With other projects out of the way (the ones I used the cherry on), this weekend I finally got to the Jet air cleaner. Several of you said I should hang it, and while I pondered that I realized that I needed to determine the best height.
My shop has a 16' ceiling in the clerestory, and I routinely run a ceiling fan to keep the hot hair from pooling up there. I have a fan located about 5 feet from each end of the shop, and the heat pump is located at the far end (from the garage). The pump puts out hot air, which of course rises, and then the fan at the near end blows it down at the other end of the shop.
Theoretically then, there should be an air flow from the far to the near end at some height. I needed to see where that was so I could put the cleaner in the flow. To do this I taped some tissue paper strips to an extendable pole and held the pole up:
High position, above the 12' level (the 2x4's spanning the clerestory are at 12' over the floor).
Low position, below 12'.
Clearly the air flow is there and it's high up. Since I didn't want to hang the cleaner too far from the ceiling, I decided to mount it on the cross members.
I added one more cross members so that the platform would be fully supported. While I was up there I changed out the ballast of one of my florescent light sets. (Of my original fixtures, 4 of the 8 have died in just over 7 years. Fine Chinese craftsmanship.)
Next I added the platform. This is just a piece of half inch ply screwed to the cross members. The rope is for the next step.
The plan was for me to push the cleaner up the ladder, while my son pulled on the rope to help lift it. This worked. But I still found it alarming. Even though the cleaner isn't that heavy, I didn't want the weight coming down on me. My son is autistic, and I really had to emphasize to him not to let go of that rope!
Once over the lip of the platform, the box started tilting down into place. I was able to control the drop successfully without a big crash. I added the foam pads that came with the cleaner, then screwed it lightly to the platform so it wouldn't move.
I didn't get any pics of the electrical. You can see the cord snaking over to an outlet. I added this, and wired the outlet back to the junction box between the two lights on the left. This required several trips up and down ladder. I tested that the circuit was off, then turned the lights back on to complete most of the work.
At one point I got a tingle off the wire I was working with.
Pro tip: If you're going to be stupid with electricity, especially on the top of a ladder, do it with 120v. The wire I was working on was on the same circuit as the lights, and I forgot to turn them off to do the final hookup. (So don't give me all that stuff about how 240v heats your tea faster.
)
I also bought a washable furnace filter and added a magnetic rig to hold it in place over the Jet filter. The Jet filter is held in with nice clips, but there's no way I'm getting up there to clean it all the time. My new filter can be hooked with my window opening pole from the floor level.
So that was my busy weekend. No woodworking, but I got a lot done in the shop, plus putting up some hooks to hold more clamps and sanding belts.
Kirk