Shop Air Cleaner

Status
Not open for further replies.

jnforness

New User
John
That is a great idea, although I just bought one and hung it about 6 months ago. It is amazing the difference it makes!
 

Joe Scharle

New User
Joe
Not entirely a new idea as some of us have made similar cabinets. Here's mine. BTW, it's entirely pocket hole....no glue.

0032.JPG

View image in gallery
 

ehpoole

Moderator
Ethan
I was thinking about makeing some aircleaners up but hanging them would be a pain!

Actually, hanging them really isn't much of a pain. You simply secure four eye-bolts into ceiling joists, take two lengths of 25-50' rope, tie each rope to an opposing corner of the air cleaner and thread the ropes through their corresponding ceiling eye-bolts. Ask an assistant (you can get by with just one helper, but two makes for an even easier hoist) to pull on the two lengths of rope until the air cleaner is at an appropriate height and secure the permanent chains. First secure the chains to the two sets of eye-bolts that are not tied off to the ropes. Then remove the ropes and hang the remaining two sets of eye-bolts with chain.

Really quite simple and no awkward or heavy lifting is involved.

If you opt to build your own, invest in some good 1-micron filters. I mention this because many of the DIY plans out there use nothing more than ordinary household HVAC filters, which provides for a false sense of security. They will eliminate the obvious mess from your woodworking, but they will allow nearly all of the most harmful dust to escape into your shop air where it will remain suspended for many hours before it settles out. It is Ok to use the cheaper household filters as your first stage filtration (which prevents large particles from clogging the micron filter), but then follow it up with either a large pleated or bag-style 1-micron second stage filter.

For the fan you will need a good sized HVAC squirrel-cage (centrifugal) fan and motor. Expect to lose 25-35% of the fan's rated (free-air) CFM due the the resistance offered by the filters. For a typical two-car garage sized shop you will want a final design CFM of around 750+, so you will need a centrigual fan and motor rated at around 1050-1200+CFM free-air.
 
a important part is placement .... so hanging it in the center of the room helps

it was worth offsetting a rafter to hang mine.... it is high enough to be out of the way and does its job

Since I bought mine I would not be against making one.... I would start out with the filters from JDS and then build a box around them... I kind of wish I would have just done that to start with instead of spending $379 bucks for a sheet metal box from china
 

Phil S

Phil Soper
Staff member
Corporate Member
The under the workbench idea sure seems to make sense. I would think it would be better to pull the dust down rather than pull it up, moving it right by your head and your nose. I have always seen these filters hung from the ceiling and I am getting close to hanging mine up - but now I am rethinking the best placement. Am I missing something??
 

junquecol

Bruce
Senior User
My unit (shop made) hangs about 4 feet off the back wall of my shop, centered upon it's length. This just happens to be almost directly in front of my wall mounted gas heater, which helps circulate the heat around the shop. I use an inner bag filter that I bought from Grainger, and a pleated furnace filter. On the outlet end, I use a couple of return air grills to direct the air flow. Remote control is a Christmas light control.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Premier Sponsor

Our Sponsors

LATEST FOR SALE LISTINGS

Top