Hanging/ceiling air filter

[cody michael]

I have a new 20x30 shop and it is a lot more air tight then the old one. I'm trying to keep dust down, what is everyone's thoughts on hanging air filters? How many cfm do I need for this size shop. You can get the 300-400 cfm ones pretty cheap, 1000 cmf take a jump. Most the cheaper ones look exactly the same, is there any real difference between grizzly, jet, wen etc?

[Doug Garson]

Don't know about the commercial units but in my 2 car garage shop (about the same size as yours) I have a shop built unit using furnace filters and a 20" box fan which cuts the particle count in half in under a half hour. I think you would be further ahead making a pair of cleaners with box fans or furnace fans and filters for less than one commercial unit.

[Sam Force]

I have a Grizzly air filter and a homemade from a furnace blower, the homemade one is by far the best one. I have it mounted on the ceiling with 3 16x20 filters on two sides. It blows into a homemade box in the attic with 2 8 inch flexible ducts running out of it back into the shop. It does a really good job

[Jack Frederick]

Essentially you are buying a box with a blower. The question is what filters are you putting in the box and what filters can it handle. I have a JDS2000. It has a 1” pleat and a bag filter behind it. To really know how well it works I think you need a particle counter, which I do not have, so you can determine what is in the air. Also I think that air filtration is a step process. Primary at the tool whether a top line vac and/or a dust processor and your ambient air filter. I feel pretty good about my system but really without instrumentation I’m in the “hit and hope” category.

[cody michael]

Essentially you are buying a box with a blower. The question is what filters are you putting in the box and what filters can it handle. I have a JDS2000. It has a 1” pleat and a bag filter behind it. To really know how well it works I think you need a particle counter, which I do not have, so you can determine what is in the air. Also I think that air filtration is a step process. Primary at the tool whether a top line vac and/or a dust processor and your ambient air filter. I feel pretty good about my system but really without instrumentation I’m in the “hit and hope” category.

I have a dust collector, older style with bags, it helps a lot. but I was cutting a bunch of osb on the table saw and there was a fine cloud in the area.

[Doug Colombo]

I have the Jet 1000b unit and love it. My shop is around the same size as yours, but more of a L shape. The filter does a great job grabbing dust that my dust collector misses (I have a Jet canister type). I had one in my last shop and had to leave it when we sold (part of the deal). While we were building the new house, the 1000b was the first tool I bought for the new shop. I looked at the other brands, but I was so happy with the Jet, I bought it again.

[Jim Tobias]

Just finished this up a couple of weeks ago. Some strapping, 4 rods, cable and (4) 2" filters(20x20) . I have it hanging along a wall and on a winch so I can bring it down to change filters when needed. I have it raised up about 9' from floor. I have a couple of JDS air cleaners around in different places in the shop but I think this homemade one does the job also(maybe better). use a Dylos Meter to get readout on dust and it reduced it significantly after some sanding.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I have a 24' x 32' shop and use 2 Jet AFS1000s to filter the air when and after sanding. They are pointed in opposite directions hanging from the ceiling on chains to try to cause the air to circulate and be filtered. I also use an Oneida 3HP Dust Gorilla with my larger power tools.
Then I have a 16 gallon IIRC, Ridgid vacuum cleaner I use attached to my handheld power sanders.

[glenn bradley]

I'm also a fan (oops, I made a funny). I have the no longer made JDS 750 that Rikon made under the 62-1100 designation for a while after JDS quit. My shop is 30 x 40 and I had planned for a pair. The current single unit seems to do fine as an augmentation to my whole shop DC system.

[Lee Schierer]

The best way to control dust is at the source. A central DC system will make a remarkable difference in your shop. I know mine did. Even so there is always some dust that escapes. I have a commercial air filter in my shop, mounted from the ceiling. It does pick up a lot of dust from the air, but far less than before my dust collector system was installed.

Sanding creates the most airborne dust. My Porter Cable sanders came with either a dust collection bag or a porous filter. I have discarded those and now connect them by a hose to my DC system. Far less dust gets into the air.

[Cameron Wood]

I have a cylindrical air cleaner that came from Home Depot years ago. I has a cone shaped filter with lots of surface area. It is quiet and works quite well,

but I don't use it as the (unheated) shop has a turbine vent at the roof peak the draws out fine dust rapidly.

[Myles Moran]

I have one in my shop, the cheapest grizzly model that does 400 CFM. That's just enough to get me one air change in 6 minutes. I've always heard that 10 air changes per hour is a target for this sort of thing, so that's why I selected that size. Now that my shop area is enclosed from the rest of my basement, I've noticed it's very effective at cleaning up the air when I'm doing anything that the shop vac/dust collector can't keep up with, like sanding.

[Keith Pitman]

I have a Powermatic and it is very loud. Check the sound level before buying.

[Gary Petersen]

My shop is about 30' x 40' and I've had a Wen 3415T air handler for about three years. I use it primarily when sanding, similar to Ken, but will run it for a spell if I'm doing something that generates a fair amount of dust. It costs around $325 now on Amazon and runs at about 550 cfm on its lowest of three speeds. I notice a difference when using it and have had absolutely zero issue with it in those three years. I have two shop-built box fan filters as well, but usually use them only when sanding a lot at one time and then near where I'm sanding. They're okay.

[cody michael]

Thanks everyone I really didn't want to deal with building something so I went with this https://www.googleadservices.com/pag...A&nis=8&adurl=

Appears to be the same as the jet recommended above just cheaper and I got military discount.