How much ventilation?

[rnbraud]

Hello all,

 

New to the forum and starting the planning work for my cozy. I will be getting my plans in September!

 

I will be doing the majority of my building in the garage. I plan to utilize one side for layups, sanding, and finishing. I will enclose this area with simple wall made up of 2x3's and plastic.

 

I am wonder how much ventalation to include. I was thinking of two box fans, one on each end. The "intake" would be located in the inner most part of the garage with a conventional A/C filter. The "exhaust" would be located at the outer most part venting out of the garage under the door, also with a conventional A/C filter in front of it. Finally, since I live in Dallas, I will have a small window A/C unit for cooling.

 

I also plan to utilize some sort of dust collection system to capture as much as possible at the source of sanding and foam conturing.

 

Is this enough, too much, or too little for ventilation? I have direct access to the roof over the outermost 1/2 of the garage where I could install an exhaust fan, with filter, similar to bathrooms.

 

 

Any advice or tidbits will be greatly appreciated.

[Jon Matcho]

I'd love to have a shop setup like that, so if you like it, go for it.

 

My shop is only going to have a positive source of air so that any fumes from the epoxy have a slow and sure way out. As far as dust collection, I'm not planning on anything elaborate, let alone anything at all. I'll try to buy new tools with dust collection systems, when the old tools die, but until then it's just masks and my Shop Vac.

 

Give us a picture when you get your shop setup.

[argoldman]

A word of semi-caution with fans in workshops, especially for those of us in the colder climes (at least periodically cold).

 

When I was building my first glass plane, I used a window fan in my basement shop drawing air in from the rest of the house and venting it to the outside. This worked well for a good part of the year ( I started in the spring, at that time). As hapapens in Chicago toward september and october the weather started to cool down and it was time to light the pilot of my furnace which had extinguished itself, but I had not noticed it since no heat was required for the previous months. I lit the pilot without incident. When I cycled the thermostat to test the burners, I saw flames shooting out of the furnace . I quickly shut off the gas (the fireproof walls surrounding the furnace did their job). Not believing what I had seen, I tried it again with the same results. Then I committed the first cardinal sin of a homebuilder-- I called a professional, a furnace guy!

 

Said guy came looked over my furnace, finding it in good working order, other than the presenting symptoms, checked the draft of my chimney.-- The damn thing was drafting in reverse.

 

After consultation with him as to a cure, the only thing he could think of was that there was some kind of restriction in the chimney itself and they would have to dismantle it brick by brick and rebuild it!!

 

After I told him to pound morter into his chimney, I looked at the situation in a calmer light. What I found was that the Fan that was exhausting the air out out my workshop was actually drawing its air supply down the chimney, through the furnace. Because it was also getting air from the rest of the house, the CO developed by the intermittent water heater cycling was mixed with ambient air and exhausted outside and caused no problems.

 

I shudder to think what might have been had I assumed the furnace was working properly, turned the thermostat to heat and been away when the furnace started to cycle.

 

The solution was easy, I opened a window on the other side of the basement and allowed the air to flow easily during times of layups and turned the fan off at other times.

[PaulL]

For cheap dust filtration you could get a $10 20x20 box fan and tape a 20x20 furnace filter on the back of it. See http://www.abri.com/sq2000/dustfilter.jpg

[rnbraud]

Hello PaulL,

 

That is exactly what I was planning, except it was for general ventilation. The dust control was for sucking up dust and particulates at the source; i.e. when cutting and sanding the foam ro when finishing.

 

I was thinking of using a shop vac connected to some 2" PVC pipe along the wall and connecting some 1" tees 1ft intervals with simple valves. kinda like those central vacumming systems you see in expensive homes. That way I just need to connnect some flexible tubing to the valve output and locate the other end near the work and it will suck up any particles before they get in the air.

 

Just thinking at this point. I hate, I mean really hate, the sound of Shop Vacs.

 

Later.

[deronjthomas]

For cheap dust filtration you could get a $10 20x20 box fan and tape a 20x20 furnace filter on the back of it. See http://www.abri.com/sq2000/dustfilter.jpg

That is a great solution.

[sbarton]

I'm considering a similar setup here in sunny Colorado. We have a small 3 br tri-level with a half basement. The basement is looking more and more like the prefered workspace at least for the first phase of constuction on a Long-EZ.

 

We have a gas furnace and gas hot water heater in the basement and I am concered about epoxy and hardener fumes in such close proximity to an open flame. I have a couple of windows that I can use for a ventilation setup much like yours.

 

Can this type of work area be used safely? I'm not totally familure with all of the chemicals that will be in use yet, but I'm a little concerned.

 

I hope I can work something out, otherwise winter building may not be an option for me.

 

 

Bart

[Jon Matcho]

Can this type of work area be used safely?

Yes. Everything I've ever read on the epoxy system I'm using, MGS 285, indicates that neither the resin nor hardener are flamable. I do not know about other systems, but MGS is the most popular these days.

 

Realistically, a small low volume fan taking air out of one of those windows should take care of everything. If your furnace is a forced-air system, you want to be sure that the epoxy fumes (even if odorless) and fiberglass shards, microballoons, dust, etc. do not go up into your living area. You can build a simple "closet" around that stuff with 6mil plastic sheets if you need.

 

Get some incense sticks and test to verify your setup and you should be fine. Also, being able to building indoors AND in your home is a great bonus for being able to visit your project often.

[Jon Matcho]

I hate, I mean really hate, the sound of Shop Vacs.

Jerry Schneider showed me a great idea when I was visiting. He put his shopvac outside of his shop in a plastic garbage can and ran the hose inside to his shop. When I saw it I immediately realized that I wasn't going to bother any further looking into a centralized vacuum system, and instead do something like this. You can see the garbage can in one of the pictures here: http://home.earthlink.net/~jerskip/FIRST/Workshop.html