Hi, on The Woodpecker this week , I'm making a dust fiterinng system.
My workshop is covered with dust. It's everywhere.
Even on my nice shelves. I'd like to do something about it....
I have had a patreon page for a little bit more than a year now and one of my goals is, if I have enough patronage, to buy a dust filtering system.
But with only ten patrons, by the way thank you very much to all of them, I won't be able to afford one before I get sick...
This is the reason why I looked for used, force air blower fans.
I want to put two dust filters; one on each side of the air intake, just like this.
First thing's first, I need to take some
measurements and draw something.
The red parts will be wood and the green parts will be openings to let the air inside.
Since I want to join the box with finger joints, I need to start by making a jig for that.
The first thing I do, is cut a square hole.
Now that I have a hole, I need a key to fill it.
So I rip a piece of maple.
When I try it, it's obvious that it's too wide; I need to fix this.
Now it's perfect. I need to glue it in place.
I leave that aside to dry, taking care to make sure it's square.
While the glue dries, I cut all the sides for both boxes.
I have a lot of cuts to make, but it's not that bad after all.
Now I'm ready to finish the jig.
This is really simple; I just have to put a setup block, the same size as the router bit,
beside the key and from behind, I mark where the holding screws will be.
So after drilling some pilot holes, I can screw the jig in place.
And cut two test pieces.
Humm, when I try this, I can see it's not working...
The jig moved while I screwed it the first time.
I fix this and cut another test piece.
Now it's perfect; I can cut all the sides.
It's quite simple; the first cut is done by pushing the pieces up to the key and by cutting the first finger.
Next, I lay the hole I just made on top of the key and cut another finger.
I do that until all the fingers are cut.
When I'm done, I try a dry fit.
I use this opportunity to try one blower inside.
And one filter. This will be perfect.
I use the actual filter to trace the part I need to cut.
Then I measure the right width and mark what I need to cut. Then I can cut all the pieces.
When I'm done, I'm ready to glue it all, but I want to draw my logo on the filters,
so I need to paint those piece beforehand.
But the paint is too thick to be sprayed, so I dilute it with varnish.
After a good stir, I can use the spray gun.
I spray two coats like that.
When the paint is dry, I draw my logo on the first one.
This does a very nice job; I just need to make a couple of touch ups here and there.
But this also destroys my felt pen...
I'll try to do better for the rest.
I'm going to make a device to apply some pressure but also follow the unevenness of the wood.
I begin by using my biggest hole saw and drilling a hole in a piece of scrap.
The hole should be the same size as the router motor;
so I need to enlarge it.
Step one. Now I need to remove a small part.
That way, I'm able to clamp the piece onto the motor.
Now I need to find the size of my pen;
but it's not straight. I drill a hole anyway.
I rub the pen with wax, and put the pen in place;
then I can fill the gap with epoxy.
The next day, I remove the pen.
I drill two pilot holes and, to apply some pressure on the pen, I add an elastic band.
And this is how everything will work.
Now I can draw the rest.
While it's drawing on one side, I do some touch up elsewhere.
After a while, I'm ready to begin to glue the boxes.
This is quite simple; a little bit of glue and then everything goes together.
Last thing to do, is to put clamp pressure.
To check if it's square, I use the actual filter.
I don't have enough clamps to clamp two boxes at once,
so while I wait for the glue to dry, I make a base for the blower that doesn't have one.
I begin with the sides.
After drilling the mounting holes, I can measure the bottom and cut it.
Now I just need to assemble all the pieces together.
Finally both blowers have a base now,
this means I can remove my clamps.
And glue the second box.
The next day, the glue is dry, but some of my fingers are less than perfect...
To fill this, I make a mix of glue and dust and push this paste into the small gaps.
While this dries, I work on the inside of the boxes.
I begin by putting a blower inside.
With it inside, I can figure where to put the wood strips under the base.
After cutting them, I mark where they should go and glue the strips in place.
I can also straighten the sides of the boxes.
I also need to mark the hole which will throw out the filtered air.
To do so, I put the blower in place and trace around the output port.
Next, I drill small holes on each corner.
Now, I can use those holes to trace the shape of the hole from the outside.
So after drilling some holes to let the jigsaw blade through, I cut those holes.
Now, I need to work on the bottom of the filter.
I begin by measuring what I need and cut thin pieces of plywood.
For the horizontal part, I glue together some finger joints I made, to help me clamp the boxes.
I don't want to waste this nice plywood; it's too expensive.
While the glue dries, I can glue some small pieces of wood to hold the bottom strips in place.
Now that my wood paste is dry, I can sand the excess.
Humm, I still have some gaps here and there.
This time I use regular wood paste; this will dry quicker.
The glue of the finger joints glue-up is now dry, I need to sand this nice.
This will look just like that;
the only thing I need to do is to glue all the pieces in a L shape.
But nothing is preventing the filters from being pushed down the box; I fix that right away.
I begin by tracing where I want the filter to stop.
And glue wood strips.
Now I'm ready to finish painting the boxes. But before that, I need to cover my nice drawings.
And like last time, I dilute the paint and spray two coats on the rest of the boxes.
When the paint is dry, I remove the masking tape and spray one coat of varnish on top of everything,
even on the inside.
Now that the finish is dry, I can prepare myself for the final assembly.
I begin by marking the placement of the blowers' fixing screws and drill some pilot holes;
but I don't screw them in place yet.
Then the holes for the bottom of the filters.
I also staple some screen in front of the blowers' output.
If you're asking yourself why I install some screen there, well, I sometime have birds inside the shop; this might be cute, but it's also messy.
This one is one of the lucky ones, I opened the window to let it out.
The previous one was not that lucky; here's what's left of it...
It's not a pretty site. I know, sorry...
But it's because of Renée's killer.
Now mini pinschers will be the next breed that Montreal's mayor will ban on his territory.
But if you're asking yourself how a bird can make it inside the shop, well it's quite simple.
During the summer, there's a big gap under the front door; enough for a bird to walk inside.
But during the winter, I add this sill under the doors.
But the installation is not complete yet. I still need some hardwood washers to screw the boxes in place.
Now I can put the filter boxes in place.
I lay the empty boxes directly on the tie beams.
Then I screw them in place.
Next, come the blowers.
And it's their turn to get screwed in place.
Next step; the electricity.
One plug is always hot and the other can be turned off or on with a switch;
just in case I need to change my setup in the future.
Then I screw a plug at the end of the motor wires.
But I have one small problem; I have no place for a wire to go...
This is an easy fix.
Done.
But to screw the electrical boxes at the bottom of the filter, I need to add a piece of wood.
To keep the blocks in place, I spread some epoxy and nail them in place.
Then I can screw the boxes.
And try it for the first time.
Ok this is working just fine; I can install the filters now.
I begin with the back ones.
Because of the rafters, I have to put the filter before the wood bottom.
Next I can install the controller and the other bottoms.
And with this last filter, my installation is complete.
I think I can change my patreon goal now, but with such a small amount of patrons, I have a lot of time to think about my next goal.
I'm really happy with my two new filters.
They work great and because of them, you'll be able to see me, probably even for several more years, on The Woodpecker.
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