Shop made air filter

This air filter has been in use for a few years now & has proved most effective, it is based around a squirrel cage fan that was designed for long running periods as it had been salvaged from an industrial machine. The capacitor for the fan had been incorporated in the machines panel so I needed to source a new capacitor, e-bay was my friend there, once wired up the fan was capable of moving a considerable amount of air.

  

I constructed the unit from off cuts of 18mm MDF which were cut up so as to give me a box 20" x 10 1/2" x 9 3/4" when assembled.

Domino slots were cut in the panels to form the box & an aperture was routed out to allow the exhaust air out.

The base & 2 sides were then glued & dominoed together & the fan housing bolted in.

Over to the lathe & a piece of 26mm MDF cut to the internal dimensions of the box was fixed to the chuck & a rebated hole cut through it.

This was then glued & nailed in position.

The top was then glued on & whilst I`d got the nail gun out another piece of 25mm MDF was glued & fixed at the back of the fan for added support & to fix a bracket onto which the capacitor could then be mounted on.

View through the front of the filter.

I fixed a bracket & mounted the capacitor, temporarily wiring it up to see how well the fan sucked.

Happy with how it worked the gaps around the fan housing & the sides of the unit were filled with spray foam to seal up all nooks & cranies so the only air drawn into the fan had to come through the filters. Whilst the foam cured I went back to the lathe & cut a ring from 18mm MDF that the filter bag would wrap round & sit in the rebate.

The fine filter is a 0.5 micron hepa vacuum bag filter I got from a mate who runs a vacuum cleaner business, he recommended it for what I wanted to do, so i simply cut off the end of the bag with the vacuum connection in, wrapped it round the MDF ring & stapled it to the back of the ring. It sits nicely in the rebate without any fixings.

Chicken wire was folded in half & cut to fit inside the box,  a piece of pre-filter material (from the same mate) was sandwiched  between the chicken wire, this would form the pre-filter.

After a couple of coats of paint  pine bezels were made  to hold the chicken wire in place. Chains were fixed to the top of the unit for suspending it from the ceiling &  the wiring tidied up.

The unit was then fixed to the ceiling & wired into the lighting circuit so it could be easily switched on via a light switch.

The front bezel is held in place via 2 wing-nuts for easy access to the filters

Initial setup

Over the first couple of years of having this new workshop the layout got changed around a few times, I expect this is the way most workshops evolve, what at first seems like the ideal place for a machine soon proves not to be the case & so it was for me.

Luckily most of the bigger machines were on casters or were at least portable enough to be moved around as each incarnation took place. I had few fixed points, I had installed plenty of 3 pin sockets & as these, the lighting & 16-amp sockets were all in conduit these weren`t impossible to reposition.

More awkward were the radiators, I had run these off the combi boiler in the house via an underground duct to the shop & whilst not impossible to re-position,  this was something I didn`t want to do. At the far end of the shop I installed some kitchen wall & base units with worktop & sink, this & the heating were the main improvements over my previous workshop & both have made my working environment so much more pleasurable.

The layout below although different today served me for 6-7 years, I`m posting it as it gives an idea of my starting point & as the blog progresses it will show where things have been improved, though not everything has changed, but more of that later.

The first photo shows my old second hand workbench this was placed near the door with just a small set of drawers between it & the door, these drawers held small tools & fixings regularly used at the bench, above was a peg board tool rack. These where situated so as to maximize the natural day light at the bench that was available when the outer door was wedged open.

  As can be seen from the second photo next along the right hand wall was the table saw, behind it was the shop vac hooked up to a Dust Deputy cyclone, this could be connected to hand held power tools & the crown guard of the table saw (removed for photographic purposes)

The outfeed table of the table saw doubled as a shop built router table with removable fence, after which was the radial arm saw.

This had a perspex shroud around it to try & contain the dust, but I have to admit was not that efficient. Finally on this side was the pillar drill standing on a set of shop made drawers that house all my drill bits & anything associated with its use.

At the far end of the shop is the sink with plenty of storage for all manor of stuff  it also provides a surface for grinders & sharpening paraphernalia.

As we start on the way down the left hand wall first up is my chopsaw mounted quite high so as to allow long lengths of timber to reach down the shop, underneath are the piles of off-cuts, too good to through away but seemingly ever increasing.
Next to this is the surface planer, behind it more off cuts, a roller stand that lines up with the chopsaw & on the wall the removable fence for the router table.

After the planer is the large extractor that hooks up to all the big machines including the thicknesser next to it, this is on a trolley which allows it to be pulled out when needed & stored against the wall when not.

Finally after the thicknesser is a small bandsaw, a lathe & a next to the doors a mechanics set of drawers with an old mortiser on top.

This basic layout is what I`ve worked around when trying to improve things, my next posts will cover the different shop made items that have made the use of the shop easier & more enjoyable.