Best air filter system?

[2cool2hear]

I didn't expect MDF to make huge mess in my garage and some of the dust to get in the house. I read that MDF dust is hazardous (some said as bad as asbestos, not sure if true). With limited budget, what filtration system would you get? I only have about $200 to spend. I've thought about building one out of squirrel fan and a canister of activated carbon or a box of stacked HEPA filters.

Many thanks for saving our health.

 

[Silver Heels]

For $200 you can get a nice used air cleaner that hangs from the ceiling. I got a nice, like new Delta for $150 if I recall that included an extra main filter. New they are about $350-400 for the jet, ridgid, steele city, and probably others. Menards has new ones for under 200, but the CFMs are half what the others are.

I have noticed it makes a huge improvement when doing woodworking in the basement. Ideally you would have a dust collector as well but that is more money, and unless you really spend the money on the festool line, even palm sanders with the bag make lots of dust and no dust collector will work on these.

There isn't much to air cleaners, but they are more than a squirrel cage, box, and furnace filter. The main filter inside the unit is what really make these work and that is not a generic off the shelf item from the big box store

 

[Kaizen]

wear a mask and put a box fan in the window to create a negative pressure. or cut it outside if you can.
next choice would be a larger dust collection thing that you use your shop vac and a trash can......rockler has them.
without a solid proven design I wouldn't spend the money on supplies. I've tried some of the cheap methods and along the lines of what you are talking and they didn't come out well. if you have it all then have fun.

 

[jvitez]

Get one of these, use a large shop-vac with it, and it will help tremendously. This plus an air filter would be perfect, but how much woodworking are you planning on doing? Are you doing a one-off project, or is this a woodworking garage/shop?

Reducing dust at source is the best way, filtering the air is second.

http://www.oneida-air.com/category.asp?Id={CC6B6F2A-E3D7-4F18-A53C-B5C357DFE131}

 

[Greatbear]

I have a ceiling mounted Jet air filtration setup in my basement workshop. it made a tremendous difference in the amount of dust in the shop, to the point where the upstairs living areas become dustier than the workshop.

 

[dfiler2]

You can build one pretty easily that is as good or better than many commercial units. Here is a link to one of many plans available.

http://lumberjocks.com/projects/79461

 

[McFarmer]

I use a clothes dryer fan with a filter box.

 

[kpilot]

I have a JDS filter that I bought about 10 yrs ago with no problems. It moves over 1,000 cfm. It has 3 filters, a prefilter, a bag filter and a exhaust filter. Filters saw dust to paint overspray. A bit pricey at $400.00. Take a look at Delta,Jet,Grizzley to name a few. Here`s pics

thanks
carl

 

[motoretro]

My system is to collect wood dust at the source of production with a 1 micron or Hepa filtered mobile dust collector backed up by an Air Cleaner hung at ceiling level with an efficient aftermarket filter, I also run this for an 1/2 hour after work is finished. Work and clean-up is all done while wearing a N100 rated, well fitting dust mask or respirator. I then clean myself off with Hepa filtered Vac.
Motoretro

 

[Boomer343]

Death by MDF.... brought to you by the solid wood society.... the amount I've cut up over the years must mean I have only days to live.... good thing I'm sitting in the sun in Mexico...oh **** I just read I could be shot by drug gangsters while here... but do I really trust the plane ride home.... I'm going to need a whole lot more Tequila before making an informed decission ... err I mean derision ... you know what I mean.

 

[hayhauler71]

Boomer your a Doomer

 

[turbowoodworker]

Motoretro said it all. Collect most dust at the source, the tool. Airborne dust collected via ceiling mounted filter.
Those nice filters like the JDS Delta and Jet ones have remotes and timers so they can be set to run an hour after you shut down the shop. You will be surprised at how little dust settles out on the tables and benches after adding one of these.

 

[Angelfire]

More than you ever wanted to know about dust collection:

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

Summary: Collect the fine dust at the source by using a significantly sized cyclone collector.

I started down the path of building my own cyclone but things got in the way. I'll get back to it someday. In the mean time, I do use my shop vac with a cyclone lid on a garbage can...it works ok for the big stuff but no where near enough suction to collect the fine dust. I use a ceiling mounted filter for this. Far from ideal but it's what I have.