007 :: making an air extractor

Well then, the disadvantages of working in an enclosed room are? Bad air circulation. Lets change that by first having the ability to remove bad air.

Pictured on the right is a surplus NIDEC gamma series blower. Really powerful centrifugal fan, however i wasnt able to get my hands on the exact PDF for this bloke. Assuming from the same series of data available, it should be able to move air at about 23-28CFM (assuming 2300-2700rpm). This item was obtained for about USD12, 10 years ago i remember doing something similar, and this item was really new, I had to splurge like over USD50 for 1 pc (ouch).

The construction idea is to create 2 buffer chambers, 1 for intake and 1 for output. So that the 2 chambers being regular shaped, i can then fasten the flat surfaces to window openings and create regular ports for air flow easily. The chambers are made from regular disposable plastic food containers, they are really flimsy, but is really cheap and can be disposed off when required (too dirty to clean?). I think each of these is about 40cents.

By running in a flexible washing machine pipe (or even pipes), i can then allocate specifically spots to extract foul air from. Example : soldering stations, 3d printers, etc.

i have pre-treated the bonding surfaces by giving it a good rub (very coarse grade glass paper). the surfaces are really messed up now. the glassy glue needs the rough surface to bond well.

So here we see the 2 air buffer chambers from another angle. A very small hole for the fan power (this 24vdc nidec blower comes with 4 cables, and the white/yellow i presume are for motor RPM feedback and can be left un-used)

 another view from the fan side

And a view showing the "glassy" glue, this portion is the lid of the PP food container. it is glued to the corrugated sheet surface, which goes onto the window (covering the entire opening).

after about 2 hours, nothing has given way. the glue did not peel back like it did before. a rubber band was added later to "pull" the entire assembly to the main frame which sits on the window.

4 years later ... its still here

2 impeller/centrifugal fans
4 large food containers (to isolate air chambers)
1 plastic corrugated sheet (seal the window)
some amount of good glue
power supply