Creative Woodworks & crafts 2002-06, страница 56

THE SHOP-VAC® PORTABLE AIR CLEANER

by Dirk Boelman

A large amount of sawdust was trapped on the mesh filter, which is located just inside the grille. This filter is a charcoal gray to black color without dust on it.

Next, we remove the filter retainer, exposing the end of the inner two-stage filter, and more sawdust!

Here are the other filters being removed. The outer foam filter is aimost completely covered with dust. It too is dark gray to black in color when clean.

shop rag and even a T-shirt, and was equally impressed by how much suction/draw was created by the unit. The common denominator is that this Shop-vac - Portable Air Cleaner moves a lot of air through it and the three-stage filtering process traps an amazing amount of sawdust. Here's proof. The three photos included here show the air cleaner being opened up after only eight hours of scroll sawing.

In addition to the dust clinging to the filters, quite a bit of sawdust had also accumulated hi the tank. It really surprised me that there could be so much dust collected in such a short amount of time! The filters can easily be cleaned by vacuuming or rinsing with water, and as the photos show they arc very easy lo remove. The dust that accumulates in the tank can be dumped out in the yard or placed in a bag for disposal.

As for portability, as the name implies, the unit only weighs fifteen pounds! I set it on a stand next to my scroll saw, but it is designed to also be mounted 011 a wall or hung from a ceiling if desired. It conies with a generous 12' long cord, so it easily reached everywhere inside my small shop. T moved it around on the floor while I swept up and it did a great job catching that pesky dust that the broom stirred up in the air. I also sat it up on a cardboard box al the end of my belt sander where it did a terrific job collecting more dust.

In my opinion, the Shop-vac* Portable Air Cleaner would be a great addition to everyone's scroll saw shop. It's not designed to catch all of the sawdust you produce (you should still utilize vacuum systems and other dust collection devices), but it will capture a bunch more ol' that pesky sawdust that otherwise finds its way into your eyes, nose, mouth and lungs. Tt works great, and does it quietly!

For more information, see Seyco's ad on page 55. JS-i

Always on the lookout for better ways to reduce the amount of sawdust floating around my shop, I recently spotted the NEW Shop-vac® Portable Air Cleaner. Perhaps some of you have seen it advertised too. and had the same initial thought 1 did, "It probably SCREAMS!" 1 expected it to be every bit as noisy as my old Shop-vac®'' vacuum cleaner that I've been using for years to clean up around my shop. Well, much to my surprise, it is really very quiet! As a matter of fact, I am so impressed by its quietness that I've actually hauled a couple dozen people into my shop already, just to turn it on for them so they could share my amazement.

I've given the unit a good workout, and am equally impressed by its performance. Besides being quiet, il is extremely lightweight and easy lo move around. It also does a terrific job of collecting airborne sawdust particles. Opening it up after about eight hours of operation, 1 was really amazed by the amount of dust collected in the filters and tank.

The air cleaner utilizes a three-stage filter system to capture dust particles from air that is drawn through the unit by a rear-mounted fan. According to the manufacturer's specifications, it filters the air in a 17' x 17' x 8' shop every ten minutes (235 cfm). Now I didn't have any way to "scientifically" measure the air flow, but the fan inside looks to be about seven inches in diameter, with five blades, and believe me it really moves a lot of air out the back of the unit. By-doing so, the draft/intake created at the front is quite strong.

To test it, I first tossed sawdust in front of the unit and it was almost entirely drawn inside. It also drew a sheet of paper toward it from almost two feet away, and it will grab and hold the paper in place from four or five inches in front. It had the same effect on a 12" x 12" piece of 1/8" birch plywood which it held tight against the grille too. I also tried a

56 • Creative Wuodworks & Crafts Junn 2002