Imagine that you could do that dumpster diving the Kennedy Space Center 
Things are not as freewheeling there as it once was but they manage to still get amazing stuff. Only the bulk items show up online, the real finds take a personal visit but all for a lot less than you would normally pay.
Thanks for posts about your set-up with the compact air filter - great info. I particularly like the use of the quick connect hose. Where is the clean air from the filter exhausted? I’m hoping that the limited space in my workshop won’t be a problem…
There are some small fins on the sides of the filter at the bottom…the clean air just shoots straight down at the floor. (You will need about 2 inches space on either side of the unit.)
Any idea on how often the filter needs to be changed? Dan said that they still do not have any idea on cost of filters. For a Fumex or Bofa you are looking at $300 and up for the filter. I know its going to depend on what your cutting and how often but just from your testing did you come up with any idea?
Nothing I’d care to guess at yet…I’ve only had it since December. 
I ran a few tests with a jury-rigged pre-filter (that would load without impacting the main filter) and some materials do load up faster. Stay away from draftboard and particle boards, no softwoods like pine or cedar, and oddly enough, padauk causes real loading problems because it has a resinous gunky smoke that deposits on everything and will probably clog. Hardwoods and acrylics are fine. Wenge was fantastic. And of course no load at all on the filter from tile, stone or aluminum.
Some processes load it up faster as well. But still testing, so no…no predictions. It’s really going to depend on what you are using it for and what you are burning.
thanks.
Sounds good. Thanks for the info!
I have found that Oak causes the worst resin buildup , even as the strength / availability counters any arguments making me not use it. Padauk , Maple, and Walnut stand up best that I can cut half inch material without it turning to ash or even severe burning. I have not used all that much Padauk so may just not have experienced it as much, but those do best in the simple cutting test.
I have not had occasion to cut Wenge at all as yet.
Yeah, I haven’t got any oak to test here. (I’m surprised that causes a lot of resin though, I might have to try to get some for testing.)
Oak Plywood is my go-to for strong ply. BB is good when I can get clean material, but near $0.50 a Glowforge size sheet and good strength and few knots or “Filler” it ranks at the top pf my plywood preferences, Revolution Plywood is cheaper but is good on one side and much weaker.
For easy to get large pieces of solid wood Poplar and oak are easiest at Lowes as well.
I wonder if we can even get oak HW here…we’ve got mostly the softwoods like pine (and pine, and did I mention…pine) at the stores here.
Lowes has “craft lumber” that is Poplar and Oak from 1/4" to 1" thick and 2 to 8" wide and either 24 or 48 inches long. The 24" long pieces are almost the same price as 48" so I tend to go there though In all of it I have to be picky about not knots.
You know, i never thought to check the craft section…usually when i go to the hardware store it’s for pressure treated “putting in a new deck” lumber. I’ll have to try to find it. (All we had here last time I looked was some birch ply, and that stuff was awful.)
In the full size plywood area is usually birch (awful for sure) Oak (need to pick through and then I have them cut it into 5 -19x48 slices) Revolution plywood was $15 a full sheet similarly cut and no knots on top and few on bottom. in half sheets there is “lauan” Mahogany that is very pretty on both sides but the nice wood unmeasurably thin. In full wood they had Spruce , Poplar, and Oak full wood great for furniture but not a lot 1/4" thick and none under that.
Reading all the comments on filters, and never using one myself, it got me thinking. Since filters cost so much to replace, is there a possibility of having a super cheap layer that you can add that catches a lot of the gunk, and then have the more expensive filter after that, so the gunk is caught on the cheap one, and you could just replace that one more frequently, helping the expensive one last longer? I know, really bad run on sentence. 
But not seeing a filter like this in person, my brain is showing me something that looks like a food dehydrater, with a bunch of layers the air is forced through. Thoughts?
Maybe.
A couple of us testers were noodling around with using pre-filters. The one I was using was too small (deliberately) so I could run some short tests without wrecking the main filter. One of the other testers is testing another pre-filter to extend the main filter life.
And obviously, there’s no results yet on that one so…at this point it might be possible to use some sort of commercially available pre-filter. But we haven’t had them long enough to tell yet.
They sell washable filters at grocery stores even either as Foam or (looks like green plastic roots) that are designed to be washed frequently, and re-used. I have always had them in front of the AC filters and it helps a lot there.
If you are cutting a lot of leather and acrylic that are more smell than chunks it might not help a lot, but if cutting a lot of MDF or Oak etc then they could help plenty.
I propose a new unit of smell concentration the “Dan”. “The tanker train derailment, produced a chemical spill was at least 50 Dans in magnitude”
Love this…hilarious!
I like the idea of this, depending on the price and availability of the filters for it…
Who will we buy the filters from? GF?
I wonder if we can put a box in between the GF and this filter and use some cheap furnace filters as a pre-filter? I do this with my Trotec and it saves a lot of money on the expensive Trotec filters.
We just built a wooden box with a 4inch in, room for 2 filters, and a 4 inch out.
Any thoughts?