Shop filtration/indoor air quality.
 

I'll be running some duct work in my shop from the wood stove to other areas of the shop and started thinking about adding a filter to the return. Then I wondered if/what others have for air filtration inside the shop. I'm guessing if I run a filter in the stove return it's gonna fill up mighty quick. In MN we need to keep heat and A/C inside the shop so no direct vents outside (except the welding hood). Are there any economical ways to filter without buying pallets of furnace filters?

Ducts
 

I'm pretty sure you mean the wood stove flue exits the building, otherwise, you are going to have carbon monoxide issues. Headaches and death....

Combustion air from the exterior, directed to the fire, then up the flue is the most efficient.

For my blast cabinet and wood shop, I have two stage dust collectors. First stage is a cyclone (I used Super Dust Deputy, but you could fab one up), the second stage is the actual filter bags. The cyclone catches most of it, the filter the balance.

I've thought about adding something to the grinders, etc, but I'm worried about sparks in the system. Also, there's the concern of dust explosions. I've made certain that everything is grounded, including running a ground wire through the pipe.

In small wood shops there are devices that you hang on the ceiling. It's simply a metal box, and a fan sucking air through a filter. It's intended to get the small particles that float, out of the air.

Hope this helps.

If you are trying to heat your workshop from a wood burning stove, you need to make or buy a heat exchanger, as said fumes from fuels are deadly.
Spraybooths have have heat exchangers, look these up.

:lol: I live in MN I know about heat!! ;)

The wood stove in my shop is some fancy thing with oil start. The stove is inside a chamber or something and has a furnace fan and thermostat on the ductwork. right now it just suck air in and blows it out the top. I don't have a closer photo of the stove, in the photo you should be able to see the ductwork sticking out the top. It has the proper venting going outside and as is it'll get the shop hot in about a half hour.

http://www.allmetalshaping.com/attac...1&d=1421970537

My old orange Majestic fireplace is a canary killer for sure.

http://www.allmetalshaping.com/attac...1&d=1421970471

I have read about the concerns with collectors right off the tools. The ceiling mount was more of what I had in mind. But something that wouldn't require filters every time it was used. I had also read that having two in a space is ideal to create flow.

Filters can be pretty cheap. Depends on how much filtering you want to do. As in how fine a particulate.

http://www.menards.com/main/heating-...705-c-6856.htm this link will get old and not work eventually, but it's to a 16x20 fiberglass filter retailing at $.74 ea

In the winter, I recycle my clothes dryer heat (electric and therefor $$$$) into the basement with a homemade lint water trap and a cheap furnace filter to grab what the water trap doesn't. Change out cheap filters often as needed. Only 2 of us here, so humidity not excessive, actually helps.

Personally, after a career teaching different high school shop subjects in various shops in often less than ideal conditions, and decades of summers as a carpenter, I have destroyed much of my sense of smell. I definitely think you are heading in the right direction by filtering your shop air.

Like your modified threads on the HAMB. Contemplating a similar project.

Guys,

I have an engineer friend who designs dust collectors for wood.

There is some specific information out there very relevant to particulate size.

For a good intro see: http://billpentz.com/woodworking/cyclone/index.cfm

The summary on the above page is a good start, too large to paste into here, but a fairly quick read

But, IIRC, my friend's information is a "quantum level" better in its scientific and health aspects.

mjb

Lots to consider
 

I have a larger wood furnace like that in VT, as well as various dust collector equipment in professional daily use.

With that said, the ceiling mounted units would be the last on my list unless I simply wanted a small amount of relatively safe, nuisance particulate removed from the air in a well-sealed area. For the same money, I think there are more effective options. For light duty, a cyclone added to a shop vac with a HEPA filter is simple, cheap, effective and can be very safe. Something like this captures much more particulate where it is generated vs letting it float around for 20-30 min or more until it finally reaches a ceiling unit.

It really depends upon what and how much you are filtering. Contact me offgroup if you like, glad to talk about what I have, use and how well it works. There's no reason to melt the snowbank if you don't have to...