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Thinking of moving the lathe to a separate turning room

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So as I am out in the shop today with the doors open and the fans on, with it being 95 degrees in the shade, and the shop is not in the shade, I start thinking of a way to cool the shop. The main part of the shop is 24' x 40' and has a side addition of 12'x 40' where we keep the lawn mowers and other stuff. The attic in the main part has a lot of wood and other stuff that has been accumulated for the past 50 plus years, Daddy was a pack rat so I got it honest. I was considering removing all stuff in the attic and insulating it, so that I may be able to cool it with a large window unit air conditioner. Then I watched Tim Yoder talk about his small turning shop, I think he said that it was 12' x 14', and that got me thinking. I could take in about 14' of the side shed, insulate it very well, and put an small air conditioner in that area and at least I would be cool when I am working on the lathe. the ceiling in the side shop is only about 7' but I do not think that would be a problem. All of the other tools, table saw, bandsaws, sanders etc. would stay in the main shop and would still be hot but at least I could be cool while working on the lathe. I was thinking about running a 6" dust collector hose out to the lathe and keep the dust collector with the cloth bags in the big shop to keep the turning area as free of dust as possible. What are your thoughts.
 
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The dust collector will pull your cool air out faster than the ac can cool it.

That was what I was thinking, I guess I could move the Dust Collector in the room, my have to get one of those cartridge filters instead of the bags, I was trying to address the fine dust problem. Any other ideas for this?
 
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I would be afraid of of the A/C filter and coils clogging. Perhaps putting an extra filter in front of the A/C. I Turn in a garage with a window so have been thinking along these lines .
Stu
 
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Also, if I do decide to do this, I will be rebuilding a West facing will, this would be where I would put the air conditioner, I was thinking of putting a couple of windows on that wall, putting the A/C in one of them, but was thinking with the heat coming in from the evening sun, I may not have as much heat gain by installing the A/C through the wall instead.
 

Bill Boehme

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I have an air conditioner in my small shop and dust is a definite concern. I would suggest getting a DC with a high efficiency filter as well as a ceiling mounted air filter. Even with this most of the dust will still be floating around in the air. Most window AC units have really poor filters and I have replaced them with better filters so that the condenser coils won't get clogged [as much]. Even with all this, I find it necessary to slide the unit out of the case and take it outdoors for a thorough cleaning once a year. I have found that a hydraulic cart from HF is indispensable for this job.
 

Bill Boehme

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Also, if I do decide to do this, I will be rebuilding a West facing will, this would be where I would put the air conditioner, I was thinking of putting a couple of windows on that wall, putting the A/C in one of them, but was thinking with the heat coming in from the evening sun, I may not have as much heat gain by installing the A/C through the wall instead.

I don't think the windows will be a significant heat problem. Use double pane glass. You can even get fancy and get IR reflective glass. Venetian blinds are a low cost solution. You can also install an awning.
 
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Used to live in LA so I can sympathize with your dilemma. Good luck with your decision. Good advice here.
 
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I used to have my lathe in an 8 by 12 foot room. Just enough for lathe grinder and tools. Oh, radio on the wall. The rest of the stuff was in the other part of the shop. It did help contain the shavings. For the west wall, an outdoor awning over the windows would be a huge help because it would keep the sun heat outside. Not sure that an air conditioner would help out a huge amount since outside air is hot and humid. With my new shop, if I run the DC for a couple of hours, it does warm up the shop... Insulation on the ceiling is a good idea.

robo hippy
 
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part of my grandparents' brick house was exposed to nearly all day sun and could get very warm in that part of the house in summer. Grandad built an arbor against the side of the house and planted grapes. Within a few years, the grapes had grown up to the top of the arbor and shaded the house in summer, and until the leaves fell in the fall, then the sun hit the brick wall and helped heat the house in cooler weather. Apparently this was a very common way to help cool houses before air conditioning and today's better insulation. We have a porch around the south and west sides of the house. On the south side, we put up a trellis and planted clematis vines which in another year should begin to shade the southern porch from the morning sun. One fellow in a nearby town has butternut squash vines growing up a trellis beside his house. They grow like mad, sometimes 30 or 40 feet long and produce something good to eat as well.
 
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BTW, I have been working on a little portable turning shop. On an flat bed trailer. my space is 78 inches wide by 114 inches long, narrowed for wall construction. My hope is sort of a Santa's/elves' Workshop looking thing. . A small lathe, drill press, scroll saw, 1 inch belt sander and work bench. Plexi glass window so kids can watch while I make simple toys and tree decorations. I have a small shop vac and hepa filter system worked out. Once place where I hope to set up will have a 20 amp electric hook up for me. I might need a generator for another set up. One local business has offered to supply bass wood blanks if I get set up for this.
 
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Perry,

You might also consider a slide out system for your floor in the trailer to double the working space, if you have a full sized door in the back or double opening doors you could have the floor roll out the back of the trailer. They also have the storage drawer systems that mount under the floor that can store a lot of tools and materials or support additional floor space for additional work area.

Dream big and go for a Class-A Motorhome with a slide out with your lathe mounted on the slide out. :)
 
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I too think a small separate shop is quite practical. My turning shop is 16X16, but it's mostly full of drying wood, and I store drying bowls and bigger tools in a separate space. My main working area for turning is under 8X10. Lathe, two grinders, and bandsaw plus a little extra room for extra tools and supplies.

I for one couldn't turn without a good view right in front of my lathe. Definitely requires tempered glass, and probably worth speccing 3/16" thick glass, rather than 1/8.
 
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My 12x16 shop is attached to my garage. To save space and minimize noise l built a well insulated "closet" in the garage for my DC(canister filtered). . l put a $40 filter on my return air that is listed to remove down to .3 microns. After over year, return filter doesn't show much. I don't loose much heat or cooling with this arrangement, and when l go to the shop in the morning after, I don't find much fine dust settled on anything. This didn't help with noise .
 
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My 12x16 shop is attached to my garage. To save space and minimize noise l built a well insulated "closet" in the garage for my DC(canister filtered). . l put a $40 filter on my return air that is listed to remove down to .3 microns. After over year, return filter doesn't show much. I don't loose much heat or cooling with this arrangement, and when l go to the shop in the morning after, I don't find much fine dust settled on anything. This didn't help with noise .

I like your idea, that sounds like a plan, removes the noise, makes more room, saves the a/c, extra filter for the dust.
 
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In my experience, when you put a insulated wall around something, it will HELP with the noise, it may not eliminate it, but it will reduce the noise level.
 
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He said that it didn't help with the noise.

I've found that age helps reduce noise. :D

With age comes wisdom and knowledge mostly because you aren't distracted by all of the noise you are unable to hear after working around power tools and equipment most of your life. :)
My marriage has also improved over the years without hearing half of the conversation I was subjected to on a daily basis in the early days. :) :)
 

Bill Boehme

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In my experience, when you put a insulated wall around something, it will HELP with the noise, it may not eliminate it, but it will reduce the noise level.

Thermal insulation such as fiberglass bats has a barely perceptible effect on sound reduction. In order to reduce sound you need mass ... lots of mass. If you really want to have a meaningful effect on sound reduction a very good solution is a double thickness of HardieBacker cement board on each side of the stud wall. A double thickness of drywall is also good, but not as effective as cement board.
 
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For a window ac A hole through the wall is much better than a window, or 2, as far as heat transmission, both conductive and radiant. Nothing wrong with a window ac (I use one), but you might also look at a mini-split. Only need a 3-4” hole through the wall. An awning over the ac will really help - anything to block the sun from the coils. Include the thermal load from the dc in your heat gain calcs for ac size, 100% of the motor energy will be added heat.
 

Bill Boehme

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but if you use acoustic insulation you don't need as much mass

Acoustic insulation is basically what I stated ... mass. Compare the cost of acoustic insulation to cement board. This site offers many different brands, here is one example: Quiet Barrier
 
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When I first read the title, my mind went to moving the lathe to the living room! As long as I didn't mind loosing half my stuff that would be a great idea!
 
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Mark I live in south ms and understand the heat and humidity our neighboring state has as well. I also have a large shop without insulation and air conditioning. I built a small cold turning room with insulated foam sheathing about 8 x 12 room.(inside my shop) I put a 5000 BTU air conditioner in an opening i cased in and I call it my cold turning room. I have been using it for years works well for green turning but not for sanding. I realize it is an inexpensive solution with a fairly effective result. But it's an idea among many.
 

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You could drop a "tent" over your turning area and install an air conditioner in the wall of the tent to cool your turning area.
That would be the Red Green approach along with several rolls of duct tape. It would work and anything is better then cooking in the heat.
They do make cooling vests that you can freeze and put on to stay cool for several hours. This would be a simple temporary fix until the it cools down.
 
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Noise and DC go together. I have my DC in attic with a cut out with filter over it for the return of vacum air. Now that noise comes thru the filter opening. Even tho the DC room is insulated it still gets warmer than the shop so transfers some heat back to the shop. A friend built a insulated room for DC in shop and the return air for him created noise so he closed it and uses the crack under the door for return and dropped the noise level by doing this. Risk here with no filter on return is that if using bag filter fine dust will be returned to shop air.

Now I am wondering is a double filter will reduce noise level. By the way after getting hearing aids and the app showed high noise levels I now use hearing protection for turning and some power sanding.
 
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I have my lathe and sanding in one separate room helps alot. All my other stuff is mobile just push it to the door and put a fan on it to blow the dust outside. We're both in the hot muggy south I get out to my shop around 4am to beat the heat.
 
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What are your opinions on building a workbench behind the lathe? Most of my shop experience has been cabinets etc. and I needed more floor space, and work benches seemed to be a good place to catch clutter.
 
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I like your idea, that sounds like a plan, removes the noise, makes more room, saves the a/c, extra filter for the dust.
Putting the DC in a separate enclosure will not stop the noise since you need to run a duct into the shop, which of course will conduct the noise into your turning area. The other problem is make up air (air to replace the air the DC system is removing) and if you do not account for it outside hot and humid air will get in, then the AC will not be able to keep up.
 
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Putting the DC in a separate enclosure will not stop the noise since you need to run a duct into the shop, which of course will conduct the noise into your turning area. The other problem is make up air (air to replace the air the DC system is removing) and if you do not account for it outside hot and humid air will get in, then the AC will not be able to keep up.

The dust collector will be moved in and out as necessary. I usually ware hearing protection when things get noisy, learned that a little late unfortunately.
 

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What are your opinions on building a workbench behind the lathe? Most of my shop experience has been cabinets etc. and I needed more floor space, and work benches seemed to be a good place to catch clutter.
I’m not a fan of reaching across the lathe. Seems unsafe to me.
Rich
 

Mark Hepburn

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When I first read the title, my mind went to moving the lathe to the living room! As long as I didn't mind loosing half my stuff that would be a great idea!

The beauty of moving to the lathe to the living room is that you’re probably closer to the kitchen sink, where you want to clean out your paint brushes and parts and such.

And, since you’re gonna lose half your stuff, more space for shelving to put turning blanks.
 
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