Separating metal working from other areas

[Colin Len]

I have a very small garage (~320sqft) that I'm trying to setup as a space where I can work on all types of projects. My focus is usually automotive but generally tinker on whatever needs tinkering so it varies a lot. One 4' section of my bench is also dedicated as my home office / computer station. All wood working would be done outside because I hate sawdust in my garage.

I'd like to do start doing more metal working and would like to do as much of this in the garage as possible. Welding will need to happen outside due to the epoxy floor but it'd be great if I had one corner of the garage where I could setup a drill press, grinder, sander...etc. The problem is that those tasks generate sparks and metal debris.

I'd love to see examples of how any of you may have separated these sorts of "dirty" workspaces from your other, cleaner areas. I feel like most examples I've seen are with large garages where there's tons of room to play with. But I'm dealing with about 4'x3' of space that butts right up to my other workspace. I'm sure I could setup some type of barricades or walls but not sure what's best - especially since those barriers would probably need to be put up only when doing that type of work.

I'm already thinking I'll get some horse stall mats, or similar, to try and protect the flooring in this area.

 

[WildBill]

No pic but we used 3/4 of a cheap oval shower curtain bar like for an old tub, mounted it to the ceiling, and cheap shower curtain to make a enclosure for a sanding area once, worked pretty slick. Have also mounted pipe to a ceiling and used with moving blankets and plastic sheets to do the same thing. Even made a divider with a strait piece of pipe and curtain that could be swung against the wall when not in use by sliding the curtain to the wall hinge side and then folding the pipe against the wall.

 

[ATC]

Do all the grinding you can outside. The dust is quite amazing. I have seen setups with a box fan on the side of a bench ducted to the outside.

 

[ADKAmateur]

Lucky enough to have two garages…. One for cars and wood (have a good dust collection system set up) and one for metal. It never ceases to amaze me how much fine grit and debris get thrown around the shop from grinding and using a cold saw. Maybe look at Uline or Grainger and see if you can

 

[ADKAmateur]

get the curtains the use to divide workspaces. Like the shower curtain idea but the are very heavy. You can get clear ones so you won’t lose light.

 

[Colin Len]

No pic but we used 3/4 of a cheap oval shower curtain bar like for an old tub, mounted it to the ceiling, and cheap shower curtain to make a enclosure for a sanding area once, worked pretty slick. Have also mounted pipe to a ceiling and used with moving blankets and plastic sheets to do the same thing. Even made a divider with a strait piece of pipe and curtain that could be swung against the wall when not in use by sliding the curtain to the wall hinge side and then folding the pipe against the wall.

I'd thought about some sort of curtain setup like that. My ceiling is sloped and there's a garage door track over the area so unfortunately that complicates my ability to hang anything from the ceiling. There may still be a way to make it work but just not at all straight forward.

Do all the grinding you can outside. The dust is quite amazing. I have seen setups with a box fan on the side of a bench ducted to the outside.

That would be my plan when it comes to angle grinders but the drill press will need to stay in place. I also plan to get a bench grinder and it'd be nice if that can stay in place (at least mostly, I do plan for it to be moveable). I can't duct out from the wall behind this area as it goes directly into my neighbor's yard. This is the front corner of the garage though so it is right up against the garage door.

Lucky enough to have two garages…. One for cars and wood (have a good dust collection system set up) and one for metal. It never ceases to amaze me how much fine grit and debris get thrown around the shop from grinding and using a cold saw. Maybe look at Uline or Grainger and see if you can

You're living the dream, good sir! Unfortunately I'm stuck with my tiny garage but I guess I should be happy that I can at least keep one car inside. Better than none.

get the curtains the use to divide workspaces. Like the shower curtain idea but the are very heavy. You can get clear ones so you won’t lose light.

I'd looked a little at those but still unsure how exactly I could make it work due to the garage door overhead and the sloped ceiling. But maybe something that swings out from the wall would be possible.

 

[Crazyjake8493]

I actually do most of my woodworking indoors (with dust collection) and almost all of my metalworking is done outdoors, except TIG welding.

 

[OccupantRJ]

If this will give you ideas, I refurbish shop tools and small equipment and have the need to spray paint things relatively the size of a an appliance. I hang cheap Harbor Freight tarps from the garage door tracks with spring clamps starting at the corner of the door and around and across the far end of the rails to creat a small temporary ”room” that I use to paint in. In nice weather the garage door is up, if not, it is down. If you mounted your metalworking tools on a rolling bench this would give you a relatively enclosed area to work. Curtain hanger rods or tracks and curtain hangers could be attached to the garage door tracks to allow use of the clear industrial vinyl curtains but still let the door open and close freely. This provides an area that equals the square footage of your door. If you place your equipment near the garage door in the corner this could be enlarged to include that corner also to keep from moving things around. My door is 10x8 so that method provides an 80 square foot room for me even when the door is closed. In my case for painting I try to use nicer weather and leave the door up to provide better light and ventilation.

 

[CraigStu]

A couple of thoughts. It is some $ but an upgrade to a TIG welder will solve the floor problem as there are no sparks. I don't worry much about saw dust. My shop vac connects to some of the tools and others are mounted on wheels so I can shoot the dust out the open garage door. Also a leaf blower will clean out your garage pretty quickly. I do worry about metal dust because it is so abrasive. I can see it getting into places where it will cause wear problems so that is another use for wheel mounted tools. I have my disc/band sander mounted on a small Craftsman wheeled toolbox that I picked up on sale for $99. The 3 drawers give me storage of the discs and bands as well as other shop items.

 

[tarmy]

This is how I separate the dirty work…I grind and make messes outside. The bench has a portable vice holder and the big powered tools have wheels. I built a steel table that gets rolled out too if needed.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I built a 14x28 addition for my JD. I decided to also use the space for metal working.


There's a man that separates it from the rest of the shop and I can open the O/H door. I also put together a squirrel cage e to blow dust, dirt and fumes out from under the door.

It doesn't keep everything out, but I see a difference.

 

[ATC]

That would be my plan when it comes to angle grinders but the drill press will need to stay in place. I also plan to get a bench grinder and it'd be nice if that can stay in place (at least mostly, I do plan for it to be moveable). I can't duct out from the wall behind this area as it goes directly into my neighbor's yard. This is the front corner of the garage though so it is right up against the garage door.

Drill presses aren't messy like grinding and cutting with abrasive wheels. A broom and dustpan work well for cleaning up the chips. I keep one of those small 1-gallon shop vacs next to mine to clean up the chips off the table.

 

[CraigStu]

Drill presses aren't messy like grinding and cutting with abrasive wheels. A broom and dustpan work well for cleaning up the chips. I keep one of those small 1-gallon shop vacs next to mine to clean up the chips off the table.

Me too.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Drill presses aren't messy like grinding and cutting with abrasive wheels. A broom and dustpan work well for cleaning up the chips. I keep one of those small 1-gallon shop vacs next to mine to clean up the chips off the table.

Damn good idea... might need to grab a "Buckethead" for this task.

 

[Hephaestus29]

I have an outdoor Vise. It's mounted on a steel post set in Concrete. It's a rock island and it takes a 50 gallon plastic barrel to cover it, keeps the weather off of it. I LOVE MY OUTDOOR VISE.

 

[racecougar]

For that small of an area, I'd hang welding blankets as curtains.

I pull a curtain across the 30' span to close off 1/3 of the shop from the rest when doing dirty work. The air scrubber is on the "dirty" side of the curtain.

 

[BobnCO]

This is what I’m think (post 15 above) in my shop. I am surprised the cable it runs on doesn’t sag more.

 

[kwb]

You think sawdust is bad....
Plasma, grinding, welding are 100x worse for cleaning up and for as heavy as metal dust is, it does travel well.

 

[Shoester]

For that small of an area, I'd hang welding blankets as curtains.

I pull a curtain across the 30' span to close off 1/3 of the shop from the rest when doing dirty work. The air scrubber is on the "dirty" side of the curtain.

Amazing how well those collapse! Where did you source the curtains from?

 

[racecougar]

Amazing how well those collapse! Where did you source the curtains from?

Harbor Freight. It's just a heavy duty tarp.

 

[Colin Len]

If this will give you ideas, I refurbish shop tools and small equipment and have the need to spray paint things relatively the size of a an appliance. I hang cheap Harbor Freight tarps from the garage door tracks with spring clamps starting at the corner of the door and around and across the far end of the rails to creat a small temporary ”room” that I use to paint in. In nice weather the garage door is up, if not, it is down. If you mounted your metalworking tools on a rolling bench this would give you a relatively enclosed area to work. Curtain hanger rods or tracks and curtain hangers could be attached to the garage door tracks to allow use of the clear industrial vinyl curtains but still let the door open and close freely. This provides an area that equals the square footage of your door. If you place your equipment near the garage door in the corner this could be enlarged to include that corner also to keep from moving things around. My door is 10x8 so that method provides an 80 square foot room for me even when the door is closed. In my case for painting I try to use nicer weather and leave the door up to provide better light and ventilation.

Love that idea. Doesn't work for my configuration due to the high lift tracks and overhead shelving in the way. Perhaps there's some way I can create something to hold some kind of curtain/tarp.

A couple of thoughts. It is some $ but an upgrade to a TIG welder will solve the floor problem as there are no sparks. I don't worry much about saw dust. My shop vac connects to some of the tools and others are mounted on wheels so I can shoot the dust out the open garage door. Also a leaf blower will clean out your garage pretty quickly. I do worry about metal dust because it is so abrasive. I can see it getting into places where it will cause wear problems so that is another use for wheel mounted tools. I have my disc/band sander mounted on a small Craftsman wheeled toolbox that I picked up on sale for $99. The 3 drawers give me storage of the discs and bands as well as other shop items.

I actually LOVE this idea. I would love to learn TIG at some point and this would be one of the many benefits.

This is how I separate the dirty work…I grind and make messes outside. The bench has a portable vice holder and the big powered tools have wheels. I built a steel table that gets rolled out too if needed.

So much space! To try and help put things into perspective - my garage is 320sqf and my entire property is only 5k sqft. And we also have to park 5 cars on the property. So unfortunately there's no permanent outdoor space I could install something like this. I'm limited to working in the garage or in the driveway. And due to all the cars if I'm ever doing anything that requires room then it requires a lot of shuffling the cars around and parking them on the street temporarily.

Drill presses aren't messy like grinding and cutting with abrasive wheels. A broom and dustpan work well for cleaning up the chips. I keep one of those small 1-gallon shop vacs next to mine to clean up the chips off the table.

Maybe that's the case but when I used it last time it was throwing chips more than halfway into my garage. But this is more a function of my garage being small than anything else.

I have an outdoor Vise. It's mounted on a steel post set in Concrete. It's a rock island and it takes a 50 gallon plastic barrel to cover it, keeps the weather off of it. I LOVE MY OUTDOOR VISE.

I would love to have an outdoor vise but I don't have any exterior space I could dedicate as a workspace.

For that small of an area, I'd hang welding blankets as curtains.

I pull a curtain across the 30' span to close off 1/3 of the shop from the rest when doing dirty work. The air scrubber is on the "dirty" side of the curtain.

My ceiling not being flat and there being a garage door overhead in the area this would need to happen make a curtain difficult. I'm sure something is possible but have yet to see any interesting ideas on how to make this happen.

 

[racecougar]

My ceiling not being flat and there being a garage door overhead in the area this would need to happen make a curtain difficult. I'm sure something is possible but have yet to see any interesting ideas on how to make this happen.

The curtain I showed in my post above bisects an overhead door. The ceiling slope wouldn't be an issue either. If you're worried about aesthetics, you can trim and hem welding blankets to match the slope.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I would love to have an outdoor vise but I don't have any exterior space I could dedicate as a workspace.

Vise doesn't have to be mounted in concrete permanently. The street vertical post can be welded to something like a steel car or truck rim.

Move it outside when you need it outside for grinding or hotwork, or duty inclement weather, center of the bay.

 

[racecougar]

Vise doesn't have to be mounted in concrete permanently. The street vertical post can be welded to something like a steel car or truck rim.

Move it outside when you need it outside for grinding or hotwork, or duty inclement weather, center of the bay.

Or a heavy flywheel. I plan to add casters to this one (so that you can tip it up onto the casters and easily roll it around), then add those brake rotors in the background to the base for more weight.

 

[Colin Len]

The curtain I showed in my post above bisects an overhead door. The ceiling slope wouldn't be an issue either. If you're worried about aesthetics, you can trim and hem welding blankets to match the slope.

Your curtain runs parallel to the garage door action whereas mine would the other direction. Your curtain can just be pulled backwards when you need to open the door and there's nothing in the way. In my garage the garage door track is in the way. So the curtain couldn't be pulled thru the track. Or, if I tried to hang some sort of rod to hang the curtain on below the track that rod would still need to be suspended from above and that would interfere with the garage door when open. My curtain would also need to be L shaped rather than just straight since I'm not trying to divide the garage into 2 but separate out a small corner.

Vise doesn't have to be mounted in concrete permanently. The street vertical post can be welded to something like a steel car or truck rim.

Move it outside when you need it outside for grinding or hotwork, or duty inclement weather, center of the bay.

Yup, this is already part of the plan. I'd like to have a stand which I can mount a vise and a bench grinder which can be wheeled outside. But, it won't be practical to use it outside all the time so need to be able to also use it where it'll be stored in the garage.

 

[racecougar]

Or, if I tried to hang some sort of rod to hang the curtain on below the track that rod would still need to be suspended from above and that would interfere with the garage door when open.

A cable, as shown in my post, wouldn't need any vertical hangers.

My curtain would also need to be L shaped rather than just straight since I'm not trying to divide the garage into 2 but separate out a small corner.

I think photos of the area you're working with would really help us all visualize it here.

 

[ez-duzit]

My shop is a bit larger, ~750 sq ft, but I don't bother with barriers to keep things separated. However the metalworking and woodworking are more or less at opposite ends of the shop. Doesn't seem to be a problem.

 

[Hephaestus29]

Vise doesn't have to be mounted in concrete permanently. The street vertical post can be welded to something like a steel car or truck rim.

Move it outside when you need it outside for grinding or hotwork, or duty inclement weather, center of the bay.

My vise isn't mounted permanent. The stand is bolted down with threaded rod and the vise is bolted to the stand, both removable.