Air Cleaner

[Jay]

I am using a shop vac and attaching it to the different power tools in my shop. I am looking for a option to clean the dust from the air. I am contemplating the Delta AP 200. I see where amazon has it on sale for 169 with free shipping. Does anyone have any comments they can make concerning this. Do you know it to be good, bad, or indifferent. What I read were good reviews but they were not extensive. Money is an object so I am looking bang for the buck. Thank you for any guidance you can give in advance.

Jay

 

[Steve D]

Jay,
The size of you shop will directly impact how well a given air cleaner will work because it's effectiveness is determined by how rapidly it can recycle the air in your shop. How big of an area are you working with? If you are 20x20 or smaller it should do a great job. I built my own unit a few years ago but this is the unit I designed it around. I'm using Delta's 3 pocket inner filter but I buy the outer pleater filters by the case off ebay.....much cheaper. At that price, with free shipping, it sounds like a great deal.

 

[Travis Porter]

I built my own as well with a squirrel cage fan I got from my father. I built a box to house 14 x 25 high efficiency 3M pleated filters (I forget what they are called). I put two on the intake and one on the exhaust and used a pull chain switch for turning it on and off. I got the plan/idea for it from WoodSmith (no clue what issue), but I have been happy with it overall. As Steve comments, size of your shop does matter so if you get a "smaller" unit, locating it where you generate the most fine dust does help.

I can say that before I had the thing, and I was just using the dust bags everything in my shop would have a fine layer of dust after I finished a sanding run. Now, that is pretty much gone (I hook all my sanders to vacuum as well now), so in general I would positively recommend having any unit to reduce dust in the air.

 

[McRabbet]

Jay,
I would recommend that you first improve your Shop Vac exhaust by adding better filtration there first (it is a major source of any fine particulates because its exhaust is blown everywhere!). Whenever I use my belt/disk or oscillating or random orbit sanders, I direct connect them to my Shop Vac. I have a 16 gallon Shop-Vac that has a good cartridge filter and a dry wall dust bag as well -- the dry wall bags are 95% efficient at 0.1 micron. They come is several sizes for all Shop Vac models (you'll find them in yellow bags at Lowe's or the BORG). While they are a bit pricey, they are cheaper than a whole shop air cleaner that will be sucking the same air as your lungs. Bottom line -- eliminate the fine particulates before they get airborne!

BTW - I still wear a dust mask whenever I sand, because no vac system can catch it all.

Rob

 

[hpetty]

Jay,

I bought that same unit about 3-4 weeks ago. When I purchased the cleaner I didn't have any DC connected to my table saw. I've found it to do a pretty decent job of removing MDF dust from the air, but if I had it to do over again I would have added a dust collection system as a higher priority. I just bought the Harbor Freight DC and beleive the two together will do the job of keeping my air clean.

 

[Jay]

Jay,
The size of you shop will directly impact how well a given air cleaner will work because it's effectiveness is determined by how rapidly it can recycle the air in your shop. How big of an area are you working with? If you are 20x20 or smaller it should do a great job. I built my own unit a few years ago but this is the unit I designed it around. I'm using Delta's 3 pocket inner filter but I buy the outer pleater filters by the case off ebay.....much cheaper. At that price, with free shipping, it sounds like a great deal.

My shop is a 12 by 20. Sounds like it will be big enough then. Thanks

Jay

 

[Jay]

Jay,
I would recommend that you first improve your Shop Vac exhaust by adding better filtration there first (it is a major source of any fine particulates because its exhaust is blown everywhere!). Whenever I use my belt/disk or oscillating or random orbit sanders, I direct connect them to my Shop Vac. I have a 16 gallon Shop-Vac that has a good cartridge filter and a dry wall dust bag as well -- the dry wall bags are 95% efficient at 0.1 micron. They come is several sizes for all Shop Vac models (you'll find them in yellow bags at Lowe's or the BORG). While they are a bit pricey, they are cheaper than a whole shop air cleaner that will be sucking the same air as your lungs. Bottom line -- eliminate the fine particulates before they get airborne!

BTW - I still wear a dust mask whenever I sand, because no vac system can catch it all.

Rob

Yeah I have always used the masks and will continue to do so. Just want something to cut down on the dust in the air and the dust that settles all over everything later. Maybe even save some money on how often I have to buy the face masks. lol Petty did you use any kind of shop vac for dust collection or were you just using the air cleaner?

Jay

 

[hpetty]

Just the air cleaner when runningt the saw. I let the dust pile up at the base of my Unisaw and used a shop vac every couple of days to clear it. I'm starting to pipe for the DC this week though.

 

[Ryan]

I built my own filtration system too, using a Greenheck high-flow fan, some scrap plywood, and a remote control Christmas light unit. The whole thing cost me $10 total, and it does a great job, so I can't complain!

 

[gator]

There is a 90%+ chance that if you go to any of your local HVAC shops, they will have a pile of squirrel cage fans in the back. Most will give you one for free as they are from homes where they have put in new systems. I got a big honker and built my own. I have two inputs and one exhaust. I use a double filter on each input and a single on the output.

George