Cabinet or enclosure for press(es)

[memilanuk]

Getting set to move here in a few weeks. New shop is going to be much larger, probably better all around... but the reloading & gun cleaning area is going to be sharing the same 'air space' as all the other shop stuff... like woodworking tools, etc.

Even with upgrades to the dust collection, shop air cleaner, etc. I don't think the tight tolerance stuff from the firearms/reloading side of things is going to like the fine dust that escapes the WW machines... and there's always *some*.

Covering some of the gun stuff with plastic sheeting / tarps / drop cloths might work for the short term, but long term I'd rather find another way. Plus, I have some concerns about static charge from plastic sheeting doing bad things to the scales, etc. The new shop is big enough (24' x 32') that building a small dedicated interior room might be an option, but brings its own headaches in terms of heating/cooling/air flow; I've done marathon reloading sessions in rooms with 100% 'dead air', no heat/AC - and I'm not eager to repeat the experience.

Someone recently suggested enclosing the presses and whatnot in cabinets with seals on the doors. The more I think about it, the more that sounds like it just might work. Drop-down or tambour (roll-up) doors running from upper cabinets to the lower bench top for the main non-press work area sounds doable as well. But I'd *love* to see some examples of prior work, if ya know what I mean

Anyone else gone down this rabbit hole and lived to tell the tale?

 

[bigstick6017555]

I tried a wood shop/ small engine repair shop in a 30' x 60' building. Had to eventually wall them off from each other, that wood dust got everywhere,and i mean everywhere, even with dust control. It was disastrous on the precision hand tools and measuring tools.

 

[memilanuk]

@TerryH

 

[memilanuk]

@bigstick6017555 I'm kind of hoping that with newer tools and newer DC units being vastly better at collection and separation/filtration than what was available even 5-10 years ago that this won't end up being the case. But what I hope for and what reality ends up being may not bear even a passing resemblance to one another

 

[bigstick6017555]

You may be right with the filtration systems of today. I did not go top notch but i did not go cheap either, on mine. i just found it more economical going on a wall. Hope it works out for you, nice clean, comfortable workshops are a sight to behold, and work in.

 

[joshb]

I have 23’ x 48’ inside. I walled off a ten by ten area for an office/gun stuff. It didn’t work perfectly, even with the sealed “exterior door” I used. It keeps most of the dust out but not all of it. I gave up and moved my reloading operation into the house. I store extra supplies in the shop in cabinets. They still collect dust but they’re sealed boxes of bullets, brass and canisters of powder. You can spend a lot of time sweeping and cleaning but the dust gets everywhere, even with the dust collection systems running on all the equipment.
By the way, don’t leave boxes of brass on your benches!
Josh

 

[joshb]

@TerryH

Yeah. I’ve seen the pics of his shop! I have a feeling he hadn’t actually used that shop before he took those pictures. It’s that, or he spends 2 hours cleaning for every hour he’s woodworking!

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Get one of those metal storage locker cabinet things to keep all the loose things in and put crown royal bags over the presses.

 

[mr45man]

Lol Crown Royal bags are great stuff.

 

[memilanuk]

Get one of those metal storage locker cabinet things to keep all the loose things in and put crown royal bags over the presses.

Yeah.... no.

 

[joshb]

Lol Crown Royal bags are great stuff.

I use them for my bolts!

 

[Intheshop]

Hillbilly Dylos (particulate monitor).......

Turn the lights off in your shop at night,take a maglight and shine it right at your work station after running the machine.

Don't want to too long winded(Ha) but..... you have about 3 levels of concerns. 1st is the DC "at" the machine,and what comes out of the DC filters(another place to check with the hillbilly dylos).

Next is general shop air movement..... in both,velocity AND direction. It HAS to be predictable,shoot for about 1-2 mph. You and whatever you don't want covered with dust,would be better served,upstream than down.

3rd level is spraybooth and/or shooting stations. The industry prides themselves on keeping a veil on this tech. Won't say you can't find info online but,there's $$$ involved and greasing the wheels is the normal way of approaching this.

"If" I was starting from scratch,again. I'd start with a high tech,modest sized open face booth on the end of building that could best utilize prevailing outside air currents. Next thing in there would be the DC unit. Start putting machines in,with exceptions of course..... heaviest producers closest to DC and work out from there. The machine shop,or in your case reloading,would be be at the other end of building.

One thing you can do with a cabinet or a small "clean room"(metrology),is...... instead of trying to seal it from the rest of the shop... you pump IN clean air. This would be a positive pressure room. So air leaks out?..... you don't even have to think about it.

 

[Intheshop]

The advantage of an open face booth..... look up the German,Nestro.

Is,you aren't losing much,if any,floor space. Park a cpl big Snap-On roller boxes in there. They get pulled out to help control air direction when you're spraying that record beating BR stock.

 

[outasite`08]

Getting set to move here in a few weeks. New shop is going to be much larger, probably better all around... but the reloading & gun cleaning area is going to be sharing the same 'air space' as all the other shop stuff... like woodworking tools, etc.

Even with upgrades to the dust collection, shop air cleaner, etc. I don't think the tight tolerance stuff from the firearms/reloading side of things is going to like the fine dust that escapes the WW machines... and there's always *some*.

Covering some of the gun stuff with plastic sheeting / tarps / drop cloths might work for the short term, but long term I'd rather find another way. Plus, I have some concerns about static charge from plastic sheeting doing bad things to the scales, etc. The new shop is big enough (24' x 32') that building a small dedicated interior room might be an option, but brings its own headaches in terms of heating/cooling/air flow; I've done marathon reloading sessions in rooms with 100% 'dead air', no heat/AC - and I'm not eager to repeat the experience.

Someone recently suggested enclosing the presses and whatnot in cabinets with seals on the doors. The more I think about it, the more that sounds like it just might work. Drop-down or tambour (roll-up) doors running from upper cabinets to the lower bench top for the main non-press work area sounds doable as well. But I'd *love* to see some examples of prior work, if ya know what I mean

Anyone else gone down this rabbit hole and lived to tell the tale?

A famous guy said more then once,"BUILD THE WALL". And do what Intheshop said.His advice is solid. Jeff

 

[Papa Charlie]

I have run a facility with a clean room. There is no way to keep all dust out, but you can control it. First is the clean space has to be a positive air space. Meaning the air in the room is always exiting into the dirtier environment.
It isn't that hard to provide clean air into a small room for reloading and doing fine work. These days they have air handlers that attach to the wall and require only a small hole in the wall to pass the air into the room. Filters control the quality of the air coming into the room. Pulling the air from the outside is much better than trying to pull dirty air from another room and clean it.
One of the biggest issues is controlling velocity. All rooms have dust, lint and other foreign matter in them. Even the certified rooms. It collects on surfaces with the majority of it on the floor. The trick is to leave it there and not make it air born. You want the air to come in from up high and exit the room down low. This keeps the debris from becoming air born and moves the heavy concentration down low out through the air exits. The more you can divide the air intake the less velocity you create and likewise the same with the exit points.

 

[memilanuk]

Positive pressure... got it. I'm actually somewhat familiar with the general concept from some applications @ work (clean filtered water supplied to chevron seals to keep silty abrasive river water out, etc.); just hadn't occurred to me to apply that notion to a reloading cabinet or room, but it makes perfect sense.

As of yet there hasn't been much in the way of elaborate finishing setup like a HVLP turbine - more along the lines of wipe-on / brush-on stuff to date. Not saying that won't change at some point, but it's not currently on the radar.

I won't say I'm wild about the notion of building an enclosed room, particularly if it comes with the associated cost of a dedicate mini-split hvac unit. From a 'perfect world' point of view I see the logic; just not sure whether I want to go that route or not.

 

[Milo 2.0]

I WW out of my garage, dust collector, air purifier, when I got out of it, I held on to my lathe and dust systems till the dying end. I moved the reloading stuff out there. I ran the dust collector hose right off my tools, using ropes and strings to support all positions.
I can say, it did not work here, sawdust is a pain, sawdust absorbing oils a bigger pain.

 

[Papa Charlie]

There are a lot of ways to accomplish this and the single room HVAC systems are not a huge expense.

I just did a quick grab off the internet and found this one for around $900
https://www.ecomfort.com/LG-LS090HX...CDESVJY8pi4ohTNpo8Zdc0c0IcC8Ev88aAkg7EALw_wcB

I have seen some for almost half that, just depends on what you think you need. A room that is 10x10 would most likely require only a 9K btu unit. Not much different than some RV units size wise.

If you do some searches on clean room air you will find some interesting concepts. Just do a google search on Clean Room Air Designs. There is a ton of information out there. Another source is commercial auctions. Just attended a lab auction a couple of weeks ago. They had a real nice portable clean room with lighting and air handling system that went for $4800. Really slick unit with aluminum framed panels and clear walls. Broke down into 4x8 panels for transport. It measured 12x20. Of course it didn't provide any air conditioning (heat or cooling) but did provide air cleaning and room pressure.