Air Quality Testing

[Walcote]

I am looking for a hobby level (cheap!) way of testing for air quality.

I have just finished making an air cleaner for my workshop as well as recently upgrading my dust extraction and other extraction systems. My workshop is just for me to to use so I'm not looking for HSE certified calibrated results but would like to know if all my systems are effective and be able to detect if improvement is needed. There seems to be a lot of cheap stuff on ebay available but I don't know much about the subject such as terms like PM2.5, TVOC, HCOC etc.

I mostly create woodworking dust but also have a small laser cutter running some 3D printers and some metal working equipment so would like to know what nasties are about in the air.

Thanks!

 

[Doug B]

I can't help with equipment for testing dust particles parts per million in the air though I used to work in a furniture factory that used to have an inspector come in regularly with a wand & machine to test this & I don't imagine this equipment is cheap.
I monitor mine via my air filter, it has a prefilter which quicky shows signs of excessive dust by the build up on the prefilters surface, over the years I've come to realise what tasks produce a lot of dust & have altered my dust extraction & working practices to reduce the amount of dust becoming air borne.
Dealing with dust at source is the best option & buying tools that have been designed with dust extraction in mine rather than an after thought has been key to keeping dust levels in the workshop to a minimum.

 

[Walcote]

I can't help with equipment for testing dust particles parts per million in the air though I used to work in a furniture factory that used to have an inspector come in regularly with a wand & machine to test this & I don't imagine this equipment is cheap.
I monitor mine via my air filter, it has a prefilter which quicky shows signs of excessive dust by the build up on the prefilters surface, over the years I've come to realise what tasks produce a lot of dust & have altered my dust extraction & working practices to reduce the amount of dust becoming air borne.
Dealing with dust at source is the best option & buying tools that have been designed with dust extraction in mine rather than an after thought has been key to keeping dust levels in the workshop to a minimum.

Thanks for the advice. I have been doing things this way a fair bit. Using the available visual clues such as the state of filters but I would like to get a bit more knowledge on the un-seeable problems. Due to the COVID situation I am working from home and have set up in the workshop. Therefore I spend a lot of time in here. I feel I have a good system in place and the evidence suggests I am correct but I would like a bit more confirmation so would be grateful if anyone has any further suggestions. Cheers.

 

[porker]

@petermillard has put some videos together in the past where he was monitoring the air quality in his workshop. Here is one here

 

[Inspector]

The type in Peter's video are readily available on eBay and other sites. The Aussies started playing with them over a year ago and found them to be reasonably close to expensive calibrated testers but they can't be placed directly in the dust stream a machine is producing. It overwhelms them and then clogs them up, so not by the end of a belt sander or beside the bowl you're sanding on the lathe. Placed at head height near you will show you what you are breathing. Household PM2.5 Detector Module Air Quality Dust Sensor TFT LCD Display Monitor | eBay If the link works the same as I am seeing there will be a number of different ones like it as I scroll down, open sided, and a variety of others, some hand held. Most of them use the same laser particle counter in one version or the other.

The PM numbers mean particles of that size in microns and smaller. A PM10 reads the particles under 10 microns, PM2.5 reads 2.5 micron and smaller and PM1.0 1 micron and under. If the particle counter also shows hydrocarbons and formaldehyde too you can ignore or deal with that as you see fit. Particles 10 micron and under are not normally visible to the naked eye and are respirable deep into the lungs, the reason you want to deal with them, either by capturing them at source or wearing a mask until the wee beasties are gone.

Pete

 

[Walcote]

@petermillard has put some videos together in the past where he was monitoring the air quality in his workshop. Here is one here

Thanks for the advice. I will definilty check out the @petermillard video. I have seen quite a bit of his stuff and have found his advice very useful.

 

[Walcote]

The type in Peter's video are readily available on eBay and other sites. The Aussies started playing with them over a year ago and found them to be reasonably close to expensive calibrated testers but they can't be placed directly in the dust stream a machine is producing. It overwhelms them and then clogs them up, so not by the end of a belt sander or beside the bowl you're sanding on the lathe. Placed at head height near you will show you what you are breathing. Household PM2.5 Detector Module Air Quality Dust Sensor TFT LCD Display Monitor | eBay If the link works the same as I am seeing there will be a number of different ones like it as I scroll down, open sided, and a variety of others, some hand held. Most of them use the same laser particle counter in one version or the other.

The PM numbers mean particles of that size in microns and smaller. A PM10 reads the particles under 10 microns, PM2.5 reads 2.5 micron and smaller and PM1.0 1 micron and under. If the particle counter also shows hydrocarbons and formaldehyde too you can ignore or deal with that as you see fit. Particles 10 micron and under are not normally visible to the naked eye and are respirable deep into the lungs, the reason you want to deal with them, either by capturing them at source or wearing a mask until the wee beasties are gone.

Pete

Thanks for the info @Inspector. Just what I was hoping to hear. I will invest in a unit and will place it near where I spend a lot of time. Sounds like just the thing to help me keep the nasty stuff away. Cheers.

 

[Inspector]

Always happy to help you part with your hard earned money. When you are ready I can point you in the direction of airflow meters and the proper way to use them.

Pete

 

[petermillard]

Thanks for the advice. I will definilty check out the @petermillard video. I have seen quite a bit of his stuff and have found his advice very useful.

Thanks! I messed my first one up after a particularly heavy spraying session, but was able to buy a replacement sensor and swap it out - video about that here

 

[Torx]

I’ve got one of these

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/224275641236
but can’t seem to get any consistent results out of it.

 

[lurker]

I used to do this for a living.
It's far more complex than you can imagine and the cost of the kit and wherewithal, to interpret the results is way beyond your pockets.
However, when I tested for clients I pretty much knew a pass or fail by simply observing any dust on a horizontal surface at about eye level.

Buy the obvious kit and keep it well maintained.

Often a client would pay me 1000s for me to test and the advice on a solution was clean your filters and systems twice as often.

 

[lurker]

but can’t seem to get any consistent results out of it.

Not at all surprised

 

[Torx]

I used to do this for a living.
It's far more complex than you can imagine and the cost of the kit and wherewithal, to interpret the results is way beyond your pockets.
However, when I tested for clients I pretty much knew a pass or fail by simply observing any dust on a horizontal surface at about eye level.

Completely agree. I have P601 but not an expert, but I can make a confident qualitative judgement of pass/fail in about 3 seconds of walking into a saw room and then prove it with the instruments.

Not at all surprised

Any particular reason? I know of other testers claiming to be using them successfully and it seems to be the same sort of technology as the gadgets in earlier posts. When I saw @petermillard video I was very impressed.

 

[Walcote]

I used to do this for a living.
It's far more complex than you can imagine and the cost of the kit and wherewithal, to interpret the results is way beyond your pockets.
However, when I tested for clients I pretty much knew a pass or fail by simply observing any dust on a horizontal surface at about eye level.

Buy the obvious kit and keep it well maintained.

Often a client would pay me 1000s for me to test and the advice on a solution was clean your filters and systems twice as often.

Thanks for the input. I am interested if your opinion is that using the cheap measuring kit is worse than not using any kit. My thinking is to use the cheap eBay kit to provide extra feedback such as locations of increased particulate, relative improvement with air cleaner on/off and detecting any non-visible leakage. I will then use this knowledge to find the weaknesses in my system and try and improve it. I have already done the obvious, dust extraction at the tool, an air cleaner and extraction to the exterior for the laser/paint fumes. The sensory feedback is already there. There is less dust settling on surfaces and there are zero smells coming from the laser. I was hoping I could take it a little further with a very modest investment. Please let me know what you think or if you have any advice on alternative (cheap) options. Cheers.

 

[Walcote]

Always happy to help you part with your hard earned money. When you are ready I can point you in the direction of airflow meters and the proper way to use them.

Pete

I'm tempted by that offer. I'd like to know how close to the stated figures my fans are working and how much I have hindered them with my various home brew systems.

 

[lurker]

There are too many variables for cheap testing to give meaningful results.

If you must do something do a lamp test.
You know how you can see dust when there is a ray of sunshine in the room, well artificial version of that.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/mdhs/pdfs/mdhs82-2.pdf
If money is burning a hole in your pocket get one of these

https://www.yandles.co.uk/record-po...ter-with-remote-3-speeds-and-time-delay/p5004
Or similar.

 

[Walcote]

There are too many variables for cheap testing to give meaningful results.

If you must do something do a lamp test.
You know how you can see dust when there is a ray of sunshine in the room, well artificial version of that.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/mdhs/pdfs/mdhs82-2.pdf
If money is burning a hole in your pocket get one of these

https://www.yandles.co.uk/record-po...ter-with-remote-3-speeds-and-time-delay/p5004
Or similar.

Thanks, I'll check that link out. I have a homemade version of that type of air cleaner but with higher flow and larger inner and outer bags/panels.

 

[BEE13]

There are too many variables for cheap testing to give meaningful results.

If you must do something do a lamp test.
You know how you can see dust when there is a ray of sunshine in the room, well artificial version of that.

https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/mdhs/pdfs/mdhs82-2.pdf
If money is burning a hole in your pocket get one of these

https://www.yandles.co.uk/record-po...ter-with-remote-3-speeds-and-time-delay/p5004
Or similar.

Does the lamp test let you see the very smallest particles or is there a limit?

B

 

[BEE13]

A

Does the lamp test let you see the very smallest particles or is there a limit?

B

Anyone?

 

[Inspector]

Read Lurker's link again and you'll see it says under 10 micron and mentions down to 0.1 micron. I assume the more particles the more will reflect in the light. Where the threshold is where they don't show would need to be verified by Lurker with expensive testing instruments or your eyesight.

Pete