I have a small basment shop, about 15 X 12. And I really need and air filter. I was wondering if anyone has ever used the little Shop Vac Air Cleaner that woodcrafters sells? Would it be enough? It's like the small protable canester cleaner that Craftsmen used to make. I was laso looking at the 460 CFM kit from Penn State Industries. Have any of you made this? If so does it doo a good job and is it loud? I am kinda in a worry that the Shop vac will not be powerfull enough and a bigger 400+ CFM unit might be too big. I really could use some advice. Thanks.
Wanna real inexpensive air filter that works well in a small shop? Take a portable fan that is about 16 or 20 inches square and tape a similar size furnace air filter to the intake side. Exhaust the air into another room or in some direction that doesn't stir up more dust. There are filters for about $1 each and it actually works pretty good for a small shop.
I don't know much about the air cleaner from Shop Vac. But I came across one from Grizzly that seems to be very good (at least from looking at its spec). It can filter down to 1-micron if I remember this correctly. Most other air cleaner can only filter down to
5-micron or so.
I was hitting my head repeatedly when I saw the spec of the Grizzly air cleaner _after_ I had spent a lot of effort making an air cleaner that can filter down to at least 1-micron. Oh well...
The kit consists of just the motor/blower assembly, pre-filter, filter bag, and enclosure drawing. No switch or power cord.
I got the optional electrostatic filter. No dust worth mentioning in the shop now, and 99% of what I butcher is balsa, bass, and aircraft grade birch ply : some seriously fine dust there.
Not _too_ noisy, but I used 6mm luan and 1x2 pine scraps to build the enclosure so it would be light enough to hang from the rafters - the combination of motor/blower noise and 'oil canning' of the sides is just under 'intrusive' when nothing else is running in the shop. If you use 3/8" or thicker sheet stock the noise should be lower.
When I have nothing else to do I'll add some styrofoam sheet to the inside of the case walls and add some bracing. Should help a good bit.
It works best when aligned with the long axis of the shop and over the dust makers.
I can barely hear the unit when the air conditioner kicks in, and not at all when any of the power tools are running (yeah, I know . . . all my stuff is the bench top variety so I don't really have _power tools_).
It is indeed too big for my 10'x10'x18' shop 'by the numbers', so the draft is noticeable . . . I don't mind staying cool one little bit down heah in Jawjah.
Pay attention to the filter bag instructions; some care needed to avoid ripping it open while fitting it to the enclosure. The filter bag cannot be cleaned, so the electrostatic filter is a good idea.
The AC465 kit is overkill in my small shop, but when it comes to keeping balsa dust outta me that's just fine. Cheers, Fred McClellan the dash plumber at mindspring dot com
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