Homebrew air filters

Woodshop
#1

I know there has been talk in the past about ceiling mounted air filtering systems and the drawbacks - height, odd filter size, expense of odd filter sizes… Why not be makery and build some using common, cheap filter sizes, cut and bent sheet metal ducting, and some surplus fans from some defunct / decommissioned HVAC systems?

Pull the air in through the filters and return it back to the room and use some pressure sensors to alarm for filter changes. Combine it with an air quality sensor to only run when the particulates get above a certain level if you want to add some smarts to it.

We all know the air in there is terrible and we must maintain a negative pressure situation with the workspace to keep the dust from migrating out through every crack and crevice imaginable. This would circulate air in the workshop to help folks feel better in the heat and wouldn’t result in a positive pressure situation.

Thoughts? I’d toss a Benjamin at it to help with costs and I’ve rarely used that space.

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#2

We’d need to keep the filters down low enough for people to reach without having to climb ladders or use a scissor lift to do it. The floor is slippery enough in the woodshop with all that slick dust around.

#3

I’ve had this Popular Mechanics link bookmarked for a while now…I keep eyeballing it every so often, but my dust problem at home isn’t so bad that I felt needed to actually build it, but it’s a good idea/design with a lot of flexibility, easy to maintain, and not too expensive:

#4

@Team_Woodshop are the Jet units running currently? I recall them being disabled for some reason a while back.

#5

Hi, we took them out of service roughly a year ago. After a thorough cleaning and checking them every few days they were clogging up after about 2 to 3 days of average use and adding little value for air filtration.

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#6

I have thought that those filter systems deserved some sort of adapter housing that adapts the non standard filter size to at least a 3x larger standard filter, so they can remove more lbs of dust between changes.

#7

I gather there are outfits that will produce ‘proprietary’ filters for cheap (not like they need to be HEPA quality) with a reasonable MOQ.

I recall @AlexRhodes looked into this once.

Although adapting to a larger standard/cheap filter would also be beneficial.

Also, at one point in time we had a very maker-y variant on this:

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#8

The thoughts were to use filters media. 2ftx5 ft multiplied by 4 with them being at a 45 degree angle. The media is sticky/tacky enough that is catches fine particulates. They use it a lot on construction sites before the buildings are finished. They typically will install it before the building is fully dried in.

They would be put into sheet metal frames.

#9

For the home brew, would filters like this get us more capture mass over the filter life, with less filter framing needed?

Or do we get better lbs of dust removed per $ with other media types?

#10

As an idea generator, maybe “filterless” projectors would be a good model. They have filter material on a spool like a film role. Run time or low flow trigger the spool to move to the next segment of clean filter material.

#11

That would be an automatic filter roller