Leaving the dust collector outside?

The only problem I can see is that the bearings may seize if their lubrication gets too sluggish. How cold are you talking about?
An enclosure with 1” foam all around would help a lot.

-- Gene 'The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.' G. K. Chesterton

The problem w/ that is that you will be sucking all of your heated outside during the winter. That is if you heat your shop. Plus machines don’t like super cold, they tend to break, and grease thickens making it tough on bearings.

-- Bondo Gaposis

The best part would be you wouldn’t have to use a bag on the collector, just let it suck the dust and spit it outside into the yard… That would be a huge +

-- Dan - "Collector of Hand Planes"

Looking at your location, you are well inland so salt spray / rust shouldn’t be a concern. However you also live in New England. Not exactly a warm climate. I can see the motor / impeller siezing up due to frozen bearings / lubricant… A small enclosure that you could keep above freezing somehow would likely prevent this…

-- Manufacturer of fine quality sawdust since 1984. Comments and advice on my shop welcome. Check it out at http://lumberjocks.com/dbhost/workshop. Gladly accepting shop build donations!

I live not far from Niagara Falls, NY.
Western NY…. BUFFALO…. ok I’m north of Buffalo, but you get the general idea. It gets cold here. I’ve lived here all my life. I was a Millright in a plant and over the weekend the heat for the production floor was off until we came in. Never had a bearing seize due to cold. In my personal (not work related) experience, I’ve never had a power tool fail due to freezing temps (in this area…. Alaska is another story). They WILL draw a lot of extra amps getting started. Sometimes enough to kick a breaker. All that being said, the cold is definitely harder on your tools and equipment.

I was thinking of moving my DC outside my shop, but I was going to enclose it in a little shed, insulated, and possibly put a 60 watt bulb in it. In summer it would exhaust to outside. In winter I would have a hatch I could open that would let the air back into the shop BUT it would go though a largish box made primarily of furnace filters up in the trusses. First I need a couple more windows though. I have french doors and one small window. Both on the same wall. Great for maximizing wall space but lousy for ventilation :)

I have a cyclone dust collector with a 8” outlet to the filter. I have been contemplating adding a 8” “Y” connector with balst gates on each leg of the Y so that I could vent it outside when the weather is good and then vent it inside-only to the filter when the weather is not so good. Still would have to empty the sawdust drum but this would solve part of the issue.
No reason I can see why you could not do this also with an outside shed…My system is not outside but it is completely emclosed under a stairway.

-- Every step of any project should be considered your masterpiece if you want the finished product to reflect the quality of your work. http://www.FineArtBoxes.com

I have mine outside with out any problems for 10 years now. I’ve built some small dog houses to put my DC in.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

That’s a great idea! It will also make the DC not as loud. It might be so quiet that you need to put a light in the wall, then you know when the DC is on or off. Hope this helped!

AJ

-- If I can do it.....so can you! -AJswoodshop

Sounds like a winner, great space saver if you have a small shop also

-- Norman

In central Alberta, we commonly get temperatures for a week or so in the – 40 degree range, and my Oneida Cyclone is in the barn, unheated, but protected from elements.

I have heard all the stories about sucking cold air in and losing the heat in my shop, I have gone through 2 winters with no noticable change in temperature when running my system. Mine is heated with a radiant gas heater.

My DC system runs in the really cold weather with no issues to date, I work in my shop when it is too cold to work outside, so that is a lot in the winter.

-- Randy "You are judged as much by the questions you ask as the answers you give..."

Ok so it sounds like I’m going to do it and yes AJ the noise is a big factor as well as space. I’m thinking that I will build a small inclosure around it but just put a garbage pail beneath it. I also think that I will insulate it and not close the gaps around the pipe so that hopefully some warm air will leak in and keep it a little warmer then the outside temps. All of your responses were wary helpful so thanks!.

Jim, it makes me happy to know that you do that because if i remember correctly, you have the same hf dust collectors as i do.

One of the smartest things I ever did was put the dust collector/chip separator in the unheated garage attached to my shop. Only prob is it is so quiet I can easily forget to turn it off.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm