Building a Shop Built Air Cleaner(Long)

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Everyone,

From my posts, you can see that my main focus lately has been dust collection. My quest for better dust collection is partly due to the health risks and partly because I was sick of my shop being so full of sawdust.

Anyone who has thought about getting an air cleaner, should stop thinking about it and get one, they are great!

About 6 months ago I told a friend of mine that the next time that he took out a used furnace with a multi-speed blower that was in great shape, to let me know. Not asking much right!??! Well it took about 5 months, but he found me one that was only about 2 years old.

Basically, all there is to it is building a 20x20x24 box. I Built mine out of 1/2" B/C plywood. To join the plywood sides to the top, I cut 2x2's to length and screwed it together.

At the exhaust end, I screwed in cleats to hold a cheap 50 cent filter, to quiet down the exhaust, I don't know for sure if it did any good, but it does make it look better.



At the intake end, I screwed in a series of cleats, that provide a 3/4" space between each filter. First is a 50 cent cheapo filter. Next is a 5 dollar filter that is 80% effiecient at particles 1 micron and smaller, finally there is a $15 filter that is 95% effiecient.

The Switches you can see in the picture above are what control the blower. The blower has three speed, but I only used two. The first switch is a standard on/off switch, the power comes into this switch and out to the other switch, a three way switch. The three way switch has the wires for two of the speeds hooked to it, along with the input power. This way I can switch from High to medium speeds.

I am thinking of re-wiring the switches so that I can use High and Low speeds. The difference between the High and Medium speeds, just isn't enough, so I don't switch.

In this picture you can see the filter "door" and cleats.


So, How well does it work. Well if you look closely, you can see that the "bright" blue filter on the intake side is no longer bright blue. The second filter has quite a lot of dust on it. The final filter, has some dust in it but not too much. The blower, really has a TON of power. When I fired it up the first time, it blew out the exhaust filter! I adjusted my cleats and it hasn't done it again. Also, when I was testing the blower it was blowing dust out of my shop and into the street. My shop is about 30 feet from the street.

When I was sanding some oak I stood so that the dust would be pulled away from me. It was amazing to see the dust float up and over to the filter. After shutting off the sander it didn't take a minute to clear the air.

Overall, I am very happy with this addition to my shop. Anyone that does not have an air cleaner, should build one, they are great!

[Ted Shrader]

Jeff -

Thanks for the description of your shop blower. A friend of mine has a couple of blower motors and squirrel cages that came out of his house units when he had them replaced. Have been planning to build something like you did for quite a while. He said I could have one, he was keeping the other for parts. I may be building a unit like yours to go along with the cyclone (next up on the purchase list).

Thanks for posting!
Ted

[John Miliunas]

Jeff, that box you got hanging there looks vaguely familiar! You do, however, score extra points for the multi-speed blower. Good job!

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Ted,

The air cleaner is definately a worthy project!! When you get to building yours, send me an email with any questions that you have. It is really nice to see the floating dust going towards filtration, instead of just hanging in the air.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Jeff, that box you got hanging there looks vaguely familiar! You do, however, score extra points for the multi-speed blower. Good job!

I do have to admit, "inspiration" from yours. However, I honestly could not remember yours when I built it. Anyways, thanks for the tips that you gave me the day that I called, when I was building this.

Talk at ya in the morn.

[Bart Leetch]

Great looking filter Jeff. Sounds like it works ok too.

I really like my shop filter too.

We need to encourage as many people to make their own as we can.

Mine was made a slight bit smaller than yours do to my low ceiling the filter 12 1/4" high x 24 1/2" wide x 37 1/4" long. To accomplish this I had to hang the squirrel cage fan system with the motor on top & the fan shaft vertical.
I purchased a interior bag style filter that Grizzly used to sell as well as putting a pleated filter on the front.

Here is another picture from a post I made sometime back.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=4335

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Great looking filter Jeff. Sounds like it works ok too.

I really like my shop filter too.

We need to encourage as many people to make their own as we can.

Bart,

I whole heartidly agree with your statement! I had put off building mine with the exuse that I couldn't find a fan. A buddy of mine at work wanted to build one, so I called the local HVAC company, they had like 50 surplus fans! They sold him one for about $20. Total cost for him was about $40.

You just can't go wrong

[Jeff Sudmeier]

I have had a couple of private messages, asking what type of blower I used for this air cleaner.

The blower that I used was out of a home furnace. It was the type where the motor is mounted inside of the squirell cage and is direct driven. There is also a type where the motor it top mounted and the fan is belt driven. The direct driven fan is a smaller package. The multi speeds for this blower are accomplished by applying power to three different leads. Each lead is a different speed.

Hope this clears some things up!

Jeff

[Jim Becker]

Nice job, Jeff. Really a nice and economical solution! While these air filtration units don't "do it all", they really do a nice job pulling suspended fines from the air and helping to keep the shop cleaner. If you can score another blower, consider making a down-draft sanding station so you can further curtail the fine dust from even getting into the shop air.

One thing and this is just for general comment...using an air filtration system doesn't lessen the need to wear dust protection for personal health, especially when working with species you are sensitive to. Air filtration systems have minimal effect on health because they don't remove the dust before it has an opportunity to enter your lungs. Only a mask can do that, within its own limits, of course.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Jim,

You definately said it. These systems are meant more to keep the shop clean than to protect you. A good respirator is on my list of purchases for this year.

[Bart Leetch]

I use the Dustbegone mask because I have a beard. I like it because it fits well & keeps the dust out of my lungs.


You can see it here.

http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx...&FamilyID=2089