Homemade, Twin Fan, High Power, Portable Air Cleaner.

[SkinnyB]

Though id share my recent build of my portable air filter for use in my workshop and in the house when sanding etc.

Made from Mdf, it features two 12" 80 watt car radiator fans (£15 each eBay).
Two fine 300x500 100mm f8 grade fine filters (£10 each at dust spares)
One 200 watt 12v power supply. (£16)(Ideally id go bigger next time, the fans stall if both turn on at same time.)
Rough total: £75

I have attached two handles for easy portability and rubber corners on each side to protect the floor it stands on.
Single fan mode and double fan mode.

P1690688 by jamie skinner, on Flickr
P1690691 by jamie skinner, on Flickr
P1690696 by jamie skinner, on Flickr
P1690697 by jamie skinner, on Flickr
P1690689 by jamie skinner, on Flickr

Rubber corners allow me to stand it up on its end if needed.
P1690692 by jamie skinner, on Flickr

Laser cut a custom surround and fitted an old vacuum switch and two rocker switches inside.
P1690693 by jamie skinner, on Flickr

Power-supply mounted inside. constant clean air flow helps keep it cool. Just need to shorten and tidy the wires.
P1690694 by jamie skinner, on Flickr

To hold the filters in and secure them I apply silicon to the outside. Let it cure and then when pushed in create a nice tight seal.
P1690695 by jamie skinner, on Flickr

 

[Hornbeam]

Really like this.
Where did you source the power supply from please. I see a clone or similar version in the offing
Thanks
Ian

 

[Grawschbags]

Nice work. I like that.

Is it sized for a particular size of workshop?

 

[SkinnyB]

Thanks!
The power supply is off eBay. Type in 12v power supply and lots should come up. Make sure you choose the right wattage.
I used x2 80 watt fans for a total of 160 watts.
Decided on a 200 watt power supply but a higher wattage would have been better. They draw quite a few amp on start up.

Just sized it to the filters that I had brought for another project. The filters are very fine so does restrict the airflow a bit. But comes out very clean on the other end. I can see it sucking in dust from about a meter away in the right lights.
The airflow coming from the back circulates the air in my shop and seems to clear a 6x4 m space fairly quick. Also having it portable I move it close to what I am doing. Great when sanding.

We had to channel out a wall for a cable and I sat this next to it while we did it. Kept the dust down a lot and shook the filters outside when we done. Lots of dust came off them.

I was thinking of adding prefilters but as the main filters cost £10 and prefilters would have been £6 I decided to go against it.

 

[MikeG.]

Is "high power" actually a desirable attribute for an air filter like this? The ones I have seen previously just run almost silently in the background, cleaning the air without A/ being noticed or B/ stirring up draughts. What are you hoping to achieve with this unit, and why is high power a good thing?

 

[Fergal]

Good idea. I like the use of 12V fans, I was going to do something similar using butchered mains desktop fans which I think may be quieter.

How noisy are the 12V fans?

 

[ColeyS1]

This is one of the best workshop additions I've seen in a long time. It's fantastic !! I'm thinking I could borrow your car fan idea to improve the chopsaw hood extraction. Thanks for posting.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[Tasky]

Is "high power" actually a desirable attribute for an air filter like this? The ones I have seen previously just run almost silently in the background, cleaning the air without A/ being noticed or B/ stirring up draughts. What are you hoping to achieve with this unit, and why is high power a good thing?

Big fans are needed to pick up enough air to clear the large work space. Big fans need lots of power to get them moving.
I tried something similar with a set of 200mm PC fans, but they did absolutely naff-all beyond 2' away, really. After several 'smoke' tests, I found either higher power fans or bigger fans were necessary to move more air volume.

 

[SkinnyB]

Thanks for the comments.
As Taskey mentions bigger fans pull greater amounts of air in. From a smoke test I can get about 800mm away which I am happy with.

I usually always have my ear defenders on so noise isn't an issue. Id say I wouldn't run this all the time I was in the shop. Maybe the same as a 18v drill running from a couple of meters away.

I normally bring it close to wherever the dust is coming from. Like this when sanding:
Then block off the sides with whatever I have handy.

Holds my sandpaper neatly on top to which is a bonus.
IMG_3117 by jamie skinner, on Flickr

 

[MikeG.]

So you are using it as an extraction system, rather than a filtering system. You're going to be changing or cleaning those filters an awful lot.

 

[Rorschach]

Looks like it is being used in addition to "at source" extraction.

I like the idea. I have in the past used fans to assist other dust extraction. For instance, when I was running a chop saw I set up a dust hood behind the saw attached to a 100mm extractor. This however wasn't enough to stop some dust being sprayed forward by the fan in the saw so I set up a pedestal fan behind me blowing toward the dust hood. This helped direct the air flow and any dust backward and into the dust hood. Still wasn't perfect but it was a heck of a lot better.

 

[SkinnyB]

So you are using it as an extraction system, rather than a filtering system. You're going to be changing or cleaning those filters an awful lot.

The vacuum attached to the sander does a very good job at getting most of the dust. It’s when I’m perhaps doing the edges where the sanding pad is exposed slightly. Also when handsanding it pulls in the airborne dust.