# Modifying air filtration unit...?



## shortyski13 (Jul 15, 2016)

Maybe this is a crazy idea, but maybe not. I'm looking for your guys' input/thoughts on this. I have the Wen 3410 air filtration unit. It seems to work well keeping the dust down in my basement-workshop, but the 1 micron filters are still to big for smoke, I believe. I also use a 3M 7500 series respirator mask with p100 filters on it while I work in the basement. I'm thinking of putting my spare p100 filters on the outlet of the Wen filtration unit so it also filters out wood smoke and helps keep it from travelling throughout the house. I'd come up with some way to make it somewhat sealed, such as potentially glueing them to thick plastic bags (freezer ziplocks), cutting the other end open, and taping it to the unit, or something like that. Anyone see anything bad with this? I'm thinking the worst case is that the air just backs up and doesn't get pushed through adequately, but maybe there is more to be concerned about? Has anyone tried something like this before?

Cheers


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## Cooler (Feb 3, 2016)

Which filter do you use? They make a 1 micron and a 5 micron filter for this model.

3M Filtrete makes claims but they don't list the micron levels so it is impossible to compare. But if you figure it our I'm sure you can cut down a 3M furnace filter to fit.

https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=wen+3410+filter&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=153729226985&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15183311099843168765&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004244&hvtargid=kwd-161498714196&ref=pd_sl_871dk9bwnw_b


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## shortyski13 (Jul 15, 2016)

The unit actually has a 5 micron outer filter and a 1 micron inner filter. But wood smoke is less than 1 micron and I'm looking for a cheapo method to thin some of it out before it spreads too far. Not sure if doing this will mess up my filtration unit.


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## Cooler (Feb 3, 2016)

3M's Filtrete filters make claims on this. Cut one down and try it.

http://www.filtrete.com/3M/en_US/filtrete/products/?N=7568680+4315+3294529207&rt=r3&N=7568680+4315+3294529207&rt=r3&WT.srch=1&WT.mc_id=FILTRT_Exact_3m_furnace_filters&gclid=CL7d9Nj2itACFcxkhgodB_QI6Q


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

What are you doing to make the wood smoke? IMO that's the underlying issue. If you've got smoke coming from your lumber during operations on the table saw, band saw or router table something's wrong. If youre a wood burner …. my apologies.


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## shortyski13 (Jul 15, 2016)

I get a lot of smoke from my crappy dull scroll saw (actually it isn't even mine), and I've been getting quite a bit from my table saw when cutting exotics and hardwood. I did just clean the blade, which had a decent amount of crud on it, so hopefully that cuts down on that.


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

Gotcha.

I think choking down the exhaust on the unit is going to do some harm. I cant tell ya why but my gut says no bueno. Id do my best to address the smoke with some new blades before i take the chance on roaching my $300 air filter. A new $50 ts blade, couple packs of good scroll blades and some time spent aligning the fence of your ts would be cheaper in the long run.


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