sealab

Building a homemade charcoal based air filter is really easier than one might think, Today I decided to give it a try and successfully built one that only cost me $15.

The reason for building it was two fold, first off I didn't want my neighbors to ***** about the large plums of smoke coming from my place and secondly I didn't want anyone know realize that I was in the mist of drying. Okay okay so here is how it was done.


Parts list:

[1] pair of scissors
[1] sharp knife/razor blade (exacto knife)
[1] cardboard of wooden box about 6" * 5" * 1.5'
[1] bag of Hardwood natural charcoal (found at most natural foods stores) Your run of the mill charcoal will work but not as effectively.
[1] 12 volt fan with AC adapter (You can find the fan on the internet (Just a standard power supply fan) and the ac adapter at radio shack)
[1] roll of duct tape (of course!)
[1] 6" * 30" piece of standard air filter (most hardware stores will have a roll you can cut from)
[1] pen to write with

Attached is the box, tape, fan and adapter, I've left out the filter and charcoal.

Attached Images

inventory.gif (134.4 KB, 396 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

First make sure you've fully taped the box on the under shut. We don't want any charcoal leaking out along with air. Next place the fan on the side of the box. Using your pen trace out the INSIDE of the fan housing. Once you have a good circle begin cutting

Attached Images

step1.gif (89.0 KB, 227 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Now that we've got our hole lets mount the fan. In my case my fan came with a little guard thingy to keep fingers from getting in there. What I did was I used it on the in side of the box (where the charcoal will be) to hold the fan on. The fan also came with screws which I just screwed right through the cardboard into the fan mounting holes

Attached Images

step2.gif (91.2 KB, 215 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Here is another shot of the in side of the box and how I mounted the fan.

Attached Images

step2.1.gif (94.0 KB, 226 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Cut your exhaust on the other side of the box, Be sparing with this because it needs to be bigger than the input hole. You also want to leave enough room around the edges that your air filter will not pop out

Attached Images

step3.gif (95.6 KB, 256 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Filling the box with the charcoal. This is pretty easy to do. The reason why I like to use natural hardwood charcoal is because it has (over all) more surface area than those ****ty little bricks you get. I try to keep it pretty even from small to large pieces. I want to allow air flow but I want to make sure that all the air sufficiently passes through the charcoal so we can remove as much of the odor as possible before allowing it to exit the filter.

Also as you can see I've placed the air filter on the exhaust side of the box to keep the charcoal bits from spilling out.

Attached Images

step4.gif (92.8 KB, 358 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Sorry forgot to post a picture of the air filter.. Here you go.

Attached Images

airfilter.gif (101.5 KB, 236 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Make sure your air filter is nice and tight to the edges of the in side of the box. You don't want to allow any charcoal bits to come out (they can be mighty messy)

Attached Images

step5.gif (76.7 KB, 165 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Close the box up and tape all the edges well. The only place air should enter is from the intake end with the fan on it and the only place air should exit is through the exhaust filter on the other side of the box.

From this point you could do other things like putting drier hose on the intake/exhaust ends and dumping them to another filter (like a heppa filter) I use the fan housing to connect the system to my grow chamber in the other room via drier hose.. Well you get the picture.

Attached Images

step6.gif (90.2 KB, 165 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.

sealab

Here is the finished product.. All and all not a bad $15 if I do say so my self. The system is VERY quite and uses almost zero power to run so i'm very happy with how it turned out.. Please feel free to ask questions comments or suggestions.

Attached Images

finished_product.gif (90.4 KB, 269 views)

__________________
Blowing smoke is a hobbie, Don't you know? Look at our government.