# Air Filtration - converting a Rockler 3/4 HP DC



## dczward (May 23, 2011)

I've been woodworking for about a year, and as I do, read, and learn more about setting up a shop, I've gotten serious about dust collection safety. I started with the shop vac for basic dust collection, then moved up to to a Rockler 3/4 HP wall mount DC, and changed the 40 micron bag out to a 5 micron bag. I've now come to realize that I'm just blowing the most harmful dust around in my shop (1 to 5 micron), so I've gone the route of ordering the classic Harbor Freight 2HP DC and a Wynn 35A cannister filter.

That's all good, but I also want to do air filtration. My shop is a typical 22×22 garage, ~ 500 sq ft. While I like the specs and price of this Jet AFS-400 Benchtop Air Filtration System (~$225), I've wondering what I can do with my relatively new Rockler 3/4 HP DC. I have plenty of 1/2 ply around, and was thinking of DiY-ing an air filtration box, with the blower from the Rockler as the engine. I imagine a 12" x 24" x 3' long box, with a few good filters on the front and back, with the blower in the middle, with the intake and output sides sealed from each other.

Questions:

- is the 3/4 HP 12 amp 650CFM Rockler motor going to be too powerful?
- will it be too loud?
- shoud I just suck it up (pardon the pun) and buy the Jet?


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

1500 CFM sounds like a monster, although I'll gladly take in the Wood Mag article. The Jet is described as "Three speeds 260, 362, and 409 CFM" and "this little powerhouse cleans and circulates air in a 20' x 20' x 8' shop, 7 cycles per hour"... so, I din't know. I may have to build my concept and see if its lame or not.


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## Gregn (Mar 26, 2010)

It should work, however I couldn't say how often it will cycle in an hour. By enclosing it in the box it should muffle the sound quite a bit. I remember the article Gary mentions a little bit, and recall the part about creating a duct work to move the clean air further from the filter. This will allow you to position the filter closer to the dust producing machines without the clean air returning next to the unit and creating a dust turbulence.


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

The HF 2HP DC is still on back order, so I won't be able to try it for a week or so. For now, I have a plywood frame to hold a box fan and two furnace filters (one a high quality filter). Better than nothing.


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## Gregn (Mar 26, 2010)

I would use 3 filters. Put 2 filters on the intake side about a 1"-2" apart to help better filter the air going into the box and one on the outtake side.


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## dczward (May 23, 2011)

Well, I finally decided, I'm not going to DiY an air cleaner. After getting my HF 2HP DV and Wynn filter set up (and LOVING it), I investigated my plan to use the Rockler 3/4HP for an air cleaner. It is 12amps, really loud, and putting it all together would be a project for which I'd rather use the time on elsewhere, like finally building something on my project list.

So, instead, I bought a Jet air cleaner, http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=5489&rrt=1, from Amazon for $300. It has a remote, a timer, and it just works. I'm all for doing it myself, but my time is not unlimited, and instead of fighting this one, I'm going to let it go.


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