Any pen turners "in da house"?

[redfishsc]

Alright, I am going to have to move my penturning indoors. I will be moving and changing jobs, and the last thing I want to do is ask my new employer (likely a cabinet or millwork shop) if I can take up a corner with my turning stuff. My current employer is fine with it, but I don't want to nag a new employer.

That, and it's a DRAG having the lathe 20 miles from the house...having to set everything up to make 3 pens..... tear it all down... yeck...



Our apartment will have a spare bedroom and I've already built a fairly massive cabinet with a 48" shoplight to hold the lathe. Will be drilling with the Beall collets, no drill press.


Anyone else here do their pen turning inside the home? Other than keeping the dust under control, what tips might ye have for me?


And yes, I am hoping that a good shop vac will make up for the lunatic amount of dust/shavings that I'll wind up with.

 

[GBusardo]

Redfish,
Good luck in the new job!
As far as in da house goes, I do my turning (and all the other woodworking) in the basement. One thing you got to do is build a hood, if you dont have one, for your lathe. I made mine out of 1/2 inch ply and it does a decent job. It catches most of the fine dust and keeps most of the fumes away from my nose. Mine is a constant battle with sawdust as I am sure yours will be. Will you have any problems with noise? My Shop Vac is a "quiet" model and it will help a lot.
Again, good luck in the new job and I am sure your new "in house shop" will be fine.

 

[ctEaglesc]

Did you consider building a down draft table type aircleaner into the lathe cabinet.
IT would recirculate the room air, change/clean filters often.

 

[cozee]

I am designing a downdraft such as eagle mentioned but it will have a collector so filter changes will not be needed nearly as often. And since there will be a filter after the collector, the filter in one's vacuum will rarely need to be changed because of the lathe. It will also help when turning, to draw away odor from acrylics and antler.

 

[kent4Him]

You may also want to look into a air purifier. A Jet 1000 would help a lot to prevent the rest of your apartment being a dust collector.

 

[Skye]

I've been known to do it in extreme circumstances, lol

 

[redfishsc]

Lol, nice setup there Skye. I'd hate to see what you'd do if you were a sawyer.[B)]



As far as the dust is concerned, the stand I built is basically a huge hood, though I don't have any filtration or dust collection at the moment, setting that up wouldn't be terribly hard. Noise would be the issue.

 

[low_48]

One of the guys in our woodturning club lives in an apartment. His turning "studio" is a closet. That's where the lathe lives anyway. I've not seen it so I can't tell you about dust control. You might consider some of those temp plastic walls with zippers that contractors use to keep dust controlled in a remodel job. I think they use spring loaded poles to hold the plastic tight to the floor and ceiling. As long as you don't have shag carpeting.........[], or maybe you can say the chips are a natural shag carpet.[]

 

[keithz]

Redfish,

I live alone in a 3 room apartment and my lathe lives in a 3 1/2' x 4 1/2' walk-in closet. (I'm the guy low_48 was talking about) I have enough room in there for my lathe and my tools. My grinder on a table that I move into the bedroom (about ten steps away). I usually have my materials on a table in the kitchen.

Dust is a definite issue. I have to clean the entire space at least once a week with my shopvac to stay ahead of the dust. If I'm not diligent about this the dust builds up really quick. I have radiant heat so there is no forced air flow through the building.

To help keep cleaning time to a minimum, I close the door to the bathroom and bedroom to keep the dust out and I keep my kitchen counters clear, so they just need a wipedown. I am looking into designing a dust removal system of some sort, but I have not yet found a resolution.

Anyway, if you are setting up in a spare bedroom, make sure you can seal it, cover the carpet, and figure out a way to collect the dust. Otherwise, you be cleaning a lot and your other half will not be a happy camper.

Here is a shot of my "studio" space (yeah, I know, it's too clean. this is from when I first set it up).

 

[redfishsc]

Thanks Keith. Looks like you have some issues solved.


I can't wait to post pics of the stand I built, it's 60" wide, fully enclosed (it looks like a HUGE wardrobe). The base cabinets stand 36" high on adjustable leg levelers. The upper cabinet where the lathe is--- fully enclosed with doors and solid back. The top cabinet is a full 40" tall. Won't be able to put any pics up for a few weeks b/c it's sitting in our shop's storage area, won't be used until I move.

 

[Tea Clipper]

Here's what my spare bedroom aka workshop looks like:

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It wasn't until I saw these pictures that I realized I really need some shelves, huh?!