Sometimes the best solutions are staring right at you

[Bob Borzelleri]

I built a ceiling mount air cleaner a few years ago and it has hung dutifully from the ceiling until I took it down to finally finish the ceiling with beadboard.

I got around to hanging it today and stared at the ceiling for a long time before I decided that the place where it was hanging gets in the way of a wood rack on the wall. It had always bothered me but apparently not enough to move it at the time.

Since the ceiling job was underway, the air cleaner has sat on one of those cute little Harbor Freight furniture dollies over in the corner. And there it was as I was scanning the ceiling trying to fit the air cleaner in between lights, dust ducts, and the attic ladder. Things were looking tight.

While staring at the air cleaner sitting on the dolly, I recalled a discussion some time back where folks were questioning the value of a ceiling mount air cleaner that essentially drew air and dust up past your nose before it was actually cleaned. And then I looked back at the cleaner on the dolly and started envisioning rolling it around to where the action was.

The air cleaner has found a permanent home on the dolly and now I can breathe easier.

[Dan Manning]

I'm seeing a cart/cabinet for this soon. One with fancy fronts with opening doors for when it's in use/closed when not...hmmm.

[John Coloccia]

If you think it drags dust on the way up past your nose, why do you think it doesn't drag it past your nose on the way down?

They want them mounted up high because there's less obstructions up there and you can get better airflow. The lower it is, and the more obstructions, the worse it will perform. That's not to say that it doesn't perform well enough, which maybe it does.

I just moved mine tonight, in fact, and actually put it on the top shelf of one of those heavy duty galvanized wall racks. It's right near my cyclone in a spot that's pretty useless for anything else. I thought about hanging it in the middle of the room, but my ceiling is a touch less than 8ft to begin with, and something hanging at 7' is just way too low!

I picked up one of those Dylos air quality meters (the "pro" version tuned to the smaller particles), and now I'm much more comfortable knowing that my Cyclone and air cleaner are actually working properly. I can drive my counts from 2000-3000 down to about 50 by running the air cleaner. It's a bit of an investment ($250, or thereabouts if I remember correctly) but then you'd know for sure that your air cleaner and dust collection are really doing their job. I found a tiny, but very dangerous, leak in my cyclone setup thanks to the Dylos. Now the cyclone actually acts as an air filter and cleans the air when I turn it on.

From my experimentation, the air cleaner basically needs to run all the time when you're making dust, and for at least an hour or so after you're done. I turn mine on when the power tools start, and hit the 1 hour timer button when I leave for the night. It didn't seem to matter diddly squat where in the shop I installed it, as long as it was up high. It worked poorly just on the ground. It worked well anywhere from about eye-level on up, presumably because there's mostly unobstructed air at that point. Keeping it near the source of the dust had no effect on my particle counts in my case. The only thing that drove them down is running time. The dust you see falls to the ground, but the really fine and dangerous stuff appears to act more like a vapor or a mist, sort of like cooking on a stovetop...the smoke and steam goes up into the exhaust fan, but you still smell the onions from across the house within seconds of throwing them in the oil. The dust just immediately diffuses to fill the whole room, and stays suspended for days if you let it. I know this because I can see the counts skyrocket if I'm sanding without DC from the other side of the room, and they'll stay high until I turn the air filter on. The air filter will have it completely cleaned in about an hour, miraculously enough, but if you don't vacuum up, the counts will again skyrocket as soon as you move around or pick something up.

Dust control is slippery stuff. I've really learned a tremendous amount by paying attention to my Dylos is telling me. I'm not trying to say any one way is right or wrong. I'm just sharing my own experiences and observations on what's working and not working in my particular case. I will say that I was alarmed enough by the immediate effect of fine dust creation that I now wear a respirator when I'm sanding or using a router, dust collection or not, because I haven't figured out how to effectively setup my dust collection for those two things yet. There's no sawdust on the floor, but the fine mist still escapes, even with my Clearvue monster. Downdraft table may be the next step to try and trap it.

[Bob Slater]

You know if we had a group buy on one of these Dylos meters and mailed it from shop to shop for two week periods, the cost of admission would be pretty low.

[Dennis McGarry]

You now if we had a group buy on one of these Dylos meters and mailed it from shop to shop for two week periods, the cost of admission would be pretty low.

+1

That would be a great investment...

[John Coloccia]

That's actually a truly excellent idea. +1

This meter is really an essential tool to get a grasp on what's happening in your shop. You're nose and eyes aren't good enough. There are other meters, but the Dylos is affordable and is good enough that you can tell what's working and what's not. I'm not sure I believe the calibrations, but I can clearly see what sends it into the stratosphere, what keeps it level, and what actually cleans more than pollutes, and it wasn't at all obvious.

Another option is to try and setup a group buy and drive the cost of the individual meters down. When I was building my airplane, this was fairly common (i.e. a whole bunch of us would order electric seat heaters, for example) and we were able to get DEEP discounts....sometimes over 50%. The board I was on setup an area for group buys, and it's worked out really well.

Good Luck.

[Bob Slater]

That's actually a truly excellent idea. +1

This meter is really an essential tool to get a grasp on what's happening in your shop. You're nose and eyes aren't good enough. There are other meters, but the Dylos is affordable and is good enough that you can tell what's working and what's not. I'm not sure I believe the calibrations, but I can clearly see what sends it into the stratosphere, what keeps it level, and what actually cleans more than pollutes, and it wasn't at all obvious.

Another option is to try and setup a group buy and drive the cost of the individual meters down. When I was building my airplane, this was fairly common (i.e. a whole bunch of us would order electric seat heaters, for example) and we were able to get DEEP discounts....sometimes over 50%. The board I was on setup an area for group buys, and it's worked out really well.

Good Luck.

I noticed on a Dylos search that Phil Thien had organized a group buy last year. I wish I had acted then. I volunteer restoring a plane similar to the one in my signature shot and we are always glass bead blasting and plastic blasting most parts we are working on. I think we would be shocked to see the air quality results, and the museum would be forced to do something. I would consider buying one. To the Dylos owners on the forum, have you found any shortcomings with the product?

[Rick Gooden]

As a side note to the air filtration unit mounted on the ceiling, it sure seems to even out the heating in the shop in the winter, making it very comfortable.

[Kent A Bathurst]

........ I thought about hanging it in the middle of the room, but my ceiling is a touch less than 8ft to begin with, and something hanging at 7' is just way too low.........

My TS is more-or-less in the center of the 600 sf shop, with primary workbench (sanding location) close by. 8'6" ceilings. My filter unit is hanging from the ceiling directly over the TS, and I don't recall it ever being in the way - can't really get to it with lumber because the TS has that patch of floor blocked.

[Eric Gustafson]

My understanding is the air cleaner is mounted on the ceiling to catch the ultra fine dust. This dust is so small, it stays suspended in the air for days ready to be sucked into the lungs. The heavier dust falls to the floor rather quickly. Kind of hard to breath it when it is on the floor!