New 3-stage shop Air Cleaner

[protool]

I finished building a shop air cleaner which uses an old blower fan from a furnace and 3 stages of filters -- furnace, then electrostatic, then 1 micron pocket filter.









Works great.... in fact, well enough that it will capture mosquitos! And it blows cool air on me when I'm working, which in Texas, is awesome. I don' t know how many times it turns over the air in my 2-car garage, but its very fast at clearing the air when I've been sanding or cutting.

More details, photos, shop drawings & cutlist on my blog here: http://davidcox.org/wood/shop-built-...leaner-filter/

[JR]

Nice! I haven't seen one of those posted in quite some time. That is a particularly nice one.

Well done.

[LCHIEN]

does the blower have a CFM number on it? Or a model number you could look up and see the CFM number? THat would tell you the possible number of room air changes if per hour if you multiply the CFMs by 60 and divide by the area (LxWxH of the room).

[dbhost]

Nice build!

[LCHIEN]

looks like it needs a 12-hour spring loaded Intermatic timer.

http://www.amazon.com/Intermatic-FD12HC-12-Hour-Spring-Loaded/dp/B0047CPAJ8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1394939782&sr=8-2&keywords=intermatic+timer+12+hours

you can turn it on when you enter the shop for anywhere from 1 to 12 hours or so and it will continue to run for a couple of hours after you retire for the day, cleaning the last remaining suspended dust out of the air. Never have to remember to go back out and turn it off.

[Rslaugh]

That's very nice! The only thing I would caution you on is the switch. If that's a standard household light switch it is not generally rated as a motor starter. That s most likely a squirrel cage motor which can draw 6-8 times running current on startup. Something like this would be fine:

http://amzn.to/Ot6yp3

[protool]

All, thanks for the comments.

@Rslaugh, you are correct - i'm using 15a household switch. I was unaware of a motor cutoff switch - thanks very much for the suggestion. One question: the switch you posted is a double-pole switch. The motor is single phase (hot, neutral & ground). Is the intention of such a switch that both the hot and neutral should both be disconnected?

thanks!
dave

[tfischer]

You could just scavenge a fan relay out of an old furnace then run a low voltage loop to your standard switch. That would give you some options for remote control, etc too.

But then I'm cheap, I see the nearly $25 switch and think "there has to be a cheaper way" lol