Is Delta AP100 any good? Air Cleaner Recommendations?

[Danny Thompson]

I would like to add an air cleaner to my 20 x 20 x 9 shop, and I've found a used Delta AP100 (http://www.toolbarn.com/product/delta/AP100/) available for $100. Is this a decent air cleaner?

It appears to filter down to 5 microns. Is that good enough or should I look for something else? Recommendations?

Thanks.

[Rick Thom]

I've had one for 4 or 5 years now. They do work and they do circulate air. They are single speed, fairly noisy and cfm is perhaps 1/2 or less than many available today. One thing in their favour is portability. It can be moved around fairly easily within the shop or to different locations. It also does a pretty good job on drywall dust collection and I have lent mine several times for this purpose.

Instead, for a normal shop installation, I would choose the conventional multi-filter variety and with several speeds as well as remote control and perhaps timer that delays shut-off etc. For the difference in price, you get huge benefits. When it comes to dust control, that's not a place to cheap out.
As to brands, there are a quite a few out there, some of which are quite similar. I hear very good things about JDS and I believe they rate well on the comparative testing.

[Larry Browning]

For the size of your shop I think the one you have chosen is a bit small.
Have a look at this one (http://www.amazon.com/708620B-AFS-1000B-Filtration-Electrostatic-Pre-Filter/dp/B00004R9LO/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=IKPP8NR7NDJJI&colid=1GYI1SZ0CGE2Z) from Amazon. If you hurry there is a $25 rebate on it thru 04/30. I am going to order 2 of them within the next few days so I can get the rebate.

[Gene E Miller]

Greetings & Salutations,

I have a 20x30x9 shop and put an unused squirrel cage to
work with a plan that I found in an issue of Shops notes.

I used one sheet of BB 3/4 play and some poplar to build
a box that houses the squirrel cage fan and built some runners
that a 20x15x1 furnace filter can fit in. I put one filter behind
the blower and 2 in front of the blower and made the bottom
slide so that all I have to do is slide the bottom and the
filter will drop out.

Put a new one in and slide the bottom the other way and
replace the two at the intake side of the blower.

I usually replace the one on the exhaust side with a new
one and move the other two up one spot.

I figured that with the size blower I had I can exchange the
air in the shop once every 4 - 6 minutes. When I am sanding
it does a really good job of keeping the shop pretty dust
free.

I also pointed the exhaust side toward the A/C unit that
I have and I built a frame to put a filter over the front of the
A/C to keep the built in Filter a little cleaner.

All in all I think it works pretty good and I don't have
a huge amount of money invested just some time plus I
enjoyed building it.

If I am going to finish I usually let it run over night and avoid
doing any thing with the compressed air and I don't seem to
get much in the way of dust settlement on my fresh finishes.

I thought I had a picture of the unit but can't seem to find it
so I will take some more and try to post it.

Gene

[Danny Thompson]

Crative approach. I'm really interested in the photos.

[Gene E Miller]

Crative approach. I'm really interested in the photos.

I'll take some today and post them later tonight if that will
help.

Gene

[Gene E Miller]

Greetings & Salutations,

Well after lunch I went out and took a few pictures
and hope this will help with what I am trying to describe.

Here is the unit and the outside box measures
38 x 28 x 24 which fits the squirrel cage blower that I used.

The orginal plan that I saw was smaller then this but he used
a smaller blower.

87174

This picture is the intake side and you can see that I need
to change the filters as I have been sanding all morning which
is one reason I went ahead and took the pictures.

There are two filters one behind the other with about a 2 inch
gap between them on this side of the box.

87175

This is the exhaust side with one filter and as you can see it is
pretty clean.

87176

This is the intake side with the filters removed.

87177

This is the exhaust side with no filter. The panel with
the hole in it is what the blower is mounted to on the
other side and the hole matches the opening of the
blower.

87178

More in the next thread

[Gene E Miller]

Well here I am again.

Here is the intake side showing the blower.

87179

Here is the unit looking up from the bottom with
the blower motor.

87180

In the photos with the filters removed you can see
that I made 1x1 frames that the filters slide up into and they
are pretty snug so that there is minimal air leakage. The bottom
panel of the box slides in two slots dadoed into the sides and a rabbit
cut on the bottom panel.

One word of advice get your blower first then find filters that
you can get easily. Because of the size of my blower I had to
go bigger than the original plan that I saw and almost got messed
up with the filter size. The ones that the original used were smaller
and the ones I finally used I are about a half inch smaller than the
what I really need but I did not plan too good and to have an
exact fit I can not find common filters for.

I find that this does a good job in my shop which is 20' x 30' and
when I sand it keeps up with the air born dust pretty good. When
I get ready to finish I let it run over night and have had no problems with
dust settling on the finish when wet.

Thanks for looking
Gene

[Danny Thompson]

Great idea! Thanks for posting the pix. You haven't measured air quality, I imagine?

[Gene E Miller]

No I haven't but I don't have a cyclone so I figure it is
pretty high with just my single stage portable DC from
Penn State.

I am pretty sure it is a lot better than nothing. I do know
that from the size of the blower and the size of the shop
there was a formula in the article that I used to build if from
and I figured I was exchanging the air ever 5 or 6 minutes.

Gene

[Mike McCann]

Danny

I have that model air filter. It is noisy but does do a good job of getting the dust out of the air.