Hi Tim,
IMHO it would be a costly exercise that will not do the job. The real solution
for you is to prevent the fine dust from becoming airborne, otherwise you are
going to be breathing it until the room filter captures it. The air purifier
will capture the fines but will clog quite quickly and as you know the price of
HEPA filters for those little guys is high. The idea of capturing all the dust
before it becomes airborne is a worth target but never really achieved.
In my shop I have a Oneida cyclone dust collector plus a 1350 CFM air filter
and some dust still makes it up stairs to the living area where I have an air
purifier.
I think the solution in your case might be a battery powered air purifying
respirator. The better ones are not all that uncomfortable to wear for extended
periods. Cheers, JG


Ellestad wrote:

Has anyone considered using a consumer "air purifier" to eliminate dust in a
small shop?

I have a small shop (no remedy) and vasomotor rhinitis (no cure). My sinuses
and nasal passages are hypersensitive to various stimuli including the
ultra-fine dust created in a woodworking shop. Oil-burning exhaust, perfume,
cleaning solution oderants, cookies baking - all sorts of things that most
people aren't affected by (I know, some of them smell good) are like
snorting battery acid to me.

A fair amount of the culprit particulates that get to me are too small to be
trapped by the typical shop dust filtering systems that I have looked into
(also, most of these systems are simply too large to be installed in my
small area). So I am considering one of the larger consumer "air purifiers"
on the market. Any comments or experiences?

The HEPA filtration that is a part of these units would be a plus point for
me but I am a little skeptical about the capacity of the filters in these
units when put to use in a woodworking shop. Any discussion of the limits of
these filters?

I do use a P100 mask when I am cutting and I use vacuum dust collection on
the tools but that doesn't catch a lot of this fine stuff and I don't want
to have to wear the mask full time in the shop.

Thanks in advance for any info.

Tim