My Version of Clean Air

Vaughn McMillan

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After Greg posted last week about his new Jet air filtration unit, I decided to finally break down and get one too.

I bought it from Amazon, and had read in their reviews a number of owners had trouble with things being bent during shipping. Well, add another one to the list. When I first plugged it it, the squirrel cage made about a half a revolution, then stopped. I removed the filters and tried spinning it by hand, It turned, but is was scraping as it went around. Since I'd read of a number of people fixing similar problems themselves, I decided to tear it apart and try doing the same. I really didn't want to deal with shipping it back to Amazon.

First step was to remove the squirrel cage and the motor. In their brilliant design, Jet made things so all the electrical connections from the motor attach to the electronic control panel with multi-pin plugs. Except one. :bang: The ground wire was connected with a hard-to-reach spade connection held in place with a nut. To heck with that. Snip. :D

After getting the squirrel cage/motor assembly out of the case, it saw what the problem was. One of the four motor mounts was bent, to the cage was tilted about 1 inch out of plumb with the other three, causing the cage to tilt, and thus rub the side of the blower housing. Without too much trouble, I removed the motor and mount from the cage, and with a few whacks of the dead blow hammer, the mount was bent back to where it was supposed to be. Another 5 minutes or so later, I had it all put back together, plugged it in, and it ran like a top. Nice and smooth. BTW, I added a length of wire and a couple wire nuts to handle the snipped ground wire.

That little glitch out of the way, it was time to hang it. By the way, this thing is bigger than I'd expected. Not terribly heavy, but big. It dwarfs my garage door opener. I ended up drilling through the roof trusses and running long eye bolts through the drywall ceiling and the trusses, with a nut and washer holding them in place. Fortunately, the previous owner left several access holes in the ceiling of the garage, so I was able to position it between two of these holes, allowing me to reach the bolts and nuts holding things in place. After getting the bolts in place, it took a bit of wrestling to get the filter up into position, but I did it in incremental steps, and eventually got it where I wanted it.

Here's the end result:

Jet Filter 1 - 800.jpg Jet Filter 2 - 800.jpg

Here's a shot showing how I went through the roof trusses:

Jet Filter 3 - 650.jpg

I positioned it so the intake is above and behind the lathe, where the majority of dust originates in my shop:

Jet Filter 4 - 500.jpg

Although far from a scientific test, the preliminary results from my Dylos Air Quality Monitor look very promising. When I got done hanging the filtration unit, I turned on the Dylos meter and got a reading of about 20,000/1,500, where the 20,000 represents the number of 0.5 micron particles counted in 10 seconds of sampling, and the 1,500 is the number of 5 micron particles detected in the same period of time. These are very high numbers, according to Dylos. (The 20,000 was uncharacteristically high, since I was smoking a cigarette at the time, and that will easily double the 0.5 micron count.) The filter has now been running for about an hour on medium speed, and I just went and checked the numbers...they are at about 900/2. That's a very significant drop. I don't recall ever seeing the 0.5 micron number below about 8,000 or 9,000 before. When I get a chance, I intend to do some more testing under real woodworking conditions (and without the smoke skewing the results). I think it's going to definitely help reduce the amount of dust on all the flat surfaces in the shop. :thumb:

I'm still not happy about having to completely dismantle a new piece of equipment and beat it with a hammer to make it work. I think I'll see if Amazon is willing to compensate me for my troubles. :rolleyes:
 
Although far from a scientific test, the preliminary results from my Dylos Air Quality Monitor look very promising. When I got done hanging the filtration unit, I turned on the Dylos meter and got a reading of about 20,000/1,500, where the 20,000 represents the number of 0.5 micron particles counted in 10 seconds of sampling, and the 1,500 is the number of 5 micron particles detected in the same period of time. These are very high numbers, according to Dylos. (The 20,000 was uncharacteristically high, since I was smoking a cigarette at the time, and that will easily double the 0.5 micron count.) The filter has now been running for about an hour on medium speed, and I just went and checked the numbers...they are at about 900/2. That's a very significant drop. I don't recall ever seeing the 0.5 micron number below about 8,000 or 9,000 before. When I get a chance, I intend to do some more testing under real woodworking conditions (and without the smoke skewing the results). I think it's going to definitely help reduce the amount of dust on all the flat surfaces in the shop. :thumb:
Now you've got me thinking. :rolleyes: This might just be my next major tool purchase.


I'm still not happy about having to completely dismantle a new piece of equipment and beat it with a hammer to make it work. I think I'll see if Amazon is willing to compensate me for my troubles. :rolleyes:

Yeah..... let us know how that woeks for you. :rofl:
 
vaughn, i have virtually the same set up as yours...same unit with the intake near the lathe. just turn it on when you enter the shop and put it on the timer when you leave. but the intake filter gets dirty quickly and needs to be vacuumed with the shop vac to refresh it every several days. finally that fuzzes up the filtering material. i'd like to find some replacement that would be more permanent and could be washed off.

any ideas??
 
...i'd like to find some replacement that would be more permanent and could be washed off.

any ideas??
No real ideas yet Clark, but I was figuring I'd check out the local home improvement store to see what other 12" x 24" HVAC filter options they might have in stock.
 
I'm still not happy about having to completely dismantle a new piece of equipment and beat it with a hammer to make it work. I think I'll see if Amazon is willing to compensate me for my troubles. :rolleyes:
Yeah..... let us know how that woeks for you. :rofl:

Well, about 30 minutes after sending an e-mail to Amazon Customer Service, they offered to refund 20% of the purchase price ($42). I took them up on the offer.

Let's see...

$229 Amazon price
Less $160 ("found" money from selling a couple unneeded tools)
Less $25 rebate
Less $42 refund
---------------
My net cost: $2

Works for me. ;)
 
I ordered mine last week and its sitting in the living room. I'll install it this weekend. Bothers me that you had the issues that you did. I sure hate buying something then having to repair it to make it work.

I'll post this weekend on my results.

Randy
 
Randy, just be sure to plug it in and try it before you get it hung. That way you can do any "adjustments" with the high-precision dead blow wrench on the bench instead of on top of a ladder.

I think you'll like it. I'll give mine more of a test drive tonight.
 
Vaughn McMillan said:
After Greg posted last week about his new Jet air filtration unit, I decided to finally break down and get one too.


That little glitch out of the way, it was time to hang it. By the way, this thing is bigger than I'd expected. Not terribly heavy, but big. It dwarfs my garage door opener. I ended up drilling through the roof trusses and running long eye bolts through the drywall ceiling and the trusses, with a nut and washer holding them in place.

After getting the bolts in place, it took a bit of wrestling to get the filter up into position, but I did it in incremental steps, and eventually got it where I wanted it.

Here's the end result:

View attachment 18614 View attachment 18615

Vaughn, I know this won't help you since you already have yours hung, but in case there may be others that will have to wrestle a DC (or other bulky item into place by themselves), I will post this.

After you get the 4 eyebolts into the ceiling, install hooks, chains or whatever you intend to use onto the DC body. Then set the unit to be hung on a stand/bench/table directly under the eyebolts in the ceiling. Next, get some 1/4" rope and cut 4 pieces, two that are about twice as long as the distance from the unit to the eyehook, and cut the other two that length PLUS the distance between the eyehooks. Now tie one rope to each of the mounting attachments on the unit, (leaving the chain or hook that will connect to the eyebolts in the ceiling free), and run the ropes through the eyehooks in the ceiling. Two ropes will only go through one eyehook and the other two will go through two eyehooks. This arrangement will have all 4 ropes coming out one side of the unit to be hung. You can then tie the ends of the ropes together and pulling them all together will raise the unit and keep it level. You can tie the 4 ropes off to something and then climb up and hook all 4 hooks/chains/etc to the eyehooks, then release the 4 ropes until the unit is hanging on its own hangers and then untie the 4 ropes from the unit and you're done. If I'm lifting something very heavy, I have some small but strong pullys I got at the local hardware store that I use to make the lifting easier.

I lift all kinds of things using methods like this or other around my shop, because it seems there is NEVER anyone around to help when I need to get something done so I have to do it by myself, and I LIKE "EASY".:D:D

Glad you got your's up with no problems, and I hope this may be of help to someone else, (maybe those trying to lift their new motors and fans up into position for their new cyclones).
 
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My version of clean air

Vaughn, I have the same Jet air filtration unit and have suspended it from
the ceiling joists in much the same manner. The only difference is that I used
3/8" lag hooks screwed deeply into the joists. My unit came with a remote
control feature but the remote does not work. I don't know if the problem is
with the control itself or the unit. I could not find any electronic eye anywhere on the unit. This isn't a problem for me though as my joists are
8' above the floor and the unit hangs down far enough for me to reach the
on-off buttons as well as the speed control buttons. I originally purchased
the unit from my local woodworking dealer to filter the drywall dust generated
while remodeling my house following hurricane rita. I turned the unit on it's
side and rolled it around on a small shop-made mobil cart. It worked like a
charm but we had to continually vacuum the prefilter because it clogged
very quickly. I later replaced this filter with a metal Delta filter which fit it
perfectly. The unit is mounted above my tablesaw and I only have to reach
up with my shop-vac hose to vacuum the prefilter and it's ready to go again.
 
No real ideas yet Clark, but I was figuring I'd check out the local home improvement store to see what other 12" x 24" HVAC filter options they might have in stock.

I have an electro-static filter on my JDS that I really like, it’s the only filter that I have ever bought for it, and they’re well worth the money. When it gets dirty I just hose it off, dry, & reinstall.

I noticed that the Jet doesn’t have a filter on the exhaust side like my JDS, but after thinking about it, I’m not sure why you’d need one if the bag filters are doing their job. :huh:

Congrats Vaughn, you’re going to like it, those things really work well.
 
i'm still interested in replacing the pre filter on my jet shop filter...the one that vaughn bought and this thread is discussing. i found the jds washable prefilter at amazon on sale with free shipping for under $30.

bruce, would you measure your jds prefilter and post the dims? the jet filter is 12x24 x1" and installs from the end without any slop in my unit. i couldn't fit a filter that was even 1/8" larger so it's important to me to not order a mistake.

thanks,
 
OK Reviving this thread......

I'm looking at the Jet Air Filtration System, Model AFS-1000B at Woodcraft (hey, they will ship to me!) it says that is is 62 pounds shipping weight, which is great, as I need it to be under 70 pounds to get a great shipping rate.

My lovely wife has given me the A-OK to buy two of them, she is paying :D

I have a homemade one in the dungeon that uses furnace filters, it works, but, for one it is huge, and it is noisy. I use the DC all the time and my new cycloned vacuum is great, but I figure these two air filters will really be great. Why do I need two, well, the Dungeon is sort of divided at the ceiling level by a large beam in, 2/3 and 1/3 so to speak, I find that with the AC etc, the air does not circulate well from one area to the next, so by putting an air cleaner in each area, I should be way overkilling it :thumb:

But do I really need to over kill it that much?

My shop is 14' x 23' by about 8' tall so a total of about 2600 cubic feet of space, minus all the stuff that take up space in there, so maybe closer to 2200...?? Also my shop runs on 50 hz, not 60, so it will run slower 1/6 slower, so it will be a cleaning at about 870 cfm.....

Let me see, 870 cfm x 60 minutes is 52200 cf of air filtered, so that divided by a conservative number of 2500 cf mean the air in my Dungeon would be cleaned about 20 times an hour..... is that right?

Hmmm.... wonder if I do need two of these... :huh: :dunno:

Thoughts? :wave:
 
Yeah Stu, you need TWO, then, No Worries when you have another Turners gathering in the shop, (in case any of the attendees have been eating that "Outstanding Dish" you guys mentioned in your Meeting Report thread).:rofl::rofl::rofl: (especially if you install a Room Freshner injector in one of them).:thumb:
 
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