Woodshop hit a new high of 95.84 degrees at 10:21pm yesterday. Obviously the CNC router puts out more heat than the AC can compensate for, but I wonder how recently the AC filters have been changed, are they clogged decreasing AC efficiency? Otherwise why would the highs keep climbing?
Is that accurate? It’s 90 in there right now? Sounds like the bay doors and whatnot need to be thrown open.
Remember that hot air rises, and, without enough floor-to-ceiling circulation, the upper part of the room will be far hotter than the lower part.
Having walked through the woodshop earlier this morning, those temperatures look consistent with what the room felt like.
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Service the AC filters first - far cheaper than air conditioning Carrollton.
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This is an ongoing problem. One that is causing failures in our tools (jointer caps), lots of thermal overload shutdowns, and a seriously uncomfortable shop - for one of the busiest and most used shops in the place.
The problem is, that the dust filters in the air return get clogged with sawdust. And you have to go up on the roof to change them, or the roof unit freezes up.
Now, the HVAC system is the responsibility of the Infrastructure committee, whose budget is intended to cover things like filters etc. But Infrastructure doesn’t want to change the air filters, because, you know, its work.
So rather than seeking a solution to the problem, someone just logs in and shuts off the air in the woodshop. That’s it. They don’t advise anyone, they provide no warning, just some random person does it. No arrangements of any kind made to address the issue.
After a while, it gets hot in the woodshop, and the tools start going into thermal overload, shutting down, etc. Then we (woodshop folks) have to go on a search to find someone to change the filters. This is always a problem because:
No extra filters are ever bought, and so changing the filters means sending someone with a card out to find some new filters. This always takes 2-3 days. Then, once those filters are in hand, we have to find someone who knows how and where to change the filters, and convince them to climb onto the roof and do the change. Lastly, we have to search around until we can find someone to turn the fucking thing back on.
So it takes 3-5 days to get it turned back on, because the people that own it (Infrastructure) are pretending that they don’t, and the people that end up being forced to deal with it, can’t actually fix the problem.
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It’s pretty humid out there thanks to the rain.
There were replacement filters sitting on the packing bench just outside the woodshop auxiliary yesterday. I’m also not sure when the pre-filters were last serviced.
The temp sensor is on the wall next to the sandpaper / CNC router, so that reading is probably a bit higher than standing on the other side of woodshop, would be a good idea to put a digital thermometer next to it to verify the readings, I have never bothered to do that.
ACTUALLY, what had happened was…
Infrastructure handles quarterly filter changes. If any area needs theirs cleaned more frequently, that committee will need to help out. Infrastructure is kind of a five-person group right now, and we literally can’t handle changing the filters on a weekly basis. We quoted this with a few HVAC service companies and it was going to be silly expensive.
The previous Woodshop chairs (Alex Rhodes, and Tom Cook by proxy of Kent Bowling [Tom refused to come to the meeting but said Kent will attend in his place]) agreed to this, and I KNOW you are aware of this. Don’t try to throw Infrastructure under the bus.
I am headed to DMS now is there someone there show me how to change the filters ?
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Roof access is unrestricted, there is no lock on the ladder located here:
Just have to climp up, find the appropriate AC unit (ours are the ones with pvc pipe running on roof for the condensate drain), remove the panel, and swap the filters
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The unit that services Woodshop is RTU#9. It should be labelled this, but the other way to tell is that it’s the biggest (newer) unit on top of our suite.
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I’m guessing 6/17 based upon the date of this photo in my Google Drive (that I sent to the gf). They’re probably labeled though.
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Nice goggles! 12345678901234567890
[quote=“Tapper, post:6, topic:13104”]
This is an ongoing problem. One that is causing failures in our tools (jointer caps), lots of thermal overload shutdowns, and a seriously uncomfortable shop - for one of the busiest and most used shops in the place.[/quote]
I believe that most commercial wood shops aren’t air conditioned, so I doubt that lack of air conditioning is causing capacitor failures. More airflow could help, but that’s independent of air conditioning.
No argument that working in 90 degree air is uncomfortable, more so without circulation.
[quote=“bscharff, post:10, topic:13104”]
Infrastructure handles quarterly filter changes. If any area needs theirs cleaned more frequently, that committee will need to help out. Infrastructure is kind of a five-person group right now, and we literally can’t handle changing the filters on a weekly basis. We quoted this with a few HVAC service companies and it was going to be silly expensive.[/quote]
Because dust is without question the result of wood shop operations, it is reasonable to ask that wood shop take a lead role in mitigating its effect on the rest of the makerspace.
This happened and I attended that meeting. The resolution was less than satisfactory. Thus we are here today expressing our dissatisfaction. Perhaps we should sit down and sort out a plan that is more satisfactory to all rather than on Talk.
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I knew of the meeting. But meetings aren’t action. A year later, with the problem still frequently occurring, clearly the meeting did not result in a solution. A year later.
I’m tired of fixing the jointer. I’m tired of chasing gremlins in the CNC router caused by excessive heat. So, under the bus you go.
Step 1 - Buy a couple of cases of spare filters, and keep them stocked.
Step 2 - teach a bunch of people how to change the filters
Step 3 - Stop turning off the hvac unit, without arranging to get the filters changed, and ensuring woodshop knows what’s up.
I don’t mind changing filters, and I’m sure other guys in the woodshop will help. But we don’t know how. And there aren’t any filters. And no, Standard rarely has them in stock.
Can the AC return be equipped with a cyclonic pre-filter? Just a thought.
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No, not that I’m aware of. If they are out there they are expensive.
Ive said it more than once, we need to make a through plenum into the workshop & relocate the return there. This will not be expensive nor to I believe it’s a firewall. By doing this, the sawdust in the air will have time to settle before it hits the filters. Also we CANNOT use the cheap fiberglass filters. We have to use a good pleated filter.
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Where will it settle? In the ceiling?