Can you build your own air cleaner?

Good idea. For maximum dust extraction use fine filters. Check out the specs on the commercial units and buy the same type. Ed

Lots of folks do it. I plan on being one of the when I get around to it. Go for it, what's the worst that could happen?

Frank

No wood needed. Just bungee cord the filter to the box fan. Change the filter frequently.

It's a good idea. A better one is use the fan elsewhere, go down to your local HVAC store and ask them if you can scrounge a squrril cage fan out of an old furnance they are throwing away. Build a box around that with your MDF with the filters on the intake end (get some pleated furnance filters) and you will havea far better unit than a box fan with AC filters.

Dave Hall

I have an old squirrel cage fan and have been planning on making exactly what you describe. A couple of furnace filters on the intake should do the trick.

The box fan does not have enough oomph! Go with a decent squirrel cage fan. You can buy rolled filter paper from McMaster Carr that will work well for the filter media.

|I have an old squirrel cage fan and have been planning on making exactly |what you describe. A couple of furnace filters on the intake should do the |trick.

Exactly what I did. I use a pair of stacked filters, a cheapie as a "prefilter" that I change often, and a better pleated one getting rid of the smaller stuff. It's not HEPA but better than nothing and a lot less expensive than the $50 ones for the commercial boxes.

Several years ago one of the magazines had the plans for a squirrel cage filter and an outfeed table combo. I built it and it has worked really well for me. The top of the box you build for the blower and filter, etc, acts as an outfeed table for my tablesaw. The base is on casters.

Woodsmith magazine had a shop filter project in an issue from the mid '90s. Basically it is a plywood box containing a squirrel cage fan with two furnace filers at the front and a single furnace filter at the other end. It's made to hang from the ceiling. It works quite well.

I've done it. Make the first filter a normal furnace filter and back it up with one of the "allergy" filters. Back when I was a smoker, that combination would even remove the smoke and the smell from my 12'x14' shop in 5 or 10 minutes.

Here's one:

Nhamie

I agree, Dave.

Here's site with info including fan size info..

Do any of you know of a website that illustrates making one of these? I'm having a hard time visualizing them just from your descriptions.

I built an air cleaner before. My comments from that experience are:

- If you need to buy a new squrril cage fan to construct an air cleaner, you probably better off buying an air cleaner instead of building it because the new squrril cage fan will eat up all the money saving from building an air cleaner. Therefore, this is important to get a free or very low cost squrril cage fan instead of buying it. Otherwise, this project won't make any economic sense.

- If you want to cut down the noise coming from the air cleaner, you may want to use heavy and bulky material to construct the air cleaner, such as MDF. This will make the air cleaner very heavy. And you may not want to hang that heavy object over your head. This means you may need to put it on bench top or on the floor.

- If you are going to put it on bench top or on the floor, you may find that it will take up your valuable shop space. This is especially a problem if the workshop is small. In this case, you may want to convert it into a multiple-functions unit instead of just doing air cleaning in order to get the most use of the same space. You may make it into a sanding table, or a stand for other tool, or an outfeed table as suggested by another newsgroup member. I didn't make mine to be multiple-functions, and now I regret :(

Hope your project a success.

Jay Chan

Combination air filter / downdraft table that gets finer dust than furnace filters alone.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Jay Chan) wrote in :

Thanks, I have several blowers including the 220 one off by old furnace. It will suck the clothes off you! Making it an outfeed/sanding table kills two birds ...I think I'll go that route.

Jerry

That will be killing THREE birds, not just two!

- Air cleaner \

- Sanding table |--- All in one unit

- Outfeed table /

This sounds great!

Jay Chan

Here's site with info including fan size info..