dust filter

 

I will readily concede that I do love my dusty, dirty, disorganised old shed. But when I am working in there, especially when sanding stuff, the dust gets in your lungs. Yes I do wear a dust mask but there are days when that isn't enough. Oh and I also have a wood heater. And that's dusty too.

So after cruising Pinterest, I saw some ideas and I thought I'd make my own.  I don't know if its any good but it was cheap and I made it in 2 hours from stuff around the house and some new bits from Bunnings.

 

The Bits

The Fan

We had a duct in the ceiling that was supposed to transfer warm air from one side of the house to the other. It didn't work :-( So I dismantled it and pulled it out. Its kind of a big tube with a motor and two duct fans in it. A bit like a simple turbine. And then I pulled out the silver ducting stuff that was meant to transfer the heated air. 

 

The Filter Box

storage box

I could have made a box, but the maxim is cheap and quick! So I went to Bunnings and bought a plastic storage box for $18 (click on the image for more details). Its a bit flimsy but had a bit of volume to it so it looked like it was the right size. As you ca see from the lid, there were ridges! So I cut most of the bits between the ridges out so there was a kind of a cross across the lid. (see later pictures!)

 

 

 

 

 

The Filter 

Basically its just an air conditioner filter mat. Again, bought from Bunnings. It cost $31 but there was one for $17 which I couldn't find in the Delacombe store. CLICK HERE to see the one I bought.

So there is the yellow lid, and the filter mat. I had a piece of wire mesh (again from Bunnings, CLICK HERE!) I used that to hold the filter mat in place. Like so:

 filter  filter bottom

You can see how the mesh was bent and then bolted in. The Lid then pressed against the lip of the box to secure the seal on it.

 

Mounting the Fan

Two things. The base of the box had ridges on it. So it needed a seal to sort out the bottom of the fan. I found a scrap rubber tile and cut a circle out of it. Then I cut a hole in the base of the box. And then I used liquid nails to glue it around the ridges on the base so I could sit te fan tube on it. And then 4 L-Brackets on the outside of the metal tube. Used self tapping metal screws to secure the L brackets onto the fan tube.

But knowing that the box was very flimsy, I used some pine to make a square frame. The L-Brackets were secured into the pine frame. Something like this (I told you it was not pretty):

frame bracket  filter top

Stringing it up

I installed screw-in eyelets into the sides of the box and into the Pine frame to take the weight. I then used some steel wire rope as hangers. The idea was that if I wanted to move the filter, I could. 

That Silver Ducting Stuff

Duct tape and some webbed strap drilled into the rafters to hold it up.

That's Pretty Much It :-)

Its rough and ready and I haven't tested it yet, but thought I'd share it. And cheap. If anyone has suggestions for improvement, please let me know, hence this post ;-)

BTW if you are interested, type in shed dust filter into Pinterest. Lots of ideas.

Cheers

g.