Central Dust Collector for Air Filtration

[Steve Aiken]

I will be ordering a 2.0 Hp Cyclone dust collector for a small basement shop soon. I'm sure I've seen somewhere that you can use the dust collector as an air filter by just leaving a blast gate open.

How effective would this be?

Should I plan to install a whole-shop air filtration unit in addition to the DC?

Steve

[Jeff Sudmeier]

Steve,

This has been mentioned many times and for various reasons it will not work. (Sorry don't remember the reasons).

That said, it is VERY easy to build yourself an air cleaner, I did mine in about 2 hours. All you need is an old furnace blower and 4 furnace filters.

Building a Shop Built Air Cleaner

The link above is to a post I made about the buidling of mine. I really like my air cleaner. You can see the dust gravitate towards it, when it is running.

[Bill Lewis]

You know, I think over time it would work, but you have to think of the efficiency. It would probably take longer, and the cost to run it would add up. Running a 2 hp motor eats electrons much faster than you think, certainly more than the fractional HP motors typically found in air cleaners. I know during big building or remodeling times I have noticed a spike in the electric bill from all of the power tools running.

[Ken Waag]

Steve,

It would work, just not very well or efficiently since you'd be drawing from a small area. Also much noisier than an air cleaner. You can get or make (as above) an air filtration unit pretty inexpensively. The new ones (and you could build it into one you make) have remotes and timers so they're better than ever.

An HVAC shop will probably give you a blower just for hauling it off. I had them leave my squirrel cage and motor when I had my unit replaced. I built a blower box (submicron filters) and ran return ducts down both side of my garage shop and an outlet vent pushes air out in the middle of the back wall. I ran a smoke test and I have two great circles going, and with a whole house rated fan/motor I figure I may be turning the air over in a few minutes. I'll run it during dusty operations and have a timer to let it run for 45min. after I leave the shop. Amazing how little there is to clean up.

If you don't mind, a few general thoughts for those who happen upon this thread.
Dust collection at the source catches alot (if you have good ports etc). Whatever gets away though tends to be the fine stuff which is the most dangerous.
An Air Filtration system helps greatly in removing this circulating dust but it takes time and follows a circulation path which can sometimes be going right by you.
A good mask is actually the best defense. To me the others make the shop more pleasant and clean but I still wear a mask whenever there is dust in the air.

[Steven Wilson]

It works sort of. If I've been cutting MDF at the table saw for awhile, I'll take a break, take off the flex hose and let the DC run for awhile with a couple of blast gates open. The few stray particles seem to get sucked up (MDF really bugs my nose). It's not the most efficient at it. If you're steadfast at collecting dust from the source then one of the room filter units isn't really necessary. However you mentioned a basement shop so I would probably install one anyhow as you'll probably want the air cleaner than a garage shop

[Jeff Sudmeier]

The Statement below is the most important on this thread. Whatever we do, we still need to wear a mask.(Something I am NOT good at).

Steve,

Dust collection at the source catches alot (if you have good ports etc). Whatever gets away though tends to be the fine stuff which is the most dangerous.
An Air Filtration system helps greatly in removing this circulating dust but it takes time and follows a circulation path which can sometimes be going right by you.
A good mask is actually the best defense. To me the others make the shop more pleasant and clean but I still wear a mask whenever there is dust in the air.

[Jeff Sudmeier]

[QUOTE=Ken Waag]Steve,

An HVAC shop will probably give you a blower just for hauling it off. I had them leave my squirrel cage and motor when I had my unit replaced.[\QUOTE]

Steve,

The above is also VERY good advice. Most of the HVAC places around here have TONS of them just sitting around waiting for a good home. I got mine from a buddy that works at an HVAC place.

Best way to get one would be to go into the office ask if they have any. When you go back to look at them, grab the case of the popular beer out of the back of your truck. Give it to the guy that is helping you with the blower and most likely it will be free! (Course this is Wisconsin, it could be different in other states).

[Ken Waag]

[\QUOTE]When you go back to look at them, grab the case of the popular beer out of the back of your truck. Give it to the guy that is helping you with the blower and most likely it will be free! (Course this is Wisconsin, it could be different in other states).[/QUOTE]

Good advice Jeff, and no different outside of WI. Beer is the international currency. A Six, a Twelve or a Case will work fine depending on how generous you feel. Any of them a cheap price for a blower unit.

Do call around, because my experience has been that these guys tear out so much stuff, they're happy to have you hall it off. My HVAC guy is great, he loves the woodworking angle so he's actually always trying to think of something I could use. Last time I stopped in a guy was hauling off a trailer load of stuff. Another woodworker! Dan sees me and says, "Ken your just a little late" (Apparently this guy got a couple of blowers, and a bunch of ducting, enough to do his whole shop, and he was also making a downdraft table). "And look what I got!" , sure enough he holds up a twelver of a nice local microbrew. To him it was a great deal because otherwise they've got to load it for the dump. Everybody wins. Even me 'cause he gave me a beer.

[Kurt Voss]

Just a thought - purely theoretical. But a 2hp cyclone flows about the same amount of air as a 2ton residential airhandler at the bottom end of the static pressure curve which is about 1400 cfm. Has anyone tried building the air cleaner box with appropriate filters and simply made it a leg off the DC main trunk with it's own blast gate? Certainly not a good ratio of air-flow to hp but possibly workable.

[Steve Aiken]

Thanks for the replies. I've had a squirrel cage fan and good motor sitting around for 3 years from when my dad's furnace went kaput. I've just gotta find the time to build a box.

So many projects, so little time

Steve