Scrollsaw in a Condo/apartment or bedroom?

[MarylandScroller]

I was wondering if anybody does their scrollsawing in an apartment or condo?

For a range of reasons, I am considering moving to a smaller home which would not have a dedicated woodworking space but I don't want to give up my scrollsawing hobby.  I am trying to decide if it is feasible  to do scrollsawing and other small-scale woodworking in a spare bedroom.  This bedroom would be sometimes used for guests so sawdust and tool storage are my primary concerns. 

Does anybody else use their scrollsaw in a condo or apartment, or in a bedroom that is also used for sleeping?

-Alan  

Edited June 13, 2022 by MarylandScroller

[Roberta Moreton]

I do use a spare bedroom for scrolling. I do use dust collection. 
I do NOT live in an apartment or condo.. this hobby is loud. Saw, dust collection, sanders. 
We downsized by buying a pre-owned modular home.  It ain’t fancy, but we love it!

[William Eicehelberger]

I use a small bedroom have a dust collector and close the door , I have a little dust but it doesn't get out of the room and clean the room once a week . No problems.

[Foxfold]

You'd have to use some form of dust collection but then it would depend on your neighbours I imagine.  A saw + vacuum creates a LOT of noise.  

[Hawk]

I was faced with that exact situation while in the Navy. I had a 2 bedroom apartment and used the spare for scrolling. I didn't use any kind of dust collection on the saw, for me personally the vacuums are too loud for me to concentrate on my cutting.   I know this is contrary to what many think, but for me the saw itself really isn't that loud. I would cover any furniture with sheets to keep the dust off and I had a small fan blowing across my face to keep from breathing a ton of dust.  For me the dust in the air and on things was quite minimal and a quick clean up if people were coming over is all it took. I had made a small "bench" for the saw with a lip around the perimeter to catch any dust from the cutting and keep it from the floor. And if I needed to do any sanding on the project after cutting I would wait for a nice day and sit out on the deck to do the sanding. 

I still don't use any dust collection on my saw, the noise from the vacuum is just way too annoying for me to concentrate and enjoy the cutting.  I know that most everyone will say that's a bad thing, but with a small fan and a mask if needed I'm doing OK! My "shop" these days is in my basement, I have a dust collector for my table saw and planner and anything else that makes a mountain of dust, just not the scroll saw.

 

Chris

Edited June 13, 2022 by Hawk

[kmmcrafts]

Maybe on the bottom floor level, LOL.. I would think the vibration of the saw going through the saw stand and down to the floor might be a noise issue with a lower level tenant? I don't know.. just thinking about how I have a water tank for cooling my laser machine with a fish tank water pump stuck to the bottom of the water bucket.. that small pump running sure resonates to the downstairs of my shop. I don't have any insulation between the floors though so I'm not sure if a saw would make much noise for a downstairs tenant or not.. just a thought though..

As for dust collection.. I first started sawing in my house from 2005 - 2012-3 when I finally built my shop.. dust was minimal when using a 20" square box fan with a allergen pleated furnace filter on the back of the fan set up to pull the dust in. I used the saws air blower tube to blow the dust toward the side with the box fan to help suck it into the filter.. You might need to build a stool for the fan to sit up so the top of the fan is just about the height of the saw table. I think you'd do okay with that set-up.. so long as there is no vibration noise from the saw going through the floor.. maybe some foam pads on the floor if no carpet in the room.    

[Will M]

 I remember a long time ago on another scrollsaw website there was a guy that lived in an apartment in New York City,

[Will M]

I don't know what happened but I didn't get to finish my comment when it got away from me.Anyway that guy in his apartment said he would set up his saw in  his kitchen

by a window.I can't imagine what happend to all the sawdust,but he was a heck of a great scroller.

[Millwab]

My setup is similar to Kevin's. I have a box fan with filter sitting next to the saw and the dust blower on the saw blowing across the blade toward the fan. Like Chris the noise from a vacuum is way more than I want to listen to. This setup keeps the airborne dust to a minimum. 

[MarylandScroller]

14 hours ago, kmmcrafts said:

Maybe on the bottom floor level, LOL.. I would think the vibration of the saw going through the saw stand and down to the floor might be a noise issue with a lower level tenant? I don't know.. just thinking about how I have a water tank for cooling my laser machine with a fish tank water pump stuck to the bottom of the water bucket.. that small pump running sure resonates to the downstairs of my shop. I don't have any insulation between the floors though so I'm not sure if a saw would make much noise for a downstairs tenant or not.. just a thought though..

As for dust collection.. I first started sawing in my house from 2005 - 2012-3 when I finally built my shop.. dust was minimal when using a 20" square box fan with a allergen pleated furnace filter on the back of the fan set up to pull the dust in. I used the saws air blower tube to blow the dust toward the side with the box fan to help suck it into the filter.. You might need to build a stool for the fan to sit up so the top of the fan is just about the height of the saw table. I think you'd do okay with that set-up.. so long as there is no vibration noise from the saw going through the floor.. maybe some foam pads on the floor if no carpet in the room.    

I believe that many condos and apartments have concrete subfloors between levels, wheras single-family houses and townhomes do not.  The concrete does a much better job of absorbing neighborly noise.

Your idea of using a box fan with filter sounds like a great one.  I am noise sensitive and running a loud vacuum cleaner while scrolling would take away much of the joy for me.

 

[crupiea]

I do all my work in a 1 bdr apartment. 

Saw is set up in the dining room.  Its tile so easy to sweep up.  I dont do thick wood often that makes a lot of sawdust,  usually just 1/8" bb which doesnt create much. 

No issues with lots of sawdust.  I paint as well with acrylic sprayer and small compressor.  I set up a little booth with some foam backer pieces taped together and it works great.  Comes out low pressure anyway plus its water based so if its an issue it cleans right up.  Way better than finding a windy spot outside.
 

The hardest part is cutting the larger sheets of wood down to size with the scroll saw.  I get 5 x 5's and have the man at the store cut them in half but they still need to be cut down to use.  Once I get a few pieces out of one though its easier to manage. 

I did however get froggy and try using my router.  That was a huge mistake, sawdust everywhere and years later still finding it just after a few minutes uses. 

[MarylandScroller]

I guess I could take up carving and trade in my scrollsaw for a set of carving tools.  That would solve the noise and sawdust issues.  However, I am more attracted to the wide range of projects available for the scrollsaw.

Edited June 17, 2022 by MarylandScroller

[FrankEV]

On 6/13/2022 at 8:37 AM, MarylandScroller said:

...I am considering moving to a smaller home which would not have a dedicated woodworking space but I don't want to give up my scrollsawing hobby.  I am trying to decide if it is feasible  to do scrollsawing and other small-scale woodworking in a spare bedroom.  This bedroom would be sometimes used for guests so sawdust and tool storage are my primary concerns....

I can not speak to using any kind of indoor living space being used to do scroll saw work.  From my experience though, even a small amount of dust will penetrate every nick and granny and stick to any and all surffaces whether hard or soft.  Even deligent regular cleaning will not eliminate all of the dust and if you expect guest to use the space for sleeping the wood sawdust smell and finite particles will be difficult for them to handle. 

As a option, if you plan to down size, a small self owned/rented home with a bit of property would be more appropriate to aquire than a apartment or condo.  when I moved to Florida I gave up a large house including a large seperate beautiful dedicated woodworking shop for a small home (actuallyjust half of a duplex) on a tiny piece of property. My home now does not even have a garage.

I missed my shop and wanted to be able to do some woodworking and specifically got interested in scrolling.   Even on my small piece of property I was able to install an 8'x12' Suncast Plastic shed I purchased from Lowes and turned it into my shop.  I'm able to have a small dewalt contractors table saw, a small workbench, a sanding station with a bench combination belt/disk sander, a roll around Router table and my Scroll Saw.  I also have tucked away in a corner a Craftsman 12" planer on a little roll around table.  I do a lot of the table saw and planer work outside the double doors of the shed.  I can only do short cross cuts and panel cutting on the table saw while inside.  

I actually have two sheds, the second being for my garden tools and storage.  it is located 6" away from my shop shed.  I was abel to install a small dust collector in the garden shed.  I insntalled collection gates from each piece of equipment and hoses that are piped from the shop to the collector in the other shed.  This keeps the noise of the collector to a minimum in the shop.

All the above being said, my shop is very dusty all the time but I am happy to be able to do small wood working and scroll saw projects with out dust in my home (except what I carry in on my cloths that my lady always yells at me for).  I can't imagine an indoor space that could be kept clean of the dust created by the saws, routers and sanding equipment we use regularly in our hobby.   Then there is finishing to daal with..... I could go on and on.

Hope this helps!

 

 

[CharleyL]

I can remember seeing a photo of a scroll saw stand that worked much like a sewing machine stand. When not in use, the scroll saw folded down into the table base and the hinged top closed over it, making a cabinet with a nice smooth top. Sorry, this was years ago and I have no idea where I saw this photo. Just look at a sewing machine cabinet and how it folds to hide the sewing machine, then come up with something similar, and build it before you downsize.

For machine noise, a thick padded carpet under and around the saw would isolate the vibrations of the saw and make it very quiet. It would also catch and absorb the sawdust to keep it in place until you vacuumed it up. Keep this carpet small, like 5 X 7' and you can take it out  and shake the dust out of it outside too. 

I use a repurposed whole house vacuum with a Dust Deputy in the line before it to remove all but the micron size dust, which then blows out a vent up near the roof of my shop. This vent is pointed toward a 240 acre lake. The noise from it might make the Canadian Geese unhappy, but they make me mad enough at them that I don't care if it offends them. They graze my lawn and make a total mess of my drive and sidewalks. If the place that you move into has a central vac, maybe sending your scroll saw dust through it along with the rest of your vacuuming collection wouldn't be that bad. With the central vacuum unit far away from your living space, there is only the rush of air noise to contend with.  

 

Charley

[amazingkevin]

I used to sit in front of the central A C. Intake 21" x21" with the pleated paper filter. Caught every bit of dust even from the drum sander.

[OCtoolguy]

8 hours ago, amazingkevin said:

I used to sit in front of the central A C. Intake 21" x21" with the pleated paper filter. Caught every bit of dust even from the drum sander.

Are you referring to the "box A/C" Kevin? Window style?

[amazingkevin]

9 hours ago, OCtoolguy said:

Are you referring to the "box A/C" Kevin? Window style?

Central A.C. wall intake vent

[OCtoolguy]

4 hours ago, amazingkevin said:

Central A.C. wall intake vent

I hope you check the filter occasionally.

 

[amazingkevin]

55 minutes ago, OCtoolguy said:

I hope you check the filter occasionally.

 

Oh, when I see it bending inward I vacumn it clean