problem turning off the furnance when I am in the shop,
'cause it's my home and mine alone! But what about dust particles
being sent into the rest of my home where I won't be wearing a HEPA
mask when the furnance is on.

Will the open flames of the oil burning make that a non issue?
Frankly, I don't know how the internal parts of an oil burning furnance
work other than the oil is sprayed out and set on fire. So, I don't
know if the air passes through the flams thus litterally burning
anything that would be in the air or if it passes through heated
baffels or something.

Granted, I have a filter on the furnance, but I think that is on the
intake side.