Woodworking On The Cheap

It may seem like common sense, but there are significant health and safety issues to think about when you’re deciding where to work. From dust control and limiting interruptions to power availability, the effects upon the health and safety of yourself and those around you should be foremost. Sure we like to do things cheaply and effectively here at Woodworking on the Cheap — but you and those you love only get ten fingers, two arms, and one shot at this life.

Location. Location. Location.

We’ve all been (or now are) there. You’re getting started, but you need a place to work. More often than not, folks start working the only place they currently (or logically) can. This makes sense from an immediate financial cost standpoint, but it could cause some long-term issues. I shudder every time I hear about someone who works in their basement or in a garage right next to the natural gas HVAC unit for their house. I feel for the guy in a 10′ by 12′ lawn-shed with a 100′ 14-gauge extension cord plugged into a 15amp circuit. Getting started you’ll never have ‘ideal’ conditions. Indeed, most of us in a life-time won’t have that two acre lot with the 25′ x 50′ radiant heated out-building on it’s own 50amp service. So we ought to take the time to work with what we have, and make the best of it.

Sawdust

Sawdust is a primary, long-term health risk. Exposure to sawdust and inhalation of sawdust has been linked to specific kinds of lung cancer. Some wood species are reportedly worse than others, but no matter what, you should be concerned. It’s especially harmful to small pets, children, elderly, etc. As for me, I have wicked hay-fever which gets aggravated and normally ends up as a sinus infection if I don’t take my medicine and wear a dust mask.

Fine sawdust in the air is also highly combustible. There are reports of entire houses being blown off their foundations by spontaneous combustion of basement workshops mixed with natural gas burning furnaces. The right concentration of fine particulate in the air and an open flame will leave you without eyebrows in a best case scenario. In the worst case, you’ll blow your house, garage door, or windows out with a flash-fire.

Ambient air filters can be used to help remove particulate from the air that you’ll breath, and reduce the risk of explosion if you’re having to work near open flames. But you’ll never get it all filtered, and if you’re working near an air handler for your residence, you’ll be blowing fine dust particles all throughout your home. From a safety and health standpoint, it’s best to avoid working near the HVAC unit if at all possible.

If not possible, you could spend a fortune on dust collection systems, or you might consider making a small closet around HVAC unit. Remember to use a door big enough to allow replacement of the unit, and cover any vents (normally required by building code) with high-grade furnace filters. This should help reduce the risk of health hazards, cut down on dust being blown around your house, may make it nearly explosion proof in the closet, and will definitely be far cheaper than expensive dust collection systems.

Power Requirements

Extension cords sap the power from a motor when it’s starting. It’s best to use the shortest possible cord of an appropriate gauge whenever you’re running a power tool. It’s even better to be able to use all your tools without extension cords and have plenty of 20amp circuits and outlets available. Short of designing and building your own shop, that’s just not likely to happen.

It’s best to have your lights and outlets on separate circuits, so that when you do blow the breaker you’re not stumbling around in the dark to find the breaker box and trip the right circuit. It’s also a good idea to have access to more than one circuit if at all possible, so that you can run a shop vac and a nice big motor at the same time. If you go looking for old, rusted, neglected, and forgotten machines to restore and use like I do, you’ll be amazed at how big those old induction motors are compared to the universal motors used by many of today’s small ‘hobbyist’ level shop tools.

The main things here are not to overload your outlets, not to use under-sized extension cords, and to try and keep the lights (or at least a light) on when your tools do trip the breaker. If you’re in a power-starved shop, you will trip the breaker.

I’ve been able to make due with two 15amp circuits. One powers my shop lights (and lightweight tools like drills or shop-vac) and the other my big tools (jointer, table-saw, router, etc…) that draw a lot of power under load. I blow the breaker with the table saw (it’s a 15amp motor on a 15amp breaker!) when I stress it, and have plans to move it to a 220v dedicated breaker & outlet — but that’s a long-term goal.

Interruptions

Another thing you’ll want to think about when locating your shop is how to minimize distractions and interruptions. The last thing you want when you’re cutting a 3/4″ dado on a table saw is someone opening a door and startling you with your hand 2″ from the blade. That could be a very, very bad day. Make sure you set some ground rules, and provide ways for people to get in contact with you in case they really need you now. In my house we have the rule, “If you hear a machine running, don’t come in, don’t knock, wait for the machine to stop.” I also have the benefit of having a window in the door to the shop, which lets people see what I’m doing, and use best judgement of weather or not they can interrupt me.

Keep in mind, it’s not just power tools that pose a risk here. One slip with a sharp chisel and a mallet can be an expensive trip to the hand surgeon.

Bottom Line

Use common sense about safety for yourself and others when deciding where to put your shop. Educate those around you, so that you can minimize the risk to yourself, and to them.

My Own Situation

In the near future I’ll be giving a shop tour of the woodworking cheap garage. The garage is an unheated,  two-car, attached garage. On my 1/4 acre semi-suburban lot, it’s the perfect place to work. It’s attached to the house (the garage door has a window), but not connected to the HVAC in any way. It has a dedicated 15amp breaker, and a second 15amp circuit for the lights. Using an oil-filled electrical radiant heater I can get it up to 60+ degrees in the winter time. If I augment that with the propane Mr. Buddy before I start making dust, I can get it shorts n’ t-shirt toasty. The biggest problem I have is dust, which I combat regularly with my shop-vac, and ceiling mounted shop-built air cleaner.