I agree that there's no substitute for a good respirator! When you are a custom furniture maker, you come to accept that sawdust comes with the territory. If you are a weekend wood worker it works fine.

And it recommends changing the filters when the time reduces by 50%. To the left of the camera set up is the air filtration unit itself, ceiling mounted. Secondly, and this applies only to the wifi version of the unit which is the one that I have. You can buy this machine at the following places: Poolewood TF470: https://bit.ly/2nhNJsR current price: 189.59 or 213.59 with remote, Yandles MC420: https://bit.ly/2MbZZcy current price: 175.99 (not sure if remote is included), The Toolpost TF470: https://bit.ly/2KA8SYg current price: 176.40 (not sure if remote is included), Charnwood MC420: https://bit.ly/2njdyss current price: 235 (not sure if remote is included). Like others, I am amazed at how much dust it picks up despite having a pretty decent dust collection system for source dust. UNLIMITED membership - Get access to it all. Thats all a bit technical for me, but hopefully those numbers are useful to someone! The model I have is WEN 3410 3-Speed Remote-Controlled Air Filtration System (300/350/400 CFM) Purchased from amazon. They make pretty good filters and excel in customer service. And even in a shop where there is an air filter, it is still a good idea to wear a mask, they can't remove all the particulate from the air fast enough to skip out on the respirator. If your thinking of buying this for your own home woodshop, I would strongly suggest buying a good respirator if you don't already have one.

It took about another 30 minutesm after that for the level to go back down to the roughly 600 reading that we had prior to starting the experiment - so that means that the airbourne dust took about an hour to settle back down to a normal level, which I found quite interesting - I didn't expect it to take that long, I kind of expected it to take around half an hour at the very most, based on a few previous experiments I've done with dust monitoring in the workshop. Blueairs most advanced air purifier ever, Protect, is the only air purifier to provide 24/7 protection against viruses and bacteria. Its a great price, there are 2 sizes so you can size it to your space. Settings changes will only take effect for the browser and device you are currently using. Please turn it on so that you can experience the full capabilities of this site. So at the end of the day, I can leave it on for a bit and it will shut off on its own.

I really like that method of testing the performance of the filters, I think its an easy tangible way to check. To extract dust from machines, use dust extractors. If you want to determine the size or required air flow, use this formula: The dimension of your workshop (length x width x height) times the number of air exchanges per hour (ideally 6-8) divided by 60. from 25 - 40% for filtering, according to the type of filter, that is why you can use the loss coefficient 1,3. Im very pleased with the air quality difference when it is running. It pulls a lot of dust out if the air that my dust collector misses. And for the first experiment I'm going to leave the air filtration switched off. Does this seem like a logical trade off to an air filtration device to others? Thanks again everyone!

They're way cheaper and take up practically no space. Our biweekly podcast allows editors, authors, and special guests to answer your woodworking questions and connect with the online woodworking community. Start your 14-day FREE trial - and get building! The remote control is nice, and the timer is nice. JET filters can filter particles up to 1 micron, which are particles generated when finely sanding wood. It's my opinion you can save yourself some physical grief by using whatever's available to you and your budget. What do you do when your job involves polluting the air you breathe? Plus tips, advice, and special offers from Fine Woodworking.

WithHEPASilent technologyand its contemporary design, the Blueair Pro line (M, L, XL) sets a new standard in premium air purifiers. Required:Cookies necessary for the operation of the website
The recommendation is to put this unit in the centre of the workshop, but I couldnt really do that because it would get in the way, so mine is along one of the long walls of my workshop. Here's a graph showing both experiments, and the results speak for themselves really - and I am really surprised at how much of a difference the air filtration unit makes - this simple experiment really convinced me that these things are absolutely effective at significantly reducing airbourne dust particles, and are totally worthwhile.

For custom furniture makers Aaron Pahmier and Bladon Connor of Aaron Bladon, Ltd., the new Blueair Pro XL, with aClean Air Delivery Rate(CADR) of up to 900 cubic feet of clean air a minute, turned out to be the perfect workshop air purifier. I tend to use it when Ive been sanding or throwing up a lot of finer dust. Plug and play simplicity - Blue features our signature performance with colorful style in a lightweight, compact package. Place the filtration unit app. I wonder if anyone here has experience with air filter units, to help reduce dust, like the one from Jet or the new circular one from Powermatic? When I first got the unit it held for ten seconds, so based on that I should replace the filters when it only holds for five seconds. The filters for the unit are available to buy and are priced at 12 which isnt too bad, although what Ill probably do is remove the filters, take them outside with my respirator on and blow them with my air blower and re-use them, because Im a bit of a cheapskate. My workshop internally by the way is about 4m x 2.6m and 2.2m in height, and the ceiling height for me was the main issue because having something that big hanging from my ceiling would have been a problem no matter where I put it. Air filters do not replace dust extractors!!! | All rights reserved. One more thing before I do some testing, and thats to talk about where you can buy it. The location relative to the front door or window is important as well. Rabbeting a shelf; Strength vs. appearance, Editor's Letter: A new tool with every project. To test how effective the air filtration unit is I've come up with a simple experiment, it's not going to be super scientific or anything, so please just take it for what it is. So I started the stopwatch and sanded the piece of beech as vigorously as I could against the disc sander for 1 minute. So some of the Blueair team made a visit to Aaron and Bladons studio to help them find the best possible place for a Blueair Pro XL to have a maximum impact on air quality.

Click for full details. Enables basic site functionality such as user browsing or user login. Professional performance with a minimalist design - Pro is perfectly suited for a large workshop, studio, or office environment. I still wear a high quality respirator when running power tools but at the great price of this unit I think its a great addition to my overall dust management and I can feel and see the difference. The price for this model currently is around 190 without the remote control or 214 with the remote control. Copyright document.write(new Date().getFullYear()); | IGM nstroje a stroje s.r.o. Thor filtration also make some other models in various sizes and shapes that are available from the same website. This forum post is now archived. Standing tall between their office space and their furniture design studio, the Blueair Pro XL took on the task of sawdust air filtration like a pro. Environmental Filter or Damn Filters are good choices too. You can get in touch via the social media links above, request a commission from the menu above, orE-mailme! Would I recommend the machines by Thor filtration? Dust collection systems are helpful if they are of good quality. But thats also not very well designed in my opinion as because the unit is mounted to the ceiling and the button is tiny, its very difficult to find by feel I was standing there fumbling for it for ages on more than one occasion, so what Ive done is put a blob of hot glue just beneath the switch, so that its easier to feel with my hand. Trusted by allergy suffers - Classic is a timeless option that gets the job done quietly and effectively. Embedded video for Air Filter For The Small Workshop - Review and Testing The Thor Filtration TF470 (AKA MicroClene MC420). Learn how clean air ensures a healthier, brighter future for ourselves, and especially for our children.

I finally found an air filter designed for the small workshop.

Founded on the belief that the freedom to breathe clean air is a basic right.

And for some tools, like my chop saw or belt sander, the dust collectors only do so much. ChipSawdust said it really well, whatever we can do to reduce dust is a good thing! Analytical cookies

depends on how much you value your lungs and ability to breathe. True HEPA filters are 99.97% accurate in dealing with finer dust particles. Meaning you can use the Jet AFS-500 filter, however, we recommend the AFS-1000B, which fulfills these requirements on the lowest performance. By continuing to use our website you are consenting to our cookie policy. I clean the filter fairly often and also have a respirator I wear especially when sanding or routing. Blueair air purifiers are simple to use and have something special: We are the only major air purifier brand to verify 100% of our models for performance for Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR). The initial particle count readings were unsettling for Aaron and Bladon but they also confirmed that they are breathing in as much dust as they feared. Not ideal but hopefully that doesnt affect the performance too much. 1/3 of the shorter wall. Now on to what I dont like about it, and there are two things. My take is whatever you can do to reduce dust is a good thing. On any given day, there is a lot of particulate matter floating around, more some days than others depending on the project, Aaron says. I also repeated those two experiments and while the readings were obviously different, it was quite clear to me that the results and the trends were pretty consistent showing that the air filtration unit works really well and in conclusion, throughout both experiments, the airbourne dust particles were generally between 50 and 75% lower with the air filtration unit switched on than they were with it off. We have created these special content collections organized to give you a deep dive into a range of topics that matter. Let's see how it does now That held for 16 seconds so the filters aren't as efficient as they were when new but I wouldn't expect them to be. Its a legitimate concern.

You can get two and still be ahead.

If Ive got my radio on at a reasonably low level, which I often do while Im working, then I cant really hear it anymore while the filter is switched on. Apologies for the reflections on the screen which make the readings a bit difficult to read. For custom furniture makers Aaron Pahmier and Bladon Connor of Aaron Bladon, Ltd., the new Blueair Pro XL, with a. when I'm not using my tools or moving around too much! That's a good thing. If you are a pro and in the shop all the time a more expensive solution is warranted. The good news is that onsite testing showed that after just one cycle (12 minutes), the Blueair Pro XL reduced woodshop particles by approximately 25%, an excellent start to Aaron and Bladons ongoing battle against what they call sawdust nose., Aarons and Bladens awareness of indoor air quality made them especially pleased to see the difference the professional-strength performance of the Blueair Pro XL could make in their quality of life at work. Yes I would, although I don't have any experience with the other alternative units that are available to buy so I can't say whether they work any better or any worse.

I'm amazed at how much dust my ceiling-mounted air filter picks up.

What would make it much easier is if there was a widget for the app that could be on the lock screen which would speed things up, but there isnt one on the iPhone. Since my shop is part of an attached garage my wife appreciates me getting and keeping the dust down. All I would say is that I'd suggest going for the model with the remote control as opposed to the wifi version if you're going to be using yours in a similar way to how I use mine. Ive been using it for a few weeks now so lets see how it does now. Enter now for your chance to win more than $2,000 worth of woodworking equipment from Woodpeckers. Start your 14-day FREE trial - and get building. Mount up to 10-15 cm away from the wall. Breathing these particles may cause allergic respiratory symptoms, mucosal and non-allergic respiratory symptoms, and even cancer. I wouldnt say it was loud either though. 2022 The Taunton Press, Inc. All rights reserved. Most manufacturers list the volume of air per minute, mainly it is the power of the ventilator. I live in a very built up area, and I would say that its definitely not loud enough to be a nuisance to neighbours, but its not very quiet. And I'm only going to measure the smallest particles of dust for this experiment as they're the ones to worry about the most, and that's the top line on the display which is for particles greater than 0.3 microns, and you'll see here that the number of particles in the air prior to the experiment ranges between 500 and 600 and that's pretty typical of what I normally get in my workshop during spells of inactivity - i.e. A second for a cheap box fan with a cheap filter. But if you, like me have limited space then the machines available from Thor are a great solution. Place the unit along the longer wall so that the entry port (suction) is distanced app.

Designed for spaces up to 1,180 sq ft (110 m2), the Blueair Pro XL quickly and efficiently eliminates dust particles, chemical allergens, and even viruses cleaning the indoor air up to five times per hour. And I'm going to be sanding this piece of beech as vigorously as possible for 1 minute. The exhaust is the biggest determinant of the air circulation and filtering quality. Hi, I have an excellent small ceiling mounted air cleaner that I added last year. The purpose of the air filter is to keep the level of airborne dust to a minimum.

To the left of the benchtop sander you'll see that I have a camera set up pointing at a stopwatch app on my phone which is on the left, and my air quality monitor which is on the right. It has an airflow rate of 400 cubic metres per hour. My workshop is only 26 cubic metres so based on those figures, its ideal for my needs. Open doors can completely change the air flow. It says on the Poolewood website that its very quiet. And finally, one lesson that says: spending money for a quality extractor and air filter is a much better investment than trying to save your health afterwards. I dont have the budget for a huge dust collection upgrade right now and I wonder if these air filters are worth it in the meantime? I have copd and the last thing I need is the fine powder hardwoods leave when they're worked. So, at least it's important to me to keep that nasty sawdust to a minimum. Normally I use dust collection system hooked up to this machine, but as I'm trying to create airbourne dust for the experiment I'm not going to turn that on.

It has a remote and my favourite feature is that you can set it to stay on for 1 hour, 2 hours etc. So in summary, would I recommend getting an air filtration unit? The placement of the filter is of the same importance as the size of the filter. In this video I review and test the Thor Filtration TF470 Air Filter, also/previously known as the MicroClene MC420.

Most of the units that are available to buy in my opinion are designed to clean spaces much bigger than my workshop, which isnt necessarily a problem because its better to have more air movement than you need rather than not enough, but the biggest problem for me was the size of those units I simply didnt have enough ceiling height and there was just no good place to put one. These filters filter out 95% of dust at 2 microns or larger, 80% of dust down to 1 micron and 65% of dust down to 0.4 micron. Firstly, its louder than I expected. If you can find space for one in your workshop, you can justify the expense, and you're concerned about breathing in airbourne dust then yes definitely - they really do make a big difference, but use it in addition to some sort dust collection or shop vac hooked up to the tool you're using because collecting dust at source is always going to be the best way of reducing airbourne dust. Save 50% on Classic & Pro family air purifiers. Have you tried Wynn Environmental? Best of all it is cheap. If you are dealing with finer dust I would invest in either a HEPA or cartridge filter made specifically for fine wood dust.

This has been super helpful, everybody - thank you for your responses! Id therefore recommend buying the unit that comes with the remote control instead, and I wish that Id have ordered that one too. Trap annoying odors with activated carbon, Capture dander, hair, and light pet odors. Now that the dust in the air was back to normal I turned on my air filtration unit and repeated the experiment again, sanding vigorously for 1 minute. What do you do when your job involves polluting the air you breathe? These cookies are used by advertising and social networks to modify the displayed ads so that they are of interest to you. Calculation: length 7 m, width 4 m, height of ceiling 3 m. Necessary performance of the air filter in m3/min = length x width x number of circulations per hour x loss coefficient / 60 = 7 x 4 x 3 x 6 x 1,3 / 60 = 10,92 = 10-11m3/min
The extent of these hazards and the associated wood types have not been clearly established.. Be aware, however, that you will experience losses induced by the filters, those can be app. Here's a quick size comparison (see video) for one of the most common units available to buy, like the ones available from Record Power, Jet and Rutlands, and youll see that all of those are a similar size, similar weight, and designed for similar size workshop in cubic square metres.