Will a RMH in a dusty wood-shop be too dangerous?

I am a wood carver who is building a workshop to be heated in the winter as many of my orders are for Christmas. My plan has been to build a RMH because all of the great things I've heard about it, and because I'll have an endless amount of small wood chunks. I also thought that the draft from the rocket's intake would suck wood dusty air in and burn it like a makeshift dust collector. I worry about fire hazards, i.e. dust settling nearby, around, and on top of the RMH(I have an airgun to blow dust away from rocket stove). Also I've heard if there is too much dust in the air a small spark could set off an explosion. What precautions should I make to make this thing safe? Any ideas?

Airborne dust explosion inside a workshop, i've never heard of that. Stories of dust extraction systems made out of pvc pipes, yep i've heard.


I think you ough to read this site http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/

I've had two or three iterations of J and batch rockets in my workshop, and i'm planing a monster batch in the new workshop i'm moving in now.

The dust collecting part was just a side thought/benefit. Heat and safety is the main goal. I'd love to have a thousand bucks for a dust collection system, but it'll have to wait.

Seth and Max : Dust explosions are very real and a serious threat if common sense and good housekeeping is ignored - If your Rocket is run simultaneously
with your Dust production it is Very unlikely that you will ever generate the amount of Airborne dust that Could reach the L,E.L. or Lower Explosive Limit.

This is another one of the places that O.S.H.A. here in the States seems to have it about right !

I went to my favorite D.I.Y. Site Instructables.com and found several iterations of simple /easy dust collectors, I personally lean towards the Cyclone Clones,
nothing as big/price-y as the one shown in Max's link is needed especially if you can have an easily portable one.

http://www.instructables.com/howto/dust+collectors/

For the Good of The Crafts ! Big AL

I believe that if you are approaching a dangerous concentration of dust for explosive purposes, you would have a health hazard already, and probably not be comfortable breathing it. Keep the air clean enough for comfort and you will be safe with your RMH. Keeping hot surfaces dusted/wiped down regularly is a good idea.

I sell industrial dust collectors for a living and can tell you for certain combustible dust is no joke. Over the last ten years there have been several major instances of whole buildings being leveled and multiple lives lost. OSHA and NFPA have really stepped up enforcement of workplace safety and housekeeping standards to prevent these explosions. That being said, a major component of dust explosions is containment (like you get inside a dust collector). Unless you are working in a phone booth with a cloud of dust and happen to light a cigarette you're about as likely to be struck by lightning during an avalanche as you are to cause an explosion. Not to be flippant but the odds are very low. Possible but not probable.

Much more probable is a flash fire which these guys demonstrate quite well...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IvPL7KC1DEA

Seth Robertson wrote:The dust collecting part was just a side thought/benefit. Heat and safety is the main goal. I'd love to have a thousand bucks for a dust collection system, but it'll have to wait.

allen lumley wrote:
I went to my favorite D.I.Y. Site Instructables.com and found several iterations of simple /easy dust collectors, I personally lean towards the Cyclone Clones,
nothing as big/price-y as the one shown in Max's link is needed especially if you can have an easily portable one.

Seth, Allen, i will tell you off guys! I said "read!" Not just check the picture at the right of the page. This is just advertising for Clearvue cyclones that Bill Pentz has designed. With the major companies like Grizzly, shamelessly copying it. The clearview ad is there to support mr Pentz, with his respiratory problems; which led to his research on cyclones.

But he has all the explanations, drawings, Exel spreadsheets etc! That you would want to learn about cyclones. And their DIY making. I have one losely based on his principles. Tho, it's push through, since i like to use bags and not bins.


Glen used good common sence above, and David explains it well, "contained airborne dust" is dangerous. Wood dust in a building, i've never heard of any exploding. Tho, i've lived, when i was younger, around a wheat mill! And there the dust safety was stringent, because they had their last blast fire in the fifties. Ans it was not a pretty site as i have heard.

I went back and read further. The information worries me about enclosing and insulating my space at all. For the last few years my carving area was outside behind the garage with 2 plastic windbreak walls and a plastic roof. I could carve in the rain/snow. I heated only my hands and feet with hand warmers and my dust mask kept my face fairly warm. I never had to clean anything except my carvings and my tools with my air gun. I finally made a giant compost pile out of all the sawdust and chips that were about a foot thick on the ground in that area. In a room that's enclosed my air gun cleaning method will send all the fine dust airborne sending me to a premature grave. That is unless I buy/build a super duper giant dust collector that moves 1000 cfm and has all the right filters and pipes. Sounds expensive even DIY. Though I did see a little crappy drawing on instructables.com showing something so simple it might just work. A blower fan(which I already have) sending dusty air through a container with water in it. The air bubbles up and the dust gets wet and stays. Maybe its too much resistance and will burn the motor. But one thing that Bill said on his site that suck out is that the fine wood dust lasts forever UNLESS it gets WET. One of my tools(angle grinder with 40 grit sanding disc) sends a massive amount of fine dust into the air and all over me. Might be more than I can contain. Maybe I just need to let it out to open air like I had been.
That being said, I still want to be warmer this winter and I still want a rocket stove. I was going to insulate the roof and walls and heat the whole room when I was working, but....Maybe instead I should design it to just heat me and only store the heat that is not radiating directly at me. I don't need it to be 72 degrees. With my mask and coveralls on I'd be sweating if it was more than about 50 or 60. Several times last Winter it got down to 10 degrees or less while I was out working and that was more than the hand warmers could handle. My feet were colder than my hands though so the heat should radiate from down low, or heat up what I stand on. Whatever I do I'll try to keep it simple and cheap.