I have a house with a smallish basement. I say smallish because there
is enough space for my lathe, but not enough for the dust and debris
it creates.

Does anyone know of or have some ideas about how to confine the dust
and debris in say a 6' by 6' area?

I have a house with a smallish basement. I say smallish because there
is enough space for my lathe, but not enough for the dust and debris
it creates.

Does anyone know of or have some ideas about how to confine the dust
and debris in say a 6' by 6' area?
mark

Mark..

I have no basement, so my lathe is in our "tiny" utility room.

Hope this helps. It works for me and was really cheap to make...

I took some PVC pipe and made a rectangle which I hung on the ceiling
then added material which hangs to the floor. It works like a shower
curtain. I spin the shroud closed (around the lathe and myself) to
turn and then open when I am done. I tie-wrapped a tiny shop vac to my
lathe. I tie-wrapped the widest vacuum bar upside down so it catches
debris as I turn. Then I remove the hose from the bar to vacuum up the
remaining mess around the lathe and floor. Viola! Clean as a whistle!

I picked out a plastic curtain material so I could have as much light
as possible filter into my turning area and also so I could see out in
case other people, or pets, were entering my work area as I turn.

Since my furnace is also in this room, I really had to keep the debris
and dust contained. I have a foam type furnace filter which I clean
monthly, and it does get dusty, but no where near as bad as without
the curtain. My neighbor has already blown his furnace motor twice
doing woodworking in his home without any containment. Those motors
may not be very expensive, but I'm not making replacement a habit.

Hope this at least gives you some ideas. Let us know what you finally
come up with as a solution. Good luck!

`Casper
"The greatest difficulty in life is to make knowledge effective, to convert it into practical wisdom." ~Sir William Osler

Casper wrote:

I have a house with a smallish basement. I say smallish because there
is enough space for my lathe, but not enough for the dust and debris
it creates.

Does anyone know of or have some ideas about how to confine the dust
and debris in say a 6' by 6' area?
mark

Mark..

I have no basement, so my lathe is in our "tiny" utility room.

Hope this helps. It works for me and was really cheap to make...

I took some PVC pipe and made a rectangle which I hung on the ceiling
then added material which hangs to the floor. It works like a shower
curtain. I spin the shroud closed (around the lathe and myself) to
turn and then open when I am done. I tie-wrapped a tiny shop vac to my
lathe. I tie-wrapped the widest vacuum bar upside down so it catches
debris as I turn. Then I remove the hose from the bar to vacuum up the
remaining mess around the lathe and floor. Viola! Clean as a whistle!

I picked out a plastic curtain material so I could have as much light
as possible filter into my turning area and also so I could see out in
case other people, or pets, were entering my work area as I turn.

Since my furnace is also in this room, I really had to keep the debris
and dust contained. I have a foam type furnace filter which I clean
monthly, and it does get dusty, but no where near as bad as without
the curtain. My neighbor has already blown his furnace motor twice
doing woodworking in his home without any containment. Those motors
may not be very expensive, but I'm not making replacement a habit.

Hope this at least gives you some ideas. Let us know what you finally
come up with as a solution. Good luck!

`Casper
"The greatest difficulty in life is to make knowledge effective, to
convert it into practical wisdom." ~Sir William Osler

Mark, you have two problems. The one you mentioned and the other one is
your lungs. Casper's post took care of the first. The second is a lot
harder to work on, not to mention more expensive. :-)

What you could do is seal the room with polypropylene and install a dust
collector that vents outside. What you do with the dust outside depends on
several thing - the chief of which is the "little woman." :-) You can
get a 650CFM dust collector from HF for not much, or a Jet for that matter
(think I bought mine for about $100) Either way you get the dust out of
the area and out of your lungs.

Deb

wrote in message
ps.com...
I have a house with a smallish basement. I say smallish because there
is enough space for my lathe, but not enough for the dust and debris
it creates.

Does anyone know of or have some ideas about how to confine the dust
and debris in say a 6' by 6' area?


Walls. I'd go solid material rather than plastic, because you can vacuum
solid walls without sucking them in. Real important to collect the sanding
dust as close to point of production as possible. Other turning doesn't make
dust, so you can drop the shavings right into a leaf bag as you're turning,
and scrape them from behind the lathe if you put a full tabletop to the
wall. Else you end up crawling and fishing into crevices to clear shavings.

I'd put the DC outside the walls for the noise problem, but bring
double-filtered air back into my space. The pleated canister-type filters
are pretty good, but you can also put them inside a pleated furnace filter
box and add a nuisance mask if you see too much or start to sneeze or
generate nose solids.

Mark, you have two problems. The one you mentioned and the other one is
your lungs. Casper's post took care of the first. The second is a lot
harder to work on, not to mention more expensive. :-) Deb

Very true on the lungs, which is why I have a mask for turning. The
curtain is really to contain the wood chips and whatever dust
possible. I use the shop vac as a dust/debris collector while I am
turning. It ports through an old dryer vent hole to an outside
container that I later empty into the outside trash. We used an
inexpensive trash can and modified for the hoses. At first I thought I
would tire of the mask, but I have grown to prefer it I use it for
everything in my crafting process. (ones for dust, paint, etc.)

The only thing that would improve this set up IMHO would be a small vent fan
to cause air from the room to move INTO the curtained space. Same idea as
the power vent masks. That way the little tiny dust would travel out of the
space into the air and not into the room. I'd try a 100 cfm bath
fan--they're cheap.

Old Guy



"Casper" wrote in message
...
I have a house with a smallish basement. I say smallish because there
is enough space for my lathe, but not enough for the dust and debris
it creates.

Does anyone know of or have some ideas about how to confine the dust
and debris in say a 6' by 6' area?
mark

Mark..

I have no basement, so my lathe is in our "tiny" utility room.

Hope this helps. It works for me and was really cheap to make...

I took some PVC pipe and made a rectangle which I hung on the ceiling
then added material which hangs to the floor. It works like a shower
curtain. I spin the shroud closed (around the lathe and myself) to
turn and then open when I am done. I tie-wrapped a tiny shop vac to my
lathe. I tie-wrapped the widest vacuum bar upside down so it catches
debris as I turn. Then I remove the hose from the bar to vacuum up the
remaining mess around the lathe and floor. Viola! Clean as a whistle!

I picked out a plastic curtain material so I could have as much light
as possible filter into my turning area and also so I could see out in
case other people, or pets, were entering my work area as I turn.

Since my furnace is also in this room, I really had to keep the debris
and dust contained. I have a foam type furnace filter which I clean
monthly, and it does get dusty, but no where near as bad as without
the curtain. My neighbor has already blown his furnace motor twice
doing woodworking in his home without any containment. Those motors
may not be very expensive, but I'm not making replacement a habit.

Hope this at least gives you some ideas. Let us know what you finally
come up with as a solution. Good luck!

`Casper
"The greatest difficulty in life is to make knowledge effective, to
convert it into practical wisdom." ~Sir William Osler

I use 2x2's and suspend them from the garage ceiling using simple
hooks. (attach hooks to the end of the 2x2 and the ceiling). I then
use thumbtacks to attach vapour barrier to the 2 by 2's. It's a
little crude but it works well. It allows plenty of light in, and you
don't feel cramped. Also, should you need the space in a hurry (need
to get a vehicle into the garage, etc)...you can remove the "room" in
seconds...either take it down and roll it up, or "accordian" it and
hang all four 2x2's close to the wall.