# Crazy idea - separating garage bay with curtain



## JoeFuture (Aug 31, 2020)

I'm lucky to have a 3 car garage, and my shop is in one of the outer bays. Despite having a dust collector running, an air filter on the ceiling, the garage door open, and a box fan blowing dust out as I work, dust still gets everywhere!

So I have this crazy idea to run a track across the ceiling and get long curtains to divide the shop area off from the rest of the garage while I'm working.

I wonder if anyone has tried anything like this and has advice? I'm wondering what kind of material to use for the curtains because I can imagine them getting caked with dust over time. I typically blow out the garage with a leaf blower too when I'm done for the day, so I suppose I could just blow off the curtains too.

Tell me I'm crazy to try it?


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## Sawdust2012 (Sep 17, 2013)

If your table saw is striped or solid, go with a bold pattern in your curtains. As for the dust, it seems to have a mind of its own and will find its way to whatever you don't want it on. I think you would be better off spending the money on more air filtration or a higher capacity dc. You don't mention the capacity of your dc, but I would bet you could really benefit from stepping that up a notch or two. Dust in a wood shop is like sand at a beach house. It's going to be around.


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## RichT (Oct 14, 2016)

> Tell me I m crazy to try it?
> 
> - JoeFuture


Yes you are crazy. Crazy like a fox, that is. ¡El Zorro Loco!


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## bigJohninvegas (May 25, 2014)

I have canvas painters tarps covering all the storage shelving in my shop. 
And it works pretty good too. although it is by no means perfect. Some dust will get in.
You really got to go floor to ceiling with it. and overlap seams. It will help keep the worst of it in the shop side of your garage. But nothing blocks it all.


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## Foghorn (Jan 30, 2020)

These warehouse ones look pretty cool. https://www.curtain-and-divider.com/warehouse-curtain-dividers/warehouse-divider-curtains/warehouse-curtain-quote-form/


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## Lazyman (Aug 8, 2014)

There are some commercial products for just the purpose you need but here is a fairly simply DIY version. Just search for "garage divider curtain" for commercial versions.

I've been exploring something similar to help control chips from my lathe from flying everywhere. Roughing a large bowl can literally throw bark and other chips 20' in all directions. For me it is not so much about the dust as the chips and I need to be able to easily retract it when I am not using the lathe so I was leaning towards a relatively inexpensive roll-up patio sun shade to create a barrier. For my shop setup, rolling it up will be more convenient than sliding to the side and I am actually thinking about making sort of a box with 2 shades in a corner of the shop.


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## JoeFuture (Aug 31, 2020)

Foghorn, thanks for that link. Turns out they have insulated garage curtains that seem exactly like what I was looking for. I hadn't even considered the temperature benefits of doing this. Will be getting a quote, and if I end up doing this I'll post pics of how it turns out.


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

It is different. Maybe bit odd but why not? I use a 12 volt power window motor to roll up a plastic sheet for when I sprayed stuff in the shop. Worked for many years till I got a finishing room. For the other side I used a shower curtain on a 10 ft long rod and just pulled it out when needed. Again it worked. Obviously it was not very popular as I only got 4 comments… LOL But that was 2012, and here in 2020 it is still functional. Motor still works and the bearings were wheel bearings for a Ford Truck. Never wear out in this application.

Don't have the pictures handy but you can look my project post over and see my idea.

https://www.lumberjocks.com/projects/61553


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## Aaron312 (Jan 16, 2020)

I just bought some used concrete warming blankets rated at an r value of R5.5 and hung them on steel pipe to make a "shop" out of the 3rd stall of my 3 car garage. The garage is insulated and I installed a 5000 watt electric heater. Just finishing up the wiring for it. I was a bit hesitant to build a wall as I am just a little afraid it might hurt the resale of the house. So for a few hundred dollars I will see if I can keep it warm at a reasonable cost. If it works, I'll build the wall. I did get a quote for a Modine hanging gas heater but it was $2500. So we'll see how a $100 electric heater works first.


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## woodbutcherbynight (Oct 21, 2011)

> I just bought some used concrete warming blankets rated at an r value of R5.5 and hung them on steel pipe to make a "shop" out of the 3rd stall of my 3 car garage. The garage is insulated and I installed a 5000 watt electric heater. Just finishing up the wiring for it. I was a bit hesitant to build a wall as I am just a little afraid it might hurt the resale of the house. So for a few hundred dollars I will see if I can keep it warm at a reasonable cost. If it works, I ll build the wall. I did get a quote for a Modine hanging gas heater but it was $2500. So we ll see how a $100 electric heater works first.
> 
> - Aaron312


I have had good success with my 19,000 BTU heater at 220 volts. Was $119 @ Northern couple years back


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## CaptainKlutz (Apr 23, 2014)

Not crazy.

Years ago in another shop I used curtains for my finishing area.

Used a permanent solution with Unistrut mounted to ceiling and trolley's running in track for flexibility. Can use anything from plastic tarps to insulated fabric depending on your budget. I was given some flame retardant cloth curtains from a theater remodel, that I cut down to size.

Many folks sell generic "strut channel" and the accessories, even the BORG stores. 
Here are couple links from McMaster that might give you ideas on solution for your shop:
https://www.mcmaster.com/strut-channel-accessories/
https://www.mcmaster.com/strut-channel-accessories/strut-channel-trolleys-5/

Remember, dust will find any and all openings. You can't 100% eliminate it.

Two tricks:
1) use a small 6-12" high curtain attached to ceiling on both sides of your ceiling mounted rail and main curtain, and it reduces dust movement due air currents over the top of curtain. It sort of creates a labyrinth that makes if harder for dust/fumes to migrate between zones.

2) If you want to keep dust out of one side of curtain, use atmospheric pressure as tool. If you vent your dirty area outside with wall ventilator, use the negative pressure to draw air from the clean side; which keeps it cleaner.

Best Luck.


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I once had a shop that was in the third stall of my garage that worked well. I put metal wall channel on the floor and ceiling and screwed in place, wooden studs with Masonite to cover all. Because I used no nails, just screws, it was demountable and I took it down when I moved . Patched the few holes in the ceiling and sold the house as having a three stall attached garage and the buyer was none the wiser.


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## xeddog (Mar 2, 2010)

You might as well get this into your head now rather than later. Forget the curtain because you will soon be parking the cars outside and using the entire space for woodworking.


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## JoeFuture (Aug 31, 2020)

Lots of great ideas here folks! Negative pressure seems like a really good idea. I have a window I can vent out of or just open the garage door to blow a fan out on warm days. The idea of an insulated curtain is really growing on me too.

xeddog: LOL - my family would string me up if I took over more of the garage. Ideally we'll buy a bigger property some day and I'll have a dedicated space for this stuff, but time will tell.


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## CTTurner (Nov 22, 2020)

> I m lucky to have a 3 car garage, and my shop is in one of the outer bays. Despite having a dust collector running, an air filter on the ceiling, the garage door open, and a box fan blowing dust out as I work, dust still gets everywhere!
> 
> So I have this crazy idea to run a track across the ceiling and get long curtains to divide the shop area off from the rest of the garage while I m working.
> 
> ...


I had one of those wonderful bag type collectors where the updraft bag blows up whenever you start it up. I think it was like 4 or 5 micron. All it did was blow the 5 micron and smaller stuff everywhere no matter what. Then I bought a retrofit kit from Wynn Environmental and the problem was 99% solved. As long as I am minful about collection and keep my miter saw use to basically outdoors or in the doorway I have a very clean shop now. My hat is off to Wynn Envioronmental. Ordered it and it was here in like 4 days. an hour to install it and done. I coupled it to a super dust deputy ( another absolute must) mounted on top of a 30 gallon barrel. 
Before the dust deputy my DW735x planer would clog the blower of the collector but not anymore.
I empty the barrel every threee months and clean the filter every other time by simply blowing low pressure shop air through the filter from the outside inward.


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