Air Filtration

[Bruce Whitaker]

I did not want to confuse the "Dust Extraction Airflow"thread, and I will understand if a moderator includes this post with that one. My question is, what are you using for shop air filtration? I have just finished my building, and it is sealed up pretty tightly. It has house wrap under the metal siding. The underside of the roof deck and gable ends are sealed with spray foam insulation and the walls are R23 rockwool with painted OSB for the finished wall. Heating the shop means just opening the overhead door to clear the air is not a workable solution. .I have a 2 hp and a 3 hp dust collectors. now. I have been looking at the Jet and Grizzly air filtration units that offer filtration to 0.3 microns. Others, like the Wen AF1270, filter to 1 micron.
https://wenproducts.com/collections...rength-air-filtration-system-750-950-1270-cfm

What is every one using?

Thanks

 

[Dave Landers]

My new shop (moved in almost 3 months ago) is similarly constructed - wrapped, tight, R21 walls, R60 ceiling, painted OSB walls.

I have a dust collector (Jet 1.5 hp w/ 2 micron canister). It is piped to the lathe, sanding station, and bandsaws. Does catch most sanding dust from the lathe and sander. Bandsaws are hit-and-miss. But the dust that goes in does stay in (I don't see evidence of dust escaping).
I also wear a powered respirator to keep anything it misses on the outside of my body.

Out in the garden shed, under a bunch of other junk, I have an old (couple of decades) Delta air cleaner - the big box with a fan and filter you hang from the ceiling. Used it in previous shops, it helped but isn't great. I haven't installed it in my new shop, mainly because I have a high ceiling and it's heavy. Also with it 11' in the air, I'd probably never go thru the hassle to change the filters so it would eventually be useless. I'm going to wait and see how things go to decide if I want it - or if I need an upgraded model.

However, I have noticed a lot less dust in this shop than in previous ones with the same dust collector. There's still a little dust on things, but a whole lot less than I expected.

I believe it is because I have started sweeping and vacuuming. I never used to - I'd just let the shavings build up till about ankle deep and then do a massive operation with the snow shovel. But I really like my new, clean shop and so I've started cleaning at the end of most days. It sounds obvious now, but I think getting all the shavings and dust off the floor, and not stomping on it for weeks, is really helping to keep the dust down.

 

[robo hippy]

I recently replaced my Oneida filter, and I think it goes down to 1 micron, maybe less. I have one of the 'air scrubbers' and it is still on the floor. The main place I need it is behind the table saw. I did figure out that a lot of dust is stirred up when I shovel/scoop up shavings and chips. Even when I turn wet wood, which is just about all the time, lots of dust goes into the air. I should be better about wearing a dust mask.

robo hippy

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I have a Wen dust collector and a Rikon 62-1100 air filtration system. I need to get the Rikon hung from the ceiling, but like Dave said, they are heavy. Right now it sits about 4 feet to the right of my lathe on a bench.

 

[Bruce Whitaker]

Dave and Reed - thanks for responding. When I am turning, I wear a 3M Versiflow papr. When you want impact protection and breathing protection, it is great. However, it is too cumbersome for many other shop activities. I have two dust collectors. One is a 2 hp with a Thein separator and a Wynn canister filter. The other is a newly acquired 3 hp Bridgewood collector with a canister filter above a fabric bag below. I intend to upgrade this with a Pent design cyclone separator. The problem with Bill Pentz's pages is the amount of information that he provides, but after reading through his work, I have come to believe that even with good collection at the power tool, too much fine dust gets away. I am leaning towards the Rikon filtration system that is available through Woodcraft. Purchased in DE, this unit offers a substantial cost saving in terms of sales tax and shipping. (Jet wants $100 to drop ship their unit)

Reed, I have read or watched some of your work solving problems related to turning, such as your sanding hood and chainsaw/chop saw. I also like problem solving and am wondering how a repurposed HVAC unit would work with properly fitted filters. I would not be looking for heat or ac, just the ability to move a large volume of air through a primary and secondary filter. Maybe.......

 

[Bruce Whitaker]

Kent, that is the Rikon that I am considering. Thanks for referencing it.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

I am told that sweeping raises lots of dust so vacuum for floors is much better. I have two air Cleaners, a Jet and I think delta ? . I used to only turn on when sanding but when I wired this shop put switched outlets in connected to lights , so lights on air cleaner on. They should only be up to a max of 7 to 8 feet and not on the wall. Of coarse facing opposite direction to get an air flow.

 

[hockenbery]

Also with it 11' in the air, I'd probably never go thru the hassle to change the filters so it would eventually be useless.

We have a similar JDS that served us well in a basement shop. Brought it to Florida.

We hung ours from a higher ceiling with angled beams. Put 4 cheap harbor freight C clamps on the steel beams.
threaded nylon rope through the eyebolts on the air filter and the clamps
Put it just 6” above my head so I can walk under it.
Pulled on the different ropes and pushed the unit around until it was level.
Tied off the rope

Turned it on to test it. Worked great. Hasn’t been turned since. We work with the doors open and big fans bringing clean air.

 

[Stan Pressner]

In my new shop, I have a great dust collector piped, but the real game changer has been the homemade air filter, 4- 20"x30" Mirv 15 air filters in a box formation with a strong box fan attached to the end. Great filtration and really good volume.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

Kent, that is the Rikon that I am considering. Thanks for referencing it.

Bruce, I bought it because it was on sale for about $325 vs. the regular price of $650. I wasn't looking for one, but I could not pass that up.

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

Turned it on to test it. Worked great. Hasn’t been turned since.

LOL, been there, done that.

 

[Bruce Whitaker]

I vacuum all of the time. two years ago I lucked out and purchased a new, old stock Mastercraft vacuum for a song. The disposable bags are pricey, the the secondary filters qualify the vacuum for lead, silica and asbestos abatement. It will never work that hard for me, but at least the fine dust will not get through. Vacuuming with a shop vac often just pumps the fine dust around the shop.

Today I was cutting Formica in preparation for laminating tomorrow. The shop air is foul and will need a good airing before starting tomorrow.

 

[Edward Kerslake]

I have a larger Oneida cyclone for the bulk of my extraction but also have a couple of vacs and dust deputies for some dedicated tools.
For ambient air filtration (the fine particulates that miss the cyclone) I can HIGHLY recommend this build.

Workshop Air Filter Drawings » The 3D Handyman

How to build the most powerful and least expensive air filter. Free plans!

the3dhandyman.com

It was cheap and works unbelievably well.
I mounted mine on a heavy piece of multi-layer plywood and added casters so i can move it around the shop to wherever I am making dust

 

[robo hippy]

Some day, I will put secondary filters on my HVAC system intakes, and use that for an air scrubber. I could probably get away with just changing out the main filter a lot more often, though I heat with a wood stove, and in summers, most of the time, it cools down enough at night that fans in the windows cools off the shop nicely. Always some thing to mess around with....

robo hippy

 

[Edward Kerslake]

Some day, I will put secondary filters on my HVAC system intakes, and use that for an air scrubber. I could probably get away with just changing out the main filter a lot more often, though I heat with a wood stove, and in summers, most of the time, it cools down enough at night that fans in the windows cools off the shop nicely. Always some thing to mess around with....

robo hippy

Gray, I did that too. I have a ducted mini-split in my workshop and put that inside a ceiling mounted MDF boz with 3x 18"x40" HEPA furnace filters. That works well too..

 

[Steve Tiedman]

As a side note, as I'm reading this thread I'm recalling a somewhat recent thread about dust and chips in the home clothes dryer and how many woodturners/workers are using compressed air to clean themselves off (and sometimes their shop spaces) before going into the house. Anyway...

 

[Ron Solfest]

I have a 3hp Oneida V-system cyclone with a HEPA filter hooked up to all my tools through 6" ducting, as well as a Powermatic overhead whole shop air filter mounted over the lathe. The 3hp cyclone allows me to run several tools in my small shop (18x25) without worrying that all gates are closed. When sanding at the lathe I usually close down all other gates (except the chop saw on a separate 6" run which I seldom close off). I use the overhead air filter sporadically, but after the previous JDS quit working a few years ago I don't use that much anymore; not sure it was a wise investment to replace it. I actually had a conversation with Oneida a couple years ago about running the whole shop filter and their recommendation was just to open all the gates on my cyclone and run that as the HEPA filter will do a better job cleaning up the shop air than the overhead systems that just move fine dust around comparatively.

 

[robo hippy]

As far as getting the chips off before I go into the house, an air hose never worked well. A good stiff broom does a far better job.

robo hippy

 

[Jamie Straw]

My air scrubber is a JDS installed many years ago after reviewing data from (I think) a Fine Woodworking review of scrubbers. What the article made apparent is that a filtration spec isn't the whole story. The unit needs to be "tight" so that as much air as possible goes through the filters (doesn't leak out, avoiding filters) . This JDS unit has your basic pleated filter followed by a bag filter (4 or 5 "pockets"). I don't know if there's a current review that researched actual overall filtration efficiency. The article that helped me was based on thorough testing.

 

[Mark Fairchild]

My main complaint on my vacuumed system is noise. I spent the last 2 days fixing that aspect of air filtration.
The first pic is of my current setup, hoses not attached.
The second one is the unit boxed in, insulated with Rockwool sound insulation.
The third pic is the finished station with doors. As I only use one machine at a time, the expanding hose goes from machine to machine with quick detach.
My unscientific hearing test is that it reduced noise by about 70%. I’m well pleased!

 

[Neil S]

I have a 3hp Oneida V-system cyclone with a HEPA filter hooked up to all my tools through 6" ducting.... When sanding at the lathe I usually close down all other gates (except the chop saw on a separate 6" run which I seldom close off). I use the overhead air filter sporadically, but after the previous JDS quit working a few years ago I don't use that much anymore; not sure it was a wise investment to replace it. I actually had a conversation with Oneida a couple years ago about running the whole shop filter and their recommendation was just to open all the gates on my cyclone and run that as the HEPA filter will do a better job cleaning up the shop air than the overhead systems that just move fine dust around comparatively.

Your setup sounds very close to the recommended setup, Ron.

And that was sound advice from Oneiden that the cyclone + HEPA filter will do a far better job than an overhead air scrubber. My Pentz designed cyclone takes about a minute to completely scrub the air in my workshop. Better to add the cost of an overhead scrubber towards a cyclone like yours Ron that will do an effective job.

 

[Brian Deakin]

I made my own air cleaner based on a Bill Pentz design

Please see the images in the link below

Bill Pentz air cleaner

To filter the air in his home, Bill designed an air cleaner comprised of a Wynn nanofilter (13F230nano) with a Vortex 8 powerfan and elbow sitting on top of the filter. Has anyone built and used one of these in their shop instead of a Jet, JDS, etc., filter that hangs from the ceiling? Seems...

sawmillcreek.org

 

[Kent Jaffrey]

My main complaint on my vacuumed system is noise. I spent the last 2 days fixing that aspect of air filtration.
The first pic is of my current setup, hoses not attached.
The second one is the unit boxed in, insulated with Rockwool sound insulation.
The third pic is the finished station with doors. As I only use one machine at a time, the expanding hose goes from machine to machine with quick detach.
My unscientific hearing test is that it reduced noise by about 70%. I’m well pleased!

Mark, how are you venting the air pulled in through you collector? Is it going outside, or do you have openings For it to go back into your shop?

I have my dust collector filter upstairs in my main wood shop while my lathe is downstairs. To keep the air flowing I need to either open the upstairs windows (to avoid back pressure, or open the “vent” opening I put in a wall. When I forget to do either there is a significant drop in suction.

 

[John Grace]

I did figure out that a lot of dust is stirred up when I shovel/scoop up shavings and chips.

...so true, I now keep my versaflo on until I'm completely done with the shoveling.

 

[Andrew Bennett]

I did not want to confuse the "Dust Extraction Airflow"thread, and I will understand if a moderator includes this post with that one. My question is, what are you using for shop air filtration? I have just finished my building, and it is sealed up pretty tightly. It has house wrap under the metal siding. The underside of the roof deck and gable ends are sealed with spray foam insulation and the walls are R23 rockwool with painted OSB for the finished wall. Heating the shop means just opening the overhead door to clear the air is not a workable solution. .I have a 2 hp and a 3 hp dust collectors. now. I have been looking at the Jet and Grizzly air filtration units that offer filtration to 0.3 microns. Others, like the Wen AF1270, filter to 1 micron.
https://wenproducts.com/collections...rength-air-filtration-system-750-950-1270-cfm

What is every one using?

Thanks

I have an older Ridgid ceiling-hung dust filter. Helps but doesn't get everything. Causes me to wonder, though, whether one could connect a filter box to the big dust collector. Wouldn't want to have it open while trying to do source collection, but when I'm not using a tool, why not?

 

[Mark Fairchild]

Mark, how are you venting the air pulled in through you collector? Is it going outside, or do you have openings For it to go back into your shop?

I have my dust collector filter upstairs in my main wood shop while my lathe is downstairs. To keep the air flowing I need to either open the upstairs windows (to avoid back pressure, or open the “vent” opening I put in a wall. When I forget to do either there is a significant drop in suction.

Kent, it goes outside through a vent.

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

IMHO opening all doors on DC and running it to clear air is no where as good as 2 Air cleaners do in my 24x36 shop. I found this formula but cannot give a comparison for my shop as I do not know the rates for my 20 plus year old JDS and the JET. Think in terms of the time it takes to filter all shop air.

"How big of air cleaner do I need for my shop?
If you want to determine the size or required air flow, use this formula: The dimension of your workshop (length x width x height) times the number of air exchanges per hour (ideally 6-8) divided by 60."

Now the point in addition to this is there are many such comparisons you can calculate to give you better ideas on the performance of your system. My thoughts and ALL I have read says you need both DC at point of dust generation (and yes green wood does generate dust) PLUS Air Cleaners to clear the air of what the DC misses (and yes it does not collect 100%).

 

[Bruce Whitaker]

I thought that I should share what I decided. I had narrowed my search to either a Rikon or a Jet filtration unit. The Rikon was $699 with a 5 micron outer filter and a 1 micron inner filter. Its fastest speed is 1100 CFM The Jet 2000 is $799 with an electronic outer filter and an inner filter. Interestingly, I could not find the merv specs on this unit. It’s fastest speed is 1700 CFM.

I decided to build my own.

I began with a search for a used HVAC blower. After wasting time on CList and FB Marketplace, I called a couple of HVAC contractors and got a unit for no cost.


I built a housing from 3/4 plywood, which I thought would offer better sound deadening. The unit is 1/2 hp, 220 v, and yields 1200 CFM.

The filter is also an HVAC salvage. The filter measures 19”x28”x4” and filters to .3 microns (merv 13). I will probably put a furnace filter in front of the Aprilaire filter take out larger dust particles. This filter is only 20% the cost of the Jet filter. The Rikon and Jet filters provide remote control And three speeds. My unit can be wired to provide three speeds, but I have opted for just the full speed option. Over in the health and safety forum, I am inspired by the post featuring a remote control…maybe. For now I will used a wind down timer. I bench tested for three days, and am pleased to report that I did not find dust settled on everything the next morning.

Here is the unit installed at ceiling height. Total cost about $200.

 

[David Anliker]

Good afternoon,
Don't hang that up out of site, you are asking for a fire sooner than later. There is a reason AC equipment is made from metal. That motor will heat up as soon as that filter clogs up. At a minimum line the inside with type x drywall. Better yet, ask the company for the whole cabinet the fan was in, they trash them daily from changeout work.
That box has got to go. Talk to the AC man, your shop is too nice to lose over a few dollars.
David

 

[Kent Reisdorph]

I thought that I should share what I decided. I had narrowed my search to either a Rikon or a Jet filtration unit. The Rikon was $699 with a 5 micron outer filter and a 1 micron inner filter.

I got that Rikon unit on a sale from Acme or someplace like that. I believe it was $325, or about half price. I still wonder if it was a mistake by the seller.

 

[Bob Hall]

Kent, that is the Rikon that I am considering. Thanks for referencing it.

I have the Rikon 62-450 and it really moves some air and does a good job with the fine particles in my smaller shop.

 

[Russ Braun]

If you’re running extraction through ductwork (I’m using an Oneida Supercell), I made the main connection at the center of the run. On either side of that, I added a blast gate. I cut off half the run when in use depending on what tool is being used. Can’t see why that wouldn’t help in the overall scheme of things.

 

[Russ Braun]

On a second note, early on, I took an airflow meter and checked the number at each gate. I wrote this right on the gate and use it as a “benchmark” when checking suction.

 

[Jerry Mollenhauer]

IMHO opening all doors on DC and running it to clear air is no where as good as 2 Air cleaners do in my 24x36 shop. I found this formula but cannot give a comparison for my shop as I do not know the rates for my 20 plus year old JDS and the JET. Think in terms of the time it takes to filter all shop air.

"How big of air cleaner do I need for my shop?
If you want to determine the size or required air flow, use this formula: The dimension of your workshop (length x width x height) times the number of air exchanges per hour (ideally 6-8) divided by 60."

Now the point in addition to this is there are many such comparisons you can calculate to give you better ideas on the performance of your system. My thoughts and ALL I have read says you need both DC at point of dust generation (and yes green wood does generate dust) PLUS Air Cleaners to clear the air of what the DC misses (and yes it does not collect 100%).

Gerald, thanks for the valuable formula. I started turning about four years ago and it wasn't long until the sanding dust got to me and I bought a M Power dust Respirator. That really helped, but I am starting to look toward a good stationary dust abatement/control system. Does anyone care to suggest an effective and fairly inexpensive system? Not cheap, lungs are worth taking care of.

 

[Bob Uhle]

Dont know if this is off topic, but relates to dust removal. My workshop is one of my garage bays. Door is usually open when I work. Would a high cfm exhaust fan allow the removal of most dust not captured by my dust collection system and keep it from settling on equipment and shelving in the garage?

 

[Gerald Lawrence]

Dont know if this is off topic, but relates to dust removal. My workshop is one of my garage bays. Door is usually open when I work. Would a high cfm exhaust fan allow the removal of most dust not captured by my dust collection system and keep it from settling on equipment and shelving in the garage?

The answer is yes and no. To get what you want would need a flow thru ventilation. Even then you will still get dust. I have two air cleaners and still get dust. The only way to. Find out is to test it .

 

[Jay Simmons]

Over the years, I have come to believe that there is more disinformation about dust collection, not aimed at any of the comments in this thread. I spent my career in the chemical manufacturing industry and was lucky to have support of many knowledgeable and skilled Industrial Hygienists. I believe this has made me over aware to the challenges of capturing dusts and fumes. I have a wonderful 1 man shop, so i decided to not add ductwork and all the costs and maintenance issues. I have an Oneida Mini-gorilla that I connect with the shortest hose reasonable to the machine in use. It does an acceptable job. Lots of airflow which helps tremendously when I am sanding on the lathe. I position a “Big Mouth” fitting as close as possible behind the lathe and can see the wisps of dust being pulled in when sanding. As good as this is I find the air filter hung above the lathe to be the first that has the course filter begin to blind first.
I have hung 4 air filters in the shop to capture the dusts that escape the “at the source” collection. The speed at which the 5mil filters blind has educated me how much dust escapes the primary DC. From suggestions on this forum, I placed 12” ribbons on the filters’ discharges. The first time one of these stopped blowing out I expected to find some problem with the filter blower, but since replacing the filters was less expensive than parts or a completely new unit I installed a new 5 mic primary filter. To my surprise that completely restored air flow through the filter. Over several years, I have not experienced the 1mil filters blinding. I have learned that the small 3 speed air filters are all built to the same design and specs and most in the same facility in China.
I was gifted a Trend filtering helmet several years ago with plans to use when turning. Was surprised how quickly the filters became coated with dust. Due the Trend’s weight and costs of replacement filters I have moved to a JSP cap. These cartridge filters have a replaceable pre filter which extends there life. Once again with all my efforts of trapping dust at the source, I am dismayed by the buildup on the helmets filters.
I apologize for the length of my post, but I only shared a small portion of my experience and what gerous folks have shared with me