Which direction to face a Room Air Filter

[MaccaMagic]

Hey,

This is my first post

I have a workshop at home (just a hobbyist woodturner and woodworker) and decided it was time to invest in some better dust extraction. My latest addition is an overhead room filter (carbatec CTF-1000). I'm trying to work out which is the best direction to face the inlet end and the exhaust/fan end. Any advice?

I decided yesterday to have the inlet facing the front of the garage, which means it is above the lathe and table saw. I faced the exhaust/fan to the back of the garage so the air can bounce off the back wall and feed towards the front of the garage. My concern was that if I faced the exhaust/fan to the front of the garage it would be blowing air straight out the garage door when I have it open.

Dunno. Thoughts?

[Jim Carroll]

With this style of room air filter you actually need 2 of them to work efficiently.

You then set them up diagonally to each other.

The way they work is on a rotational basis, you draw the air in one end and push out the other, then as the air is getting pushed out the other unit then draws in the exhusted air and pushes out so creating the rotation around the shed.

After a while the whole air in the shed is moving so both units work in unision.

Also set them up so there is no obstructions in the air movement. ie roof purlons etc

With only one unit it is working hard to move the air around, and will collect some dust but not all

[BobL]

I agree with Jim about the benefits of using two and getting them to work in tandem but as a primary source of duct collection those air filters are quite limited in what they can do.
They don't push air very far and also don't draw air from that far either and mostly end up recycling the same air. They can't keep up with the dust generated by most machinery like a table saw and they take some time to clean up a shed.

Because turners spend far more time in front of a lathe compared to their saws, I would say for turners one of the smartest place to mount these is above their lathe. Then there it has a chance of capturing more dust at source before it gets a chance to move all over the shed.

My advice is to upgrade ducted dust extraction first and use it to expel the dusty air completely from a shed. This provides a continual charge of fresh air coming into the shed. Then if you are unhappy with dust consider getting one of those units to clean up any remnant dust

[MaccaMagic]

Thanks Jim and BobL

I do have a dust collector rigged up for wood turning and a barrel extractor hooked to the table saw. So dust at the source is not too badly covered.

Might have to think about a second air filter. Argh $$$

One thing working in my favour is that air sneaks in above the garage door so that will help with intake for the air filter, with the exhaust then covering the back end of the garage.

I'm really just hoping the air filter will help remove some of the residual dust that settles everywhere. Fingers crossed.

Cheers

[BobL]

Thanks Jim and BobL
I do have a dust collector rigged up for wood turning and a barrel extractor hooked to the table saw. So dust at the source is not too badly covered.
Might have to think about a second air filter. Argh $$$

If by barrel extractor you mean a barrel vacuum cleaner then that is a waste of time on a table saw. Table saws need High volume flow to capture dust at source as the amount of dust and the large air currents generated by a table saw will just spray fine dust all over the shed.
Some vacuum cleaners also end up making more fine dust than they capture.
And unless both those dust extractors vent outside the shed then the fine dust they release - and believe me thy churn out a lot of fine dust - will just end up scattered all over your shed. Trying to capture this escaped dust is like trying to herd cats.

One thing working in my favour is that air sneaks in above the garage door so that will help with intake for the air filter, with the exhaust then covering the back end of the garage.

Very little air will sneak into a shed UNLESS some air is forcibly evacuated.

I'm really just hoping the air filter will help remove some of the residual dust that settles everywhere. Fingers crossed.

It will certainly help but unless the other issues are attended to its a bit like putting a bandaid on a broken leg. Getting another air filter will be like using two bandaids

[skot]

Jim,

You said to set them up diagonally but also mentioned that 1 unit sucks in the exhausted air from the other, which made me think that they would be placed in line.

Which is the preferred placement.....

Image 1

AF 1.PNG


OR

Image 2

AF2.PNG


Cheers

Scott

[MaccaMagic]

BobL - thanks for your advice champ. Appears I need to think a little more about my setup.

The DE attached to my table saw isn't a shop vac. It's one of those barrel types with a ~100mm pipe hooked into the table saw. Seems to do a reasonable job of grabbing the dust at the source


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