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air filter

I'm still up in the air about these things. I do know they clean the air, you can see it in the filters. My question is, since the air must be circulated around the room to be pulled out, aren't you still breathing it. Especially if it's mounted in the ceiling away from the lathe. When the sun goes down in the evening I can see the dust lingering in my shop. In the summer I will put a fan in the door to blow the dust out (this is the redneck version of the dust collector). I can still see the dust floating in the air.
I can see how the machine will clean up the dust eventually and probably removes some of it while your working but I don't see how to justify the expense for me. Anyone have a good answer.
To answer your question I would think it would have to be as close to the lathe as possible to actually remove the harmful dust before it gets circulated around the shop. I think more practically people either put them in a corner somewhere out of the way or mount them to the ceiling.
 
I have mine hanging from the ceiling above the headstock of my lathe. I have a piece of yarn pinned to the ceiling about 10" from the intake filter and when the yarn is no longer pulled to the filter it's time to blow out both filters. I replace the outer filter with one from the borg about every third or fourth cleaning.
 
I tend to agree with John about justifying the expense. Have seen pictures of the filters hung from the ceiling, but intuitively it seems more logical to put it on the floor where it can more readily gather the dust as it descends. Unfortunately this would clog up a big chunk of floor space, which is usually in pretty short supply already. Might fit under a work table or bench.

I did finally purchase a 1 hp. DC, extra $$ for the 2 micron filter canister, for use with the table saw, band saw, and stationary belt sander. I wear ear plugs when using the TS anyhow, so the noise is no problem (except when Missy Cat is in the shop). It is imperfect, but keeps the air and the shop much cleaner.
 
Run plastic DC piping, don't "ground," and collect the dust electrostatically.:cool2:

I think the whole-room filters are a lot of effort to get the 5% of the dust which escapes a hood and DC. Wear your nuisance mask and be done with it.
 
Still not overkill...

I run a Jet 1100 CFM DC with pipe and hood right at the back side of the lathe, a 1000 CFM recirculating air filter at bed height and at the end of the ways, and a 1250 CFM squirrel cage exhaust fan to outdoors located at the oposite end of the shop from the lathe. But then, my shop is downstairs of the house, and my missus is asthmatic.

The Jet probably sucks up 90-95% of the sanding dust when sanding at the lathe. The recirculating air filter obviously does some powerful good judging by the condition of the filters (two stage), but it is the exhaust fan to outdoors that keeps dust, solvent vapors, and flatulence from escaping to my living quarters.

With all of that, the shop still must be vacuum cleaned and "blown down" regularly. There is still a lot of dust on the top of light fixtures, cabinets, sharpeners, etc., so I am certainly not at overkill level with all of this.

My Jet DC is set up with remote on/off and in an adjacent utility room. I run a small household HEPA filter in there with the DC, as eventually the walls and everthing else in there gets covered with fine dust that escapes the bag. I have just replaced the original bag with a felt bag, and have high expectations for that too.

I don't think you can ever get to total dust-free condition...but I've got another idea I am working on. (I'll let you know!)
 
I've two - one for the enclosed space in my basement I use for craft item turning on my mini, and the other in my garage for wintertime with my Stubby. The garage one is hanging from the ceiling and works well even when I'm sanding and it's too cold to have the garage door open and blow the stuff out. It's a larger Jet with a remote control and timer. When I'm done, I set it to run for another two hours on medium and it really helps keep dust under control. The other in my basement is at ceiling height, but exhausts through the room's wall to create a negative pressure in the 8x14 foot sealed space I use for my mini. I purposely hung the door with extra space at the bottom to let air in. This set up has worked really well to let me turn smaller things without getting dust all over our home.
 
A lot depends on your shop configuration. Since my work area is in one corner of a garage, I have an air filter above and to the left of the headstock (which is at the far left part of my work area,) with the fan blowing away from where I'm working. My dust collector sits underneath a shelf area that is also to the left side of my workspace. The air filter goes on when I turn on the lights, while I turn on the dust collector while I'm turning (and after for a while as I clean up everything - sweep & vacuum - required to keep my spouse happy.)

If you have a dedicated shop, then hanging it in the center is what most of the folks who have the Jet (or comparable) seem to do.

It seems common sense (to me anyway) that when you're applying your finish, you're going to want to keep it off (or at least do your finishing before generating any dust for the day.) If you have a separate finishing room, that's a different story.
 
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