One more time if you will, I would like to invite some discussion on Air filters, commercial and home made and get some feedback on how well you think they have worked, what would you do differently and any thoughts, plans, or ideas you would share.
In my case I have a shop that is approx 1/2 of a building 36 by 48 with 12 foot walls and I do think I could benefit from some sort of system but not sure what I would do. I have considered installing a square duct across the shop cieling just like a furnace duct and route to a fan with filters installed in 2-3 places. But I have not gone so far as to do anything at this point.
Any discussion, ideas, suggestions and feedback would be appreciated!
Wine is God’s way of capturing the sun.
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I currently use a homemade system in my shop similar to what you described. I have a furnace duct attached to my ceiling that runs for approximately sixteen feet into an attic fan (1280cfm) with double 3M furnace filters in between the two. The duct has three intake openings one over my table saw, router table, and sanding table, one exhaust at the end where the fan is connected. I also have a down draft table and a dust collector connected to most of my machines. This set-up has worked very well for me since I have a small shop.
Here are some thoughts I have on the subject of air cleaners and health. They run in the face of many users but I know of no one in the industrial health field who disagrees.
It has always been my contention that there are no health benefits to an air cleaner. Here in the US, OSHA agrees that they do not remove enough of the dust in a short enough period to have any health benefits. No manufacturer of air cleaners makes any health claims, nor does anyone in the health industry AFAIK. The only place I see health claims is in places like this and those are from folks who purchased them under the impression that they do have health benefits. "The filters get dirty, so they must be doing something" is the frequent justification.
Robert Witter, Chief Engineer at Oneida Air Systems says: "Overhead cleaners can only lower ambient dust levels after the source of emission is shut down, and they take several hours to do this. This is why they are not used in industry."
In addition, most air cleaners are installed in a manner that places the operator directly in the air flow between the dust producing operation and the intake of the air cleaner. I don't know how many articles I have seen that say to install an overhead air filter "over the dust producing machine". This makes no sense and certainly not healthful. This placement guarantees that the operator's nose is between the dust producer and the air intake. At the very least, the air cleaner should be placed where exhaust is upstream of the operator and the dust producer is downstream of the operator.
While no one will argue that isolating your lungs from dust has healthful benefits, the only surefire way to do it is to either have very efficient dust collection at the source of the dust or to wear a properly fitted NIOSH (in the US) rated respirator. Rubber band dust masks do not meet NIOSH requirements.
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