Where to position an air cleaner?

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

Barry Irby

I have two, one a Jet unit and the other home made. The home made one comes on with the lights. I have to remember to tune the Jet one on as it has a fancy remote.

My shop is a one car garage and the units are in diagonally opposite corners and blow toward and parallel to each other to create circulation. I don't notice the effect, but, they work because I have to clean the filters occasionally and they get loaded.

I would suggest a second one even if it is just a box fan with a filter stuck on it to help keep the air moving.

OTOH, moving the air to fly the dust around has a questionable aspect. If the dust is air borne you might inhale it while any dust that settles out is basically harmless.

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

John K Jordan

The Jet air cleaner manual simply states:

• It can be mounted horizontally and vertically.

The unit can also be hung from the ceiling.

• This unit will work best if it is located away

from corners, and heating/cooling vents.

However, earlier instruction suggesting mounting near the ceiling along the longest wall in the shop to promote air circulation.

JKJ

I will be curious to see how well it works

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I have no doubt it will suck fine stuff out of the air where ever you put it. But I also predict the shop will have areas of poor convection and the dust will still settle there.

If experience shows that some part of the shop collects dust more than others, I would locate it in this area. If you don't have such a place I don't see that it matters where you put it. Stirring up the shop air is going to move dust to "dead spots" as sell as recirculating it to the cleaner.

another thought

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

It would seem that the most effective time to use it was when dust was being generated. I suppose the thought is that when machine dust collection was employed this device would be redundant. I am not sure there would be redundancy. I would think the whole upper level of the shop would be dead air as far as the machine dust collection was concerned.

Dust is going to have a distribution of particle sizes and hence settling rates. Whatever escapes the machine collection is going to be settling in the dead areas as you work. At the end of the day all that would be left in the air is the very fine dust which I would think is the least of it.

I have one of these devices that I made. Having never given the situation much thought I only run it when I am in the shop generating dust (I have Oneida dust collection designed by Oneida). My home made device collects gobs of dust the machine collection misses. I never ran it when the shop was vacant so I don't have a comparison.

Re: another thought

Barry Irby

This is more complex than it would seem.

Ideally the collection at the tool would capture 100% of the dust generated regardless of particle size. You know that does not happen because your ambient air collector collects gobs of dust.

Particle size is important. The larger particles fall out of the air quickly and while messy are not very dangerous to us. Even while in the air our natural defenses do a good job of filtering out large particles. It's the fines that are dangerous and the idea of keeping them airborne and flying them to the ambient air cleaner is sketchy in the sense it keeps them available for you to inhale longer. Safety wise it would be better to let them fall out quickly. Unfortunately, the really fine stuff, difficult or impossible to see remains in the air much longer and is the most likely to get sucked into your lungs. So Ambient air cleaners do a good job of capturing them when they hit the filters. But, until they hit the filter, you should be wearing PPE and I suspect most of us don't wear excellent PPE all the time.

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

David Yoho

I have no clear answer for you. My experience has been several differing ones. In the early years, I needed my shop-built air cleaner (plan from an old AW magazine article) mostly while sanding with my PC random orbit sander. It was the angle grinder-looking type that had no dust collection. My first shop was a small single car garage and I hung it in the middle over my work bench.

As time went on and I moved into my new shop I mounted it from the ceiling above my tablesaw and work bench. Once upgrading to my Festool sanders and vacuum the dust from sanding was reduced to nothing. The major dust in the air from then was from my tablesaw. The dust collector attached to it did not stop dust thrown out by the spinning blade. The airborne dust didn't have far to travel to reach the filters just above.

I say all this to say maybe the best location is where ever you generate the most airborne dust. The better it is captured at the source by dedicated collectors the less there is to get in the air.

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

JL

Some thoughts.

In many shops, two is much, much better than one.

Having two promotes a greater air circulation throughout the entire shop.

That being said, having the intake side of your air cleaner just after your area of greatest dust production (sanding) is always a good thing.

From what I see, your bench is on the exhaust side of your air cleaner rather than the intake side - maybe if you turned it around?

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

Ryan

I bought a cheap furnace filter and hung it on the front of my air cleaner using magnets. Amazing how much dust it collects before it gets to your expensive internal filter. Your internal filter will also collect a lot of dust but having the prefilter extends the life of the expensive one.

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

John K Jordan

I used mine to remove fine floating particles after I left the shop. I monitored the particles with a Dylos Pro laser particle counter.

JKJ

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

Yonak

I locate and aim mine so that it works where the finest dust is generated. That is, where the sanders are located.

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

Jim Dillon

Derek, like many others I placed my homemade collector above where I did my sanding. I was amazed how much dust it collected. A very worthwhile investment. Jim

Thanks, and another question

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Thanks for all the comments. It seems many use theirs when running table saws, sanders, etc. My thoughts were to run it on a timer after I leave since my assumption was that the purpose of the cleaner was to clean the air left by the dust collector.

This collector has two filters. The first is 5 microns and the second is 1 micron.

Now this does not inspire confidence. The dust that is dangerous is below 1 micron. My dust collector has a pleated filter rated at 1 micron. A HEPA filter is 0.3 microns.

The question I have is whether one can add a HEPA filter to the air cleaner? One issue I recognise is that the finer filtering of a HEPA may reduce the air flow through and out of the air cleaner.

If feasible, where does one site it? Behind the main filters or at the outlet?

Your thoughts?

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Thanks, and another question

jessecloud

Couple of things...

Firstly, the HEPA standard in the US is 0.3 microns, may be different in Oz though.

Also, I think its a great idea to run the cleaner on a timer after you have finished making dust. I set my timer for 2 hours and after that the air is better in my shop than in the house.

Thanks Jesse. Corrected the number. 

Re: Thanks, and another question

roger lance

Derek.....I have one of the earliest air filters on the market.....a JDS Air Tech 2000......it doesn't have a timer......I do run it while I'm in the shop and become aware of how poor the air is getting.....I do feel that the shop air is much better while its working and I continue to be in the shop.

The makers of these products try to keep their prices down.....so, they don't use expensive filters. You should shop the market and see what will fit your model and try those filters......your machine will handle them.

Certainly, having an air filtering devise is a step in the right direction.

What problem are you trying to solve

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

If you are wanting to lessen breathing dust, running this thing after you breathed the dust and left the shop seems useless. The dust you leave behind will be settled from the air with our without this filter by the time you return. I see no benefit to it for this application.

If you are wanting to lessen cleaning remote corners where stuff settles then it makes sense to run while gone so you are not having to hear it. Locate it so it stirs up otherwise dead areas where stuff settles.

Re: Where to position an air cleaner? Depends

Martin

if that black Porsche is going to be parked there while your generating dust!

Re: Where to position an air cleaner? Depends

Don Stephan

Derek: You gave your wife new kitchen cabinets AND a porsche?

Re: Where to position an air cleaner? Depends

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

Derek: You gave your wife new kitchen cabinets AND a porsche?

Don, I am very generous. I give my wife lots of gifts ... table saw, bandsaw ... hand planes and chisels. Lots of chisels. She lets me use them.

Martin, the Porsche is ageing gracefully, like me. It's a bit younger but still of adult age. 2001 Boxster S. Paid for by the sale of a car I wish I still had, but 12 years of ongoing restoration were getting to me .. a 1957 Porsche 356A. The Boxster lives inside the garage (shop) at night as it has a rag top, but is backed out when working wood (these photos were taken at night, and it was pouring with rain outside). In addition to building furniture, my therapy is driving along the coast or through the forests south of Perth with the top down.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Where to position an air cleaner?

Pat Evans

My air cleaner is just an attic ventilation fan in a portable box with a filter. Its portability (and cheap price) make it fine for my needs. I position it where ever I'm making dust (e.g. on the RAS table while using the table for a sanding operation.) The air flow it creates across my work pulls the dust away from my face and makes a huge difference in what I breathe in. If I've done a lot of dust making during a day, I leave the fan running for several hours to help remove residual dust.