# dust collection



## Devereauxrf (Jul 1, 2018)

Thinking about adding a dust collection system to my shop. Currently I am using a shop vac with a cyclone but am wanting something a little bit more for the table saw and miter saw. Wondering if anyone has put their dust collector in the attic of their garage or if anyone has any pluses or minuses for doing it. More than likely to get started I would be looking at a 2hp dust collection system. I live in Iowa. Thanks for any help.


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## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

I wouldn't want to be emptying the dust bin/bag and bringing it downstairs (especially in the summer…well, probably not in the winter either). Maybe your attic has a lot of headroom and that won't be a problem. It may also be sucking conditioned air out of your garage unless you discharge it back into the shop area. There's probably some pother things, like noise transmission into the house (if it's attached), but it does free up some room in the garage and sometimes you do what you have to do. If it's a true 2 HP collector, I don't think you'll have any issues performance wise.


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## Devereauxrf (Jul 1, 2018)

Thanks for the reply Fred. You brought up some things that i may have not mentioned. My garage is not attached, I have a pull down set of steps to get into the attic and in the center of the trusses it is all plywood. The concern I guess that I have is if it is too hot up there in the summer because it does get very hot and if that would affect performance. Part of the reason for wanting to do this is to free up space and i feel like it would be very easy to run the duct work in the attic and then have drops that just come down. I could be wrong tho.


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## wapakfred (Jul 29, 2011)

The heat won't affect performance, the DC will still spin at it's designated speed and move the air. It might (I have no idea) shorten it's life. The motor is going to be awfully hot up there…some motors can take a certain amount of heat and not be affected, and some cannot. Remember you will going up there in the heat (maybe) to service it when needed. The duct would be easy to run up there unless your drops are right at the edge of the eaves, it might be a little tough crawling there to set your piping. You'll have to engineer a switching arrangement as well, though I don't see that being very hard to do. On last thing, if your dust catcher is plastic bags they might get hot enough to soften and explode.


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## PlentyFarmLLC (Aug 25, 2020)

If you have any kind of fossil fuel heat or combustion appliance forget the whole idea unless you design a way to vent the air that went through the collector back into the shop. You will create a negative pressure situation that can bring carbon monoxide into your shop and potentially kill you.

You will lose heat or AC. I have a similar setup and its not that bad but it happens. Depends on how much it runs.

Consider a chip collector of some kind on the shop level before the DC. The majority of what you collect will be in it. Then you just have fines in the bag in the attic.

Also consider venting outside with no bags, just the chip collector. You also vent out a lot of noise so you have to really be detached.

As for motor heat an external fan thermostatically switched would help.

If you have bags you still need to go up and shake the fines out of the top bag regularly.


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