Old project migrated from some other place that shall remain nameless.
Original Project Info: I needed an air cleaner for my shop and decided to build versus buy. The only real costs I had in this project was the motor, the filters, and the remote unit. The oak plywood and most of the solid oak used for the trim and face frames was all donated by my dad to use building them a new cabinet for above their new fridge.
The small blower motor is rated at 1.28 AMPS and 463 CFM. It's not a beast by any means but in a 500 sq ft shop with MERV 13 filters it should still be capable of changing the air once an hour at a bare minimum.
Construction is pretty simple. It's basically made up of face frames joined together in a box shape with a top and bottom. In the third image you can see some metal strips running vertically on each side of the filter. The outer face frames have counter sunk magnets, 6 on each frame, and simply magnet in place. Filter changes are a breeze. Pop a face off, swap a filter, and pop it back on.
The remote unit is nothing fancy either. Simple $20 dollar plug-in model I found on Amazon with on/off, 30 min, 1 hr, 2 hr, and 4 hr timers on it. In the last image you can see it on a cheap D-clip thing with my Jet DC remote.
I have the remote box plugged in to an outlet that sits inside the air cleaner.
The motor came with only 2 bare wire leads which just wasn't pretty enough for me so I loomed and heat shrunk that. The switch plugs into the remote outlet from an extension cord I cut to the desired length with a little extra in a service loop just in case.
I decided to put the remote box inside the cleaner because it kept it out of the way of any other outlets in the shop. The box isn't exactly small. In the future when the shop is rewired I plan to put in more smart controls. This cleaner will most likely get a z-wave smart outlet installed so I can use my home automation to turn it on and off based on specific shop conditions. For example if most of the time I use the same outlet for my sanders I can make that a smart outlet. If current is detected then I can make a rule to auto turn on the air cleaner.
I don't have a air quality meter yet so I have no actual proof but 30 min of the cleaner running and the air smells fresher in the shop so I'm assuming it works pretty well. An air quality meter is on my wish list though so I will know for sure in the future.
Additional Info after 2 years in service: I love this thing. The remote feature is amazing and I use the crap out of this filter. The one thing I should have done was put a bottom lip for the filters to rest on. The magnets hold fine unless I'm running the planer a lot. The vibrations make the face frames start to slide down a a 1/2" or so. None of them have ever come off but its still annoying and something I shouldn't have overlooked in the design.
Solid design. And using it as a tool cart at least helps with the space savings. I had planned to do something similar, but ended up just hanging two WEN cleaners from the rafters. They are tied together with automation, which works great!
Ryan/// ~sigh~ I blew up another bowl. Moke told me "I made the inside bigger than the outside".
Sansoo....Where did you get your wheels on the bottom? I put wheels on my Dewalt planer cart I made up and I put wheels on it like your filter system, but the little tabs to lock the wheels on mine are much smaller and I have to fiddle with them to get them to unlock. Yours look so much easier to deal with because the lock / unlock tabs are much larger. I like that they lock both the rotation of the wheels but also the swivel but mine are a pain to unlock.
