I built a box-fan furnace filter unit about 20 years ago and still use it. I found that by stacking filters, one on top of the other it takes out more of the fine grinding dust. I hung the unit blowing parallel to a side wall so it would move the air around the perimeter of the room. It has done a good job removing dust, not all, but a lot more then when not using it. During heavy grinding it will plug solid in a half hour. But I found the filters are easily cleaned with an air gun. I've been using the same filters for years.
Wow! Exellent idea! Simplissibility at it's best. Thoughtful explainations of how you did this and put everything together. Thanks for sharing this, now I need to build one for my shop!
The absolute GENIUS of your You Tube channel is amazing! it’s “every man’s technology” for the “regular guy” down the road. Most of us hang out at 1. Tractor Supply, 2. Harbor Freight or 3. Menards. About 98% of all projects can be created from one or 2 of those 3 locations. Your You Tube channel is most helpful and informative one I have found. Keep up your fantastic content. I learn something new every time I watch! Great Job Fitzee!
Tony - I don't have a garage, but I do park in an underground parkade, and I have a 5'x8' shed. Parkade has smoke alarms. I want to do some welding in the winter. I only got a flux core welder which is basically a smoke monster. So I figured out a system last week. It's a box fan, with a furnace filter that's held in place by the fact that the fan is turned on and sucking in air. No room for a whole box inside the little room, but, the one filter and waiting 5 minutes after welding cleans the air well enough that there's no smoke when I open the door. Huge difference in my winter blues by being able to tinker on stuff without having to haul tools and temporarily borrow a friend's garage or work outdoors. I'm getting tons done! Brackets and assemblies and anything not on the body of the car itself.
Beautiful build, Tony. One improvement would have been to think of the fan as just a thick filter and give it a channel of its own to easily slide in and out of for cleaning and service. Maybe even mount the whole unit on a bearing at the ceiling so you can pivot it around the room to better help when you are working in different areas of the garage.
had similar concept idea once, a long time ago, by using either corrugated drainpipe or possibly PVC along the perimeter of garage, pulling air up and in from all sides piped into similar box when I had ideas of some sort of a half-assed filtering system :) also similar, another concept idea for a down-draft system around the base of a DIY paint booth as you made yourself. :) - Meh, crazy ideas you come up with when your younger :) keep up the amazing videos, always looking forward to both of your channels! Regards...👍
When you were grinding out that circle with the angle grinder, it reminded me of a time when we were setting up a display and the boss was scratching his head on how to cut a circle in a piece of plywood, because all we had was a circular saw. I got the saw and cut out the circle using the tip of the blade, just like you did with the angle grinder and the boss was amazed that it worked.
Great stuff Fitzee. I had to leave the garage for a few minutes just the other day due to fumes. I also dont want to open the window in the winter! I'll have to take a look at something similar.
i built a similar setup but used a steel service cart that i pulled out of a dumpster for the base, used the blower from my old furnace/AC and (2) 20x20x2 filters. makes a good mobile cart to put stuff on and it filters the smoke out of the air. and i use the used filters from the house so i only have to buy them once.
Fitz - wanna move some air and have less noise, hang a squirrel cage up there. Grab an old one out of a furnace, you can go to a heating - cooling biz and they'd probably give it to you. Get a good sized one and hook up a variable speed switch, then if you really wanna crank it up you got the power.
I have a small shop about 100 square feet where I often weld small jobs. I put an exhaust fan in the top of one of the walls and with the door open, the fumes get sucked out and the fresh air comes in through the door. It never gets below freezing here in this part of Queensland Australia, so I don't have to heat my shop in winter.
Hi Tony. That looks like a great addition for the shop. You never know what is in the welding/grinding/etc. dust and its best not to breathe it. I like the design using easy to find furnace filters!
Nice job! You’ve got me thinking about doing something similar. You voided the warranty on that fan though. Id love to see you at the customer service desk with it if it stops working!
Well done Fitzee, and timely too! I've been wanting to build one of these myself, but on casters, so I can roll it around the floor and get it near to where I'm working. My hope is it will pick up grinding dust at the bench and also dust from bondo, primer and occasional wood dust. The plan is to have filters on all 4 sides, with the fan mounted on top blowing straight up. If floor level doesn't work, then maybe on a 3 or 4 foot stand, still on casters for mobility. It will be interesting to see which one works best, down low or on the ceiling.
You probably are aware of the products, but thought I would mention, that tack adhesives for filters are readily available to aid filter efficency. Some are scented and more expensive, which I don't think would be useful for you. Keep up the useful content Tony. Cheers!
i change my furnace filter in the garage once a month minimum, sometimes once a week. You can see a colour difference after about two hours on a new filter. I`m in Alberta, and a wall fan with an open door is not optimal for temperature control in winter or summer. I also started vacuuming instead of sweeping at clean-up time, really cut down on airborne dust. Good idea.
I am sorry Mr fitzzee your services are no longer needed as a metal fabricator you are now needed As a Professional woodworking Professor Bill the deaf man can woodworker from Kansas
Lol, that's ok Fitzee, the last wire I cut for some stupid reason was plugged into the 20 amp line and boy did I jump! Luckily the cutter was insulated.
Hello Toni Very good work but you had to Mount it on the floor on a rolling device. Why i say it the Fan sucks the air and the dust up straight along your mouth and nose . So you inhale all the stuff you get rid of . Yes i know another thing in the Shop rolling around. But look at the New kitchenstoves with the Ventilation right in the middle of the Stove sucking the fumes Down not up. Best wishes a good week Yours Frank
Cheap cooking spray on the filters. Doing for years on house furnace filters....Amazing how much more gets trapped...Change out filters more frequently. Enjoy your postings... cheers
I would be inclined to push the air in to the filters . thinking is, maybe there's less turbulence to blow the air around the shop . I don't know, just random thought.
You always want to draw air in through the air filters. It will give you a more balanced differential pressure across the filters and make it last longer. The plus point is clean air goes across your electric motors, so more reliability and less cleaning of the motor.
It won't work that way, you have to think in terms of a vacuum , the idea is to trap dust on the outside of the filter by drawing it in from the inside. All residential and commercial HVAC and portable air purifiers, air exchangers work on the same principle.
It's a lot easier to push air than to suck air. It's hard to generate any suction, hence adding 4 filters so there's 1/4 the air resistance. You'd never want it to hit the fan first. The motor and blades would gum up with smoke. Tony did it the correct way. No one does it the other way, it'd be foolish.
@@MattsAwesomeStuff The point of adding 4 times the air filter surface area is to reduce the speed of air passing through it. Less speed means less pressure loss. Less speed means the particles don’t shoot through but have to work around all the filter fibres and then get caught.
I see that you don't use a welding helmet very much, how come you never fry your face? I weld for just a little while without a helmet and I get a sun burn.
Cheap cooking spray on the filters. Doing for years in house furnace....Amazing how much more gets trapped...Change out filters more frequently. Enjoy your postings... cheers
There goes the last of that filing cabinet.., it morphed into a rudimentary HVAC unit...good job brother, I have no doubt that it will remove a good portion of swirling micron dust, while recirculating warm air, Its up out of the way and it can't hurt to try.
Sir.. I have those same filter in my home furnace. A tip old timer gave me was to spray your filter with any cheap cooking spray. Me thinks it'll work for you. If already suggested I missed it. I do look forward to your postings.... Cheers
I have been contemplating putting in an exhaust fan like you have but have the same issue with below zero weather conditions most of the winter. Great idea thank you sir. Another informative video👍
Awesome job! Can't wait to see how it does for you! I need to Build one for my little shop to help with the smoke and Dust! You always do Awesome work!
Hi Fitzees 🇺🇸, smart solution the building the boxfan👍🏻,the the circel cutt solutution is also smart😉👏 I use the same whenn i I will have a perfect circle.well-done🙏🏻.Greetings Hubertus🇳🇴👍🏻☮🇺🇸
This is a great idea!! I have a couple of left over queen size bed rails that might just work, as well. I'll be looking into building one of these soon!
The box fans and filter work great. I use the foam window ac filters as a pre filter for them cause i was going through the panel filters too fast. I swear though Fitzee, every time i watch you i can smell and taste what youre working on lol
I taped the 20" fillters on my 20" fan and noticed how offend it gets dirty. Your going to be surprised how well that will work. You might want to even use the slower speed because of the noise. Once you change the filters you will remember how much of that you were breathing it before. Well done!
I built a box-fan furnace filter unit about 20 years ago and still use it. I found that by stacking filters, one on top of the other it takes out more of the fine grinding dust. I hung the unit blowing parallel to a side wall so it would move the air around the perimeter of the room. It has done a good job removing dust, not all, but a lot more then when not using it. During heavy grinding it will plug solid in a half hour. But I found the filters are easily cleaned with an air gun. I've been using the same filters for years.
You NEVER cease to amaze me. Grinding that circle was genius. AWESOME
Wow! Exellent idea! Simplissibility at it's best. Thoughtful explainations of how you did this and put everything together. Thanks for sharing this, now I need to build one for my shop!
The absolute GENIUS of your You Tube channel is amazing! it’s “every man’s technology” for the “regular guy” down the road. Most of us hang out at 1. Tractor Supply, 2. Harbor Freight or 3. Menards. About 98% of all projects can be created from one or 2 of those 3 locations. Your You Tube channel is most helpful and informative one I have found. Keep up your fantastic content. I learn something new every time I watch! Great Job Fitzee!
Genius of an idea to build the homemade vent fan. Highly impressed. The tips were good
Tony - I don't have a garage, but I do park in an underground parkade, and I have a 5'x8' shed. Parkade has smoke alarms. I want to do some welding in the winter. I only got a flux core welder which is basically a smoke monster. So I figured out a system last week. It's a box fan, with a furnace filter that's held in place by the fact that the fan is turned on and sucking in air. No room for a whole box inside the little room, but, the one filter and waiting 5 minutes after welding cleans the air well enough that there's no smoke when I open the door. Huge difference in my winter blues by being able to tinker on stuff without having to haul tools and temporarily borrow a friend's garage or work outdoors. I'm getting tons done! Brackets and assemblies and anything not on the body of the car itself.
Beautiful build, Tony. One improvement would have been to think of the fan as just a thick filter and give it a channel of its own to easily slide in and out of for cleaning and service. Maybe even mount the whole unit on a bearing at the ceiling so you can pivot it around the room to better help when you are working in different areas of the garage.
had similar concept idea once, a long time ago, by using either corrugated drainpipe or possibly PVC along the perimeter of garage, pulling air up and in from all sides piped into similar box when I had ideas of some sort of a half-assed filtering system :)
also similar, another concept idea for a down-draft system around the base of a DIY paint booth as you made yourself. :) - Meh, crazy ideas you come up with when your younger :)
keep up the amazing videos, always looking forward to both of your channels! Regards...👍
great work Tony
When you were grinding out that circle with the angle grinder, it reminded me of a time when we were setting up a display and the boss was scratching his head on how to cut a circle in a piece of plywood, because all we had was a circular saw. I got the saw and cut out the circle using the tip of the blade, just like you did with the angle grinder and the boss was amazed that it worked.
Great stuff Fitzee. I had to leave the garage for a few minutes just the other day due to fumes. I also dont want to open the window in the winter! I'll have to take a look at something similar.
Looks great ,! Can’t wait to see how much dust is collected.
A guy can never have enough fresh air. Good deal Fitz! 😉✌
i built a similar setup but used a steel service cart that i pulled out of a dumpster for the base, used the blower from my old furnace/AC and (2) 20x20x2 filters. makes a good mobile cart to put stuff on and it filters the smoke out of the air. and i use the used filters from the house so i only have to buy them once.
Hi Tony, it's a good idea to have the cleanest possible air in the shop.
A simple and good addition to your garage.
Cheers
👍💪✌
Fitz - wanna move some air and have less noise, hang a squirrel cage up there. Grab an old one out of a furnace, you can go to a heating - cooling biz and they'd probably give it to you. Get a good sized one and hook up a variable speed switch, then if you really wanna crank it up you got the power.
Another great idea , good tips 👍
I have a small shop about 100 square feet where I often weld small jobs. I put an exhaust fan in the top of one of the walls and with the door open, the fumes get sucked out and the fresh air comes in through the door. It never gets below freezing here in this part of Queensland Australia, so I don't have to heat my shop in winter.
Nicely done.
Great job Tony
A great idea ,thanks for sharing ! The method for cutting the circle is brillant, way easier to get the arc true.
I’ve built filters like this from plywood for filtering sawdust on my construction jobs, works well
Hi Tony. That looks like a great addition for the shop. You never know what is in the welding/grinding/etc. dust and its best not to breathe it. I like the design using easy to find furnace filters!
Very cool tony. Hope it works out great for you
That was great seeing how you cut the circle for the fan inlet! Great use the bench and klecko's
Cutting off the cord 😂. Boy if I had a dollar for every time I have done something like that!
WOW! Mr. tony you blow my mind sometimes you cut a circle with a grinder that was cool
Nice job! You’ve got me thinking about doing something similar. You voided the warranty on that fan though. Id love to see you at the customer service desk with it if it stops working!
Well done Fitzee, and timely too! I've been wanting to build one of these myself, but on casters, so I can roll it around the floor and get it near to where I'm working. My hope is it will pick up grinding dust at the bench and also dust from bondo, primer and occasional wood dust. The plan is to have filters on all 4 sides, with the fan mounted on top blowing straight up. If floor level doesn't work, then maybe on a 3 or 4 foot stand, still on casters for mobility. It will be interesting to see which one works best, down low or on the ceiling.
I like that project a lot. Easily made with basic tools. Great idea!
Nice work 🤙
Cutting the hole out was genius.
Very cool idea
You probably are aware of the products, but thought I would mention, that tack adhesives for filters are readily available to aid filter efficency. Some are scented and more expensive, which I don't think would be useful for you. Keep up the useful content Tony. Cheers!
Tony! Do something with that windshield!! I cracked an F100 windshield storing it like that. It split top to bottom on the inner layer in the middle.
I built a very similar system in my shop maybe 14 years ago. It has been a good deal for me and Id bet youll be happy too
It absolutely doesn’t matter matter. What the content of your video is you do an amazing job.
i change my furnace filter in the garage once a month minimum, sometimes once a week. You can see a colour difference after about two hours on a new filter. I`m in Alberta, and a wall fan with an open door is not optimal for temperature control in winter or summer. I also started vacuuming instead of sweeping at clean-up time, really cut down on airborne dust.
Good idea.
Quite ingenius, TY for the time, the instructions and the idea.
I am sorry Mr fitzzee your services are no longer needed as a metal fabricator you are now needed As a Professional woodworking Professor Bill the deaf man can woodworker from Kansas
Lol, that's ok Fitzee, the last wire I cut for some stupid reason was plugged into the 20 amp line and boy did I jump! Luckily the cutter was insulated.
Hello Toni
Very good work but you had to Mount it on the floor on a rolling device.
Why i say it the Fan sucks the air and the dust up straight along your mouth and nose .
So you inhale all the stuff you get rid of .
Yes i know another thing in the Shop rolling around.
But look at the New kitchenstoves with the Ventilation right in the middle of the Stove sucking the fumes Down not up.
Best wishes a good week
Yours Frank
Lungs are among my favorite organs.
You’ll want to use the pleated filters, a big upgrade and not much more.
If your house filters were the same, every month switch them out to the shop to finish filling them with dust.
Nice!👍
awesome
A work of art, like usual but if I were doing it, I would have made all the filters serviceable without moving the ladder. (all from one side)
I was hoping you left the switch on the bottom. Side could work too
Cheap cooking spray on the filters. Doing for years on house furnace filters....Amazing how much more gets trapped...Change out filters more frequently. Enjoy your postings... cheers
I would be inclined to push the air in to the filters . thinking is, maybe there's less turbulence to blow the air around the shop . I don't know, just random thought.
You always want to draw air in through the air filters. It will give you a more balanced differential pressure across the filters and make it last longer. The plus point is clean air goes across your electric motors, so more reliability and less cleaning of the motor.
It won't work that way, you have to think in terms of a vacuum , the idea is to trap dust on the outside of the filter by drawing it in from the inside.
All residential and commercial HVAC and portable air purifiers, air exchangers work on the same principle.
It's a lot easier to push air than to suck air. It's hard to generate any suction, hence adding 4 filters so there's 1/4 the air resistance. You'd never want it to hit the fan first. The motor and blades would gum up with smoke. Tony did it the correct way. No one does it the other way, it'd be foolish.
@@MattsAwesomeStuff The point of adding 4 times the air filter surface area is to reduce the speed of air passing through it. Less speed means less pressure loss. Less speed means the particles don’t shoot through but have to work around all the filter fibres and then get caught.
Nice Work. Looks Great.
#STAYSAFE
#PHILLYPHILLY 🇺🇸
I see that you don't use a welding helmet very much, how come you never fry your face? I weld for just a little while without a helmet and I get a sun burn.
Ot happens if I do alot. Bad habbit
He'll probably will make a metal welding helmet from scrap steel in the next installment 😆
I use sun tan lotion because I get burnt too.
Now all you need is a switched outlet to power the unit. Fitzee FAn ! LOL
Cheap cooking spray on the filters. Doing for years in house furnace....Amazing how much more gets trapped...Change out filters more frequently. Enjoy your postings... cheers
There goes the last of that filing cabinet.., it morphed into a rudimentary HVAC unit...good job brother, I have no doubt that it will remove a good portion of swirling micron dust, while recirculating warm air, Its up out of the way and it can't hurt to try.
Sir.. I have those same filter in my home furnace. A tip old timer gave me was to spray your filter with any cheap cooking spray. Me thinks it'll work for you. If already suggested I missed it. I do look forward to your postings.... Cheers
That's a great idea Tony. Thank you for sharing, stay safe regards to Wendy.😊
I have been contemplating putting in an exhaust fan like you have but have the same issue with below zero weather conditions most of the winter. Great idea thank you sir. Another informative video👍
Hi Tony, great idea. If you partially remove one of the filters while the fan gets up to speed the box fan it will last longer. Rick
Awesome job! Can't wait to see how it does for you! I need to Build one for my little shop to help with the smoke and Dust! You always do Awesome work!
Hi Fitzees 🇺🇸, smart solution the building the boxfan👍🏻,the the circel cutt solutution is also smart😉👏 I use the same whenn i I will have a perfect circle.well-done🙏🏻.Greetings Hubertus🇳🇴👍🏻☮🇺🇸
This is a great idea!! I have a couple of left over queen size bed rails that might just work, as well. I'll be looking into building one of these soon!
Nice job Fitzee. I put something like that in my shop (I'm a plywood guy) and it made a world of difference!
The box fans and filter work great. I use the foam window ac filters as a pre filter for them cause i was going through the panel filters too fast. I swear though Fitzee, every time i watch you i can smell and taste what youre working on lol
I taped the 20" fillters on my 20" fan and noticed how offend it gets dirty. Your going to be surprised how well that will work. You might want to even use the slower speed because of the noise. Once you change the filters you will remember how much of that you were breathing it before.
Well done!
Cool project Tony. Thanks for sharing.
Will be very interesting to see the filters after they run for a bit. Please do an update when it comes time to do a filter change. Great job.
👍