I used a hand held circular saw to cross cut the pieces to rough size, then finished them off on the table saw. After coughing up a lung I decided to hurry up and make a DIY Shop Air Cleaner before my lungs get caked with sawdust. Apply gasketing to the edges of the air intake part of the fan. Now, you are ready to set up your air purifier in a central location in your home. Thank you so much if you made it this far. Your total cost for a DIY box fan filter can be as low as $40 – 50.00 (including incidentals like duct tape), or higher depending on the filter options. The addition of a charcoal filter can also help to reduce odors, like those that come from wildfire smoke. An easy and inexpensive way to make your own air cleaner is to attach a very high-efficiency furnace filter to a basic box fan. Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. A reliable box fan: If you don’t already have a box fan, you can find affordable options for around $20 to $40, like this Comfort Zone model. The project itself is a homemade shop air filter. (Note: Some have wondered whether we should tape it onto the back of the box fan filter. That’s why, if you don’t mind a couple of extra steps, we advise the two-filter setup. He built a frame around the blower from plywood and 2 x 4s, and attached a switch to control the fan. As per the cut list in my FREE PLANS, I cut plywood strips 1" wide and use them to create a frame to house the filters. If you have gaps or leaks in your box air and dust will get sucked in and re-circulate back into your space. Or better yet, make yourself a fancier DIY air purifier by finding a fan without a metal bar in the front, like the DIY air purifier I ship through Smart Air. I notice that after about 10 to15 minutes the air is dust free. My favorite people in the world are my wife Bouavon, and my two beautiful sons Blaise and Dhylon. I like this method because it allows me to break down the pieces to a more manageable size before ripping them to final dimensions on the table saw. The 'hack' is easy: Experts recommend buying what’s called a MERV 13 or FPR 10 furnace filter and tape it to the back of a box fan. Give this inexpensive DIY air filter a try. Make sure it’s around 20 inches high, a common standard for box fans. 20x20 Fan With Air Filter. Hey there, thanks for reading my Instructable and for your comment! We suggest you get at least a four-pack for this project. I use 20X20 box fans. A typical HVAC filter is designed to be replaced every several months or so. However, the most effective DIY home air purifier uses two filters at once for better airflow, and it’s not that complicated to set up. If they start looking dirty, it’s probably time to quickly disassemble and replace them with new versions to keep the purifier working optimally. After building my new shop I soon realized that it was really hard to breathe with all the dust I was making. ... Best compact DIY Box Fan Filtration System ... (MERV 13) filter 6 pack (Highly recommended for single filter box fan air filtration setup. Place your two filters together, with the arrows pointing at each other. I have one in the window and every couple months, I have to pull it down and clean the fan and the screen that is on the window. 20 inch Box Fan; 20 by 20 by 1 MERV 13 Furnace Filter; Heavy Duty Tape; Directions: There will be a little arrow on the filter showing which way the air should flow. 3 years ago. Mine cost $20 at a local home improvement store. If you would like a FREE copy of the SketchUp drawings for this project you can download them from my website by clicking HERE. With a two-filter or four-filter setup, the filters may last a bit longer, but you should still keep an eye on them. I made the spot for the 5” filter so that one day I can put a 20”x20”x5” MERV 16 filter … The 9 things Amazon Echo can do that Google Home can’t, These are the best deals on Ring Video Doorbells for January 2021, These are the best cheap blender deals for January 2021. All rights reserved. There are only a few steps left. Any type of sealant will work for this but you must not skip this step. With all that said, my shop is 12' x 16' x about 8' tall (almost 1600 cubic ft) /200 cfm it should take more like 10 minutes to clean the air. Wide painters tape or duct tape; 20”x 20” Box Fan (with controls on the top, front or side) Duct tape: It’s pretty easy to find duct tape online or in the store. Examine the filter’s Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) rating, which is a number up to 20 that indicates the size of particles the filter is rated to capture. Three stage, double box fan air filter On of the things I wanted to do was provide a way to filter the air in the microshop. The filters sell for about $15. After coughing up a lung I decided to hurry up and make a DIY Shop Air Cleaner before my lungs get caked with sawdust. : History: First off, a little history of how this project got started. Now it is time to assemble the wooden box. Reply That would be a bit of an exaggeration though because 1. Hope this helps! Not much left to do except popping in the two filters and installing the air cleaner somewhere in your shop. DIY-ers will sometimes construct their own HEPA filters by simply attaching an air filter to the front of a box fan, but Dr. Corsi says that might not be as effective as it seems. Comfort Zone CZ200ABK 20" 3-Speed Box Fan for Full-Force Air Circulation with Air Conditioner, Black 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,362 FilterBuy 20x20x1, Pleated HVAC AC Furnace Air Filter… It has a single motor with 4 squirrel cage fans on a long shaft in the bottom and 6 washable filters on both sides. See more ideas about box fan, wood shop, diy box. How long does this take to clean your shop air after a sawing session? What was the cost of all components in a rough estimation? Room air gets sucked into the filter first, and the fan blows clean air out. Now that you have all of your pieces cut, it is time to cut out the the circle for the blower fan, cut out the bottom section, and cut out the square for front air register. Glue-ups, finishing, welding, general repairs, etcetera, etcetera, they all occur in the same space. It is essentially just a wooden box with a blower motor sucking dirty air through a set of filters and blowing out fresh clean air. The easiest way to make a low cost air cleaner is to just use a cheap box fan with a furnace air filter attached in some way to the inlet side. Extra features like activated carbon are nice, but not necessary. Repurposing a Box Fan Purchase a fan you can fit with a filter. Now, use your duct tape to tape a 20-inch side of the two filters together to form an angle. A model with a timer is nice, but not required (or you could just plug it into a smart plug). I am extremely creative and I am alway…, How to Make Charcuterie Boards Using Clear Acrylic Templates. I think that with my setup and with clogged filters it recirculates more like 200 cfm. My workshop doesn’t have air conditioning, and it gets pretty hot while I’m working. I don't think that it actually does provide 420 cfm (more like 300 cfm) and 2. Shawn was able to score a couple old furnace blower motors for free and the smaller of the two was to be the fan for his shop filter. Saw Dust Filter Fan. The construction of the box is very simple, I used glue and brad nails to attach the pieces together. PollenTec Box Fan MERV 10 Nano Air Filters Pollen, Dust, Mold Spores and Pet Dander – Biodegradable, Electrostatic Design 6 Pack - Compatible with Holmes HBF2010A-WM Box Fans 20.5" Frame 3.4 out of 5 … Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks.Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Want to breathe cleaner air in your home? If you order a fan or filters online, the box they come in should work just fine! Once I found sawdust is a carcinogen (yes, really) I always wear a mask while working, but filtration still makes a lot of sense. Once the filters get caked with sawdust, they restrict the air flow quite a bit. I had a few extra furnace filters lying around, so I tried attaching one to the back of the fan using hook-and-loop fasteners. However, with the triangle purifier setup, you have to cover up those additional gaps, so the fan is actually sucking air through the filters themselves. If you like this project PLEASE consider following my Instructable profile. These “filter fans” can filter out the small particles that … Please view all of the detailed photos, download the FREE PLANS, and watch the VIDEO for reference. You can skip this step if you want to make a simple one-filter air purifier. I am very glad that I took the few hours it took me to build this project. This is what I came up with. These filters sell for about $15 at your local hardware store. That’s “pull-through” instead of “blow-through,” the way residential AC works. With allergens, disease, odors, and dust building up over the winter months, there are many great reasons to consider getting an air purifier for your home to improve indoor air quality. As we mentioned above, some people just tape the filter right to the back of the box fan and call it a day. Reference the plans and the video above for details on how I do this and hopefully it helps you figure out how to assemble yours. A pack of home HVAC filters, also 20 inches: You can find these at any department store or order them online. The blower motor that I used states that it provides 420 cfm of air flow so in a perfect world at that rate it should be able to clean all the air in my shop in less than 5 minutes. If you want to do it this way, just make sure the filter arrows are facing toward the back of the fan. If you would prefer to use this larger setup, then start by taking two of the filters you bought and unpackaging them. Remember to choose the right size. As you can see, you place the other 20-inch sides of the two filters to either the side or the back of the fan and tape them in place. Now you are almost done. Set your purifier on the side of the cardboard, and cut or trace around it to create a cardboard triangle that can comfortably fit the air purifier’s gap. https://www.homedepot.com/p/AC-Safe-20-in-Box-Fan-Filter-FF-20/307280271 Securely fasten a MERV 13 filter to the air intake side of the fan. Matthais mounted his air cleaner(s) in the corner of his shop which I think is a lot less effective. It doesn’t take that much more work, and with greater airflow through two filters, the DIY purifier is much more effective. This would be a good projec… All you need is a box fan and some traditional, replaceable HVAC filters. A filter with at least a MERV 13 rating is ideal, as it is rated to capture some smaller particles (like some bacteria and viruses). All you need to do is attach the filter to the back of the fan with the arrows pointing toward the back of the fan. Insofar as filter changing costs, you will find that it is still much cheaper to buy furnace filters and variants of them without sacrificing on quality or air cleaning capacity. Assuming the shop air mixes perfectly, for a time constant of 10 minutes, the unit has to filter a volume equivalent to the workshop every 10 minutes. This piece has a large square cut out that holds the filters in place but also allows full airflow through the filters. That’s fine — air will enter through the filter on the back of the fan and then exit through the front of the fan. Matthias has some gadget for measuring airborne particulates, and I don't, so your numbers are very helpful. I hung mine on the ceiling right above my miter saw because that is where the most sawdust is generated in my shop. This is where your cardboard comes in. 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