Dust; the risk.

aes427 · 2 Aug 2015

Evening,

I have been lurking in the background long enough just reading, figured I should start to contribute!

I used to do do woodturning in a stand alone workshop, since then I have moved house and only have an internal garage at the moment. The garage houses a 20 yr old central heating boiler for the house. If I started turning again in the garage, would the dust combined with the boiler pose an explosion risk, albeit the combustion chamber in the boiler is totally sealed. I realise its a bit of a serious topic but just interested to see what everyone thinks. I am tempted to just go for it as I think there is more chance of Ghandi going on Xfactor than me building a workshop in the next year!

Thoughts welcome...

Woodchips2 · 2 Aug 2015

I'd install dust extraction to reduce the chance of explosion plus to prevent damage to your lungs.

Regards Keith

CHJ · 2 Aug 2015

If the boiler is a sealed balanced flue system then any dust is not going to get near the ignition source.

As previously said you need to worry more about your lungs and respiration system in general, if you keep the dust source extracted to a safe level then the problem does not materialise even if you use naked flames to enhance or add character to your pieces.
If you totally ignored personal safety I doubt you would be able to see enough detail to be able to work in an atmosphere high enough in combustible dust to be an explosion risk.

aes427 · 2 Aug 2015

Thanks so far. I intend to use one of those ventilated visors and another form of dust extractor within the garage, to draw away the majority of the dust and some shavings. Cheers.

jdeacon · 3 Aug 2015

I have to agree that the risk to your lungs is the greater. However it's good you raise the point as not everyone realizes that dust/air is an explosive mixture. The explosives guy (he used to tour with the maddest lecture/show on all manner of explosives) used to demonstrate with a small amount of dust puffed inside a loosely capped tin with a candle inside. It easily blew the lid off. And he used to tell the story of how a special effects guy who didn't know his stuff added flour to a film explosion to increase the amount of "smoke" with very serious consequences.