New homemade hood
 

I recycled the box and filters from last year, and set up this new hood in a few hours. The box is just a plastic storage bin with some sides cut out, I used 2 different 3M Filtrete air duct filters (I found a good one, then I found a better one so I use both in a series), a normal house fan, trash bags and tape. I mounted it all on a large plastic sheet for convenience if I need to move it, but it is not necessary. The most important part of this style of hood is to make sure that there is a tight seal between the box and the filters and between filters and the front of the fan. If the seal is not good at the fan, then there will not be sufficient force to push the air thru the filters, and if the seal is not tight in the region where the filtered air comes out and enters the hood, then it will pull in unfiltered air with it from the environment and contaminate the hood.

Re: New homemade hood
 

Looks good, nice use of duct tape.

Call me old fashioned and possibly wrong, but I thought flow hoods had a Bunsen Burner in the corner creating a convection current and thus keeping contaminants from settling on the plates and so there being no need for fans and filters.

What's the medium in the filters? Activated carbon?

Re: New homemade hood
 

Perhaps thats what they used to do (never heard of it personally), but if I had a bunsen burner in the corner it would be to sterilize the tools, if its a laminar flow hood then the air is already flowing laminarily thru the hood. I dont know the material the filters are made of, but they work on a principle of being very tightly woven with small fibers and are electrostatically charged to pull ionized particles to the fibers.

Re: New homemade hood
 

Here's the filters I use, there are lots of different models with various filtration power.
3M US: Filtrete? Home Filtration Products - High Performance 1? Filters

Re: New homemade hood
 

Gabe, what is the minimum air flow on the hood? 100 cubic feet per minute times area squared from filter?


I have 3 of these Hepas from Ameritech, and in the future(procrastinating.........) build a bigger hood. Probably just one and sell the other 2. They are 2' x 4'................LOL

Re: New homemade hood
 

I have no clue what the airflow is, I just make sure there is enough that a small flame (such as that on a lighter) is constantly being blown sideways without being blown out in all areas of the hood.

Re: New homemade hood
 

Hi,

I just think about also getting into TC and I found this hood which can easily be built at home: Laminar Flow Hood

I'm just asking about the current prices of the filters and the blower to see how much it would cost me. Any suggestions regarding this plan would be helpful.