I need to buy an air cleaner for my basement workshop. It’s not enclosed and the whole basement (and my lungs) are fair game for saw dust.
I typically use a tablesaw, miter saw, router, and random orbital sander.
Usually work with cabinet plywood…have avoided MDF because of dust.
I was considering the Delta Ap200.
Any thought or recommendations would be appreciated.
Thank You
Replies
Do you already have a dust collector? Because you would definately need both a dust collector to collect dust chips etc at the source and an air filter to collect the small airborne dust that can get into your lungs. I dont know about the Delta but I have the Jet and love it.
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Edited 1/3/2007 2:15 pm by Sancho
Hello Jimmie, I have a dust collector similiar to this (the Jet version). You are better off spending your money on a good dust collection system and catch it at the source rather than wait until it gets into the air. These air cleaners actually do very little.
Actually (IMHO) you need a dust collector for things like your TS, a good shop vac hooked up eg your sander and an air cleaner. I have the larger JET cleaner and judging from what the filter looks like I'd say it does a great job (the air actually feels cleaner as well).
PaulB
here is the place to start;
http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/Index.cfm
Like you I was ready for an upgrade but the Pentz minimum greatly exceeds what I though was acceptable.
That Delta will not do according to Pentz.
I built my own air filter system 24 yrs ago from an article in American Woodworker and it works incredably well.I was lucky and found a furnace fan unit with a 3 speed switch and just built a 1/2 plywood box around it to hold 2 16" X 20' filters with filter cloth over top.I vac it when it is running to clean the dust off the cloth.Also works great to clean the shop of dust .I switch it on and use the air compressor to blow everything off and the dust is sucked into the filters. I also use a shop vac system to deal with chips but with the air filter looks after the fine dust so well that you never see any.
JIMMIE
I use boith a sawdust collector and the airborne dust collector.. you actaully need both in a shop.
the airborne dust is what gets in your lungs and you should collect as much as possible at the source.. (tablesaw, shaper, planer etc..) plus there is going to be airborne dust no matter what system you use..
I bought Grizzly. all that stuff is imported so you may as well save what money you can. Grizzly .com sells direct and it's very good stuff I love the fact that I buy it for as little as half what it's available locally for..
Plus I had serious issues with Delta.. The after sale service was terrible and In the end I either sold or gave away all my Delta stuff.. I had a contractor saw so terrible that I gave it away (and I'm a cheap basturd so you know it was pretty god awful!)
Have a Grizzley dust collector and the JeT Air Cleaner. Get the remote for the dust collector ..its $50 wellspent. Jet has nice remote too with speed and timer.It is great with the fine stuff...cabinet plywood is the worst. Dont see how one can say they dont do anything if u see what comes off the filter.Chips may clog the floor up but dust will clog ur lungs up!
Your first and most important line of defense against dust is to pick it up at the source with a dust collector. By the time the dust is in the air it is to late. I use my aircleaner as a backup to deal with anything the dust collector has missed. At the same time I invested the majority of my time and money in making sure the dust collector does the best possible job.
Check out the article in the October 2006 issue of WOOD magazine which rates air cleaners. It describes some improperly installed air cleaners as actually increasing the amount of time dust remained airborne. This is due to air turbulence in a small shop.
WOOD rated the JDS Air-Tech 750-ER as Top Tool. I use this same air cleaner in the high school wood shop I teach in. Mounted 12' above the floor and its exhaust 12' away from the nearest wall it sets up a nice gentle air circulation that does well at removing airborne dust. However placing your hand in the path of the outlet you can understand how this machine could act as a fan keeping dust in suspension or even blowing dust off your work bench.
Here is a link to that WOOD article http://www.woodmagazine.com/wood/story.jhtml?storyid=/templatedata/wood/story/data/1161977196015.xml
Thank You for your response.
I've got a contractor type table saw and am wondering whether it's better to have the dust collector collecting from above (suspended over the blade area) or below the table?
Jimmie,
above will interfer with things on occasion but collect slightly more dust, below is out of the way but will allow a slight increase of escaped dust..
Jim,
Table saws are tough because the blade throws the dust an gets it air bourne. At the high school shop I am running a Powermatic 66 cabinet saw. With this saw I try to collect dust from both above and below. The majority of the dust tends to settle into the lower cabinet. However this dust is not the dust I worry about. It is the dust that gets thrown all over the front of my shirt off the blade, that is the biggest concern.
To try to minimize the dust from getting thrown I try to create as much suction around the throat plate as possible. Look for air leaks in the cabinet and seal them up.
For example, the powermatic has a 4" dust gate on the cabinet. Hooked up to a dust collector, the cabinet does a good job of self cleaning. However, there are so many air leaks around the door, tilt clearance hole, and where the table meets the cabinet, that suction is minimal at the throat plate. To remedy this, I added weather stripping to the door, made a plug out of some foam floor pad for the tilt hole, and sealed the gap between the table and cabinet with spray foam (The powermatic table is webbed underneath and leaves large gaps)
Once the cabinet was tight, holding your hand over the throat plate you could feel a negative pressure.
I also run an Excalibur over arm dust collector http://www.amazon.com/Excalibur-EXBCS-10-Table-Overarm-Blade/dp/B000051XJ0 This creates a second negative pressure over the blade and tends to catch some more dust coming off the blade. I have seen some home made overarm gurads hung from the ceiling. A PVC pipe acting as the duct. At the high school we can't make anything like that for insurance reasons so we had to by the $$ excaliber
Finally I have one dust collector fully dedicated to just the table saw, a JET Dust Dog http://www.amazon.com/708626CK-DC-1100CK-Horsepower-Canister-Collector/dp/B00006J6PF/sr=1-3/qid=1168458772/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/104-7670788-8051113?ie=UTF8&s=hi That way I'm sure I have enough suction when mutiple machines are running. If you work alone in your home shop that is prpably not a concern and you could share one collector. Best of luck
Like 'telephonguy', I built my own air cleaner from plans in Woodsmith/Shopnotes magazine a couple of years ago. It's basically a Dayton 465cfm blower in a plywood box and 4 12"x24" furnace filters. I have a basement shop that's about 14'x22' and it works like a charm on the very fine airborne dust.
I built my own because I can get the 12x24 furnace filters for a few bucks vs. the cost of specialized filters used in the delta/jet/etc. versions. I bought a dozen air filters via the internet for about $50.00 whereas a set of replacement filters for the delta (for only two replacements) are closer to $90.00. The Dayton blower was only $70.00 through 'grainger.com', plus the cost of a sheet of 1/2" plywood and some wiring - made it a very good deal - plus it was fun to build.
Would you happen to know where to locate the plans you used to build it. i need one and would rather build than buy off the shelf.
It was an old Woodsmith magazine - I didn't realize how long ago it was, it just seems like yesterday!Clearing the air. Two inexpensive solutions to clear the air of sawdust in your shop.
(1) Heavy-duty shop filter incorporates a squirrel cage blower and pleated furnace filters.
(2) Small-area shop filter uses two bathroom exhaust fans and pleated furnace filters.
WOODSMITH #95 Oct 1994 (v.16) pg. 22plus I did a 'Google' search on 'woodsmith air cleaner' and got the following link: http://www.nleindex.com/index.php?pID=HTDI&sID=BrowseIndex&tID=E/13looks like there are additional plans as well..
I'll look thru my old American Woodworker mags and post or email the scanned article tonight...it's in a mid 80's issue...in black and white...remember those?
attached is the scanned plans for a shop built air filter...I used a fan that had a built in speed control and the motor is inside the blower
Thanks, I saved them and will open them when I have more time.
Thanks again for taking the time and putting the effort into doing that scan.!!
Box fan + 20x20 furnace filter + a little tape. Cheap and portable. One or two of these will clean all your air in no time. Ditto on the dust collection at the source, though.