Technical How are you Filtering the AIR you breathe in the shop???

Here in Michigan we have to close the doors and turn up the heat. Can anyone make a recommendation on a system to filter the dust etc. out of the air in the shop. Don't need to breath all that crap anymore. What are you using and how well does it work? Thanks

 

Through my cigarette filter?




I joke! I don’t smoke.
If it gets bad in my shop i just open the big door for a bit also i keep a box fan in a window for small jobs, just open window and turn fan on for a few minutes.

 

Smokin

 

We have a couple commercial version of this at school
https://www.baileigh.com/air-filtra...MIpJK-24_l7AIVBW-GCh2LtgOLEAQYAiABEgIeOvD_BwE
we’re in the south so the shop doors are open and/or exhaust fans are running most of the time.

 

Don’t over think it , a couple of box fans with an A/C filter strapped to the intake side and you are good to go. You probably already have the fans.... I know here in Oklahoma we have them. Recycle your house filters.





Bones

 

Might help to know what the dust that you're worried about is coming from.

Are you doing bodywork, or something?

 

box fan with furnace filter taped to it, seriously

 

I have a exhaust fan on my back wall and crack open a couple of windows when I need to clear things out.

 

Hell , yes, keep it simple, use what you have! You will be amazed at the dirt it will catch!
You guys in Michigan have no concept of heat! Here in Oklahoma, every shop has several fans!








Bones

 

Furnace filter on the furnace for me.

 

When I can't see across the shop anymore, I'll open the big garage door. When the furnace fan kicks on, it really clears the shop fast.

There are good reasons I decided to retire early., not being able to see across my 24' shop on some days was among them. I was lucky enough to retired without any serious health issues. Gene

 

Honestly I have never smoked one cig in my lifetime thus far . I worked on top of a cavern full of 8.5 million gallons of Liquid Propane everyday for 35 years . That will make you think about lighting the wick . We had some huge overhead exhaust fans with movable hoods , so you could move it to the work are in the Weld / Fab shop . They worked great , but would be very expensive to install in a hobby or small business shop .

 

Nose hair.

 

Of course many of you know how this goes, I've planned for years to build a small metal enclosure with a box fan on one side a large filter on the back and a couple small ones on the side. Use the fan to pull thru the 3 filters and mount it to roll around.

Thought it would be nice to roll it close to me when im grinding, cutting etc. to filter the air around me..... But like many things its on the to do list but pretty low.

 

P100 filter respirator.

 

during this pandemic everybody is supposed to wear a mask. So just wear your mask and get back to work.
I don't have that problem I usually work outside. My wife's washer and dryer are in the one car garage that I have and grinding dust is the last thing she wants on her clean clothes.

 

A interesting topic As I,m getting older the dust as a result of all the projects welding, grinding,sawing etc is starting to effect my sinuses,waking up with sinus headaches .I try to keep my shop very clean,even now just sweeping the floor stirs up the dust & I can feel it. A filtering system of some sort might be in the future. I do have a ceiling hanging furnace but no filtering system in it. Gene

 

You guys are filtering your air?

If I'm doing some really dusty work or painting, I'll put a respirator on. But aside form that, I'm hedging that I live a pretty healthy lifestyle otherwise and hope it doesn't catch up to me.

 

I put an old squirrel cage furnace fan between two trusses above the ceiling in my shop. Built a wood box to surround it, fan draws through a furnace filter, blows through a wood bulkhead and out through a grate in the soffit. Need to open a window before turning the fan on at the wall switch. It'll change the air in my 22 x 24 shop in about 30 seconds, little heat lost.
Edit: In a 528 square foot shop with an eight foot ceiling, sanding/ grinding dust, smoke, paint fumes can get nasty pretty quickly. At my geezerly age, my lungs are probably black enough already...

 

That is a really slick idea.

 

Guys, all those ideas are great! But they take money and time! Take your box fan and tape an air filter to the back side of it! Try you might like it. Most of you already have a fan of some sort in your shop. Placing a furnace or A/C filter in the air flow of that fan will do the trick. The more air you cause to flow through the filter , the better, but just some air flow through the filter will help. During Summer I just put the box fan in the window with no filter. It the Winter I put the box fan in the shop with the filter on it. Both work great for cleaning the air. They made different types of filters, also.
KISS
While this system works great, for what it is. It doesn’t compare to a commercial evacuation system, but doesn’t cost three grand either! If you have the fan, it cost $3!




Bones

 

The box fan with furnace filter Surprisingly catches an almost alarming amount of crap. Personally I’d rather have that crap in the filter than in the breathing air.
I’ve got no scientific data on its effectiveness as an air scrubber or what the hell type of environment the OP needs or trying to remove/contain but things stay cleaner because more dust is concentrated in that filter/filters than evenly spread around the shop

 

I don't, but then I spend every Saturday night at my local 1/2 dirt track breathing far more dust then I could ever get at work or in my garage.

 

The ones ducting out side are waisting the heat for you cold climate guys.
One of the air purifiers would eventually pay for it self

 

A few years ago at the woodworking store I saw a neat ceilng mounted air filtration system. It wasnt bad, 400 bucks or so.
But Im tight, so I went to the surplus store and got a furnace fan. I build a box around it and put holes to use 2 12x12x24 household filters in it. Does a really good job keeping the dust down and taking a lot of crap out of the air. A long day of welding or grinding will blacken the filters. I need to do another, and vent it outside to get rid of paint fumes, but doing that gets rid of my heat too

 

I figure if it good enough to protect me form the 'rona it is good enough for the shop

 

Particulates, viruses and aerosols all have different requirements. You are probably just as effective in most cases closing your mouth and stuffing gauze up your nostrils

 

The thing Iike about the box fan with a furnace filter setup is its mobility.Take it to where you are grinding or sanding and set it up right there. Especially for guys with heat/ac shops that dont want to blow all that "conditioned" air outside

 

Let my nose hair grow??

Ben

 

Hmnn, I’ve a few old evap coolers that just need motors, pre-built for a filtering set up. Seems like I should put them to use!