Dust Collector as Air Cleaner?

[Mark Katz]

I have an Oneida early-2000s vintage 2-hp cyclone with internal filter. Most of my ducting is 6" trunk with 5" branches, hoses and blast gates to several machines. I don't have a separate air cleaner in the shop.

I'm not asking about air cleaning for breathing purposes - I can and do use a mask or respirator for that when necessary. However, sometimes I'd like to lower the dust level so as to not interfere with a finish I'm applying.

So, I'm wondering if I can get decent results by turning on the dust collector for an extended period (30 minutes? an hour? more?) with a blast gate or two wide open (and not connected to a tool). Not looking for a perfect dust-free environment but just something better than doing nothing more than vacuuming up and letting the remaining dust things settle for a day. The exhaust from the DC exits horizontally at about 6' above the floor.

Anyone tried this? Did it work?

[Prashun Patel]

Your better bet imho is to strap a 20" furnace filter to a box fan and let that run. You can do this in two areas.

The D.C. Does a good job of catching everything (heavy and light) locally. The fans and air cleaners do a better job of catching light things throughout the air more globally.

[Larry Edgerton]

355822This one worked well in my large shop, came on with the lights. 48 feet of filter area, the dirty secret to filter efficiency.

[Mark Katz]

Hmm... Sounds like I'd better buy or build a real air cleaner. Thanks for the replies.

[Ole Anderson]

An ambient air cleaner will do the job using 1/3 hp that a dust collector will using 2 hp. A matter of efficiency. Put a quality furnace filter on a box fan and the air flow drops dramatically. Use an old furnace squirrel cage fan if you want to build your own.

[Don Kondra]

I have a different view on this :)

The odd time I need to do an "air hose" clean of the shop during the winter time and would rather not run my spray booth fan.

I hook my DC hose to my sanding table and within 5 minutes the shop air is dust free !

355914

The only time I would find an air cleaner helpful is when I'm doing hand held routing.

Cheers, Don

[Van Huskey]

First, using the cyclone will work and it is Oneida's suggestion and the reason they don;t build ambient air filters. As others mentioned this is not the most energy efficient approach.

If your purpose is to reduce the amount of finish contaminating particles then furnace filter or commercial woodworking ambient air filters work fine, for personal safety they don't have very fine filtration though. The best budget option for that type of sub-micron filtration is the filter Pentz has on his site. It uses an inline axial fan with a Wynn cartridge filter, the in-line fans are inexpensive and can be bought off Amazon (there are cheaper options than the one he links to). I would put it on casters and either build a frame for using furnace filters or simply wrap it in window AC foam to act as a pre-filter. By having it on casters you can roll it near you when doing things like sanding to capture dust as quickly as possible. YOu can also setup a remote and time delay switch so it operates like a commercial unit if you desire. While you can often scavenge squirrel cage motor blowers cheap the Pentz design is the cheapest most effective DIY unit I have seen using easy to obtain new parts.

http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/air_cleaner.cfm

[David Kumm]

While not efficient, a DC with good filters will clean the air better than most ambient ones will. The internal oneida filter design was a bad one. Not good for particle separation and worse for filtration. Using it isn't the answer. Ambients need to be either high or low so whatever you use or build, keep it above your head enough to pull the air above your breathing zone. 10' is better than 8' if possible. Dave

[Doug Garson]

I have a different view on this :)

The odd time I need to do an "air hose" clean of the shop during the winter time and would rather not run my spray booth fan.

I hook my DC hose to my sanding table and within 5 minutes the shop air is dust free !

355914

The only time I would find an air cleaner helpful is when I'm doing hand held routing.

Cheers, Don
Just curious Don, why does hooking your dust collector hose to the downdraft sanding table make it a more effective air cleaner?

[Don Kondra]

Just curious Don, why does hooking your dust collector hose to the downdraft sanding table make it a more effective air cleaner?

The Wynn filter it exhausts into...

Cheers, Don