Make An Air Cleaner / Planer Cart

I made a planer cart that's also an air cleaner using an old blower and some filters! All it took was some scrap plywood. It's amazing how much cleaner the air is, and it's great to have a cart for the planer.

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See what tools I use.

Plans for this are available here.

Air Cleaner Plans

My buddy Andrew at MemphisWoodShop wanted an air cleaner so he’s held onto this blower motor for a few years, no judgment Andrew, we all do it. So being a good friend, or at least a friend that needs to make good content. I picked up his blower and some scrap plywood he’s also been keeping for an undisclosed amount of time.

He also wanted to get his planer off the floor, so the goal here is to put some scrap wood to use, get his shop air cleaner, and get his planer up to the same level as his workbench and other tools.

I started by cutting the plywood down to the same length. This is going to be a really simple build, it’s basically just an open ended box with some bracing material.

After I get everything cut down, I drill in some pocket holes to hold the whole thing together.

It’s a bit of a trick to hold sheet goods of any size in place while trying to pocket screw them together, so I recently this right angle fence.. thing, to aid in the process. It’s basically a giant clamping square. I clamp my pieces to it and then screw them together.

I didn’t completely think the next step through. Looking back there’s at least 3 better ways to arrange the material, but I picked the one that puts the most strain on the pocket screws and clamps. Fortunately nothing broke.

To attach the top I clamp my jig to my assembly table and go to town. It gives me something to push against to keep the edge of the top flush with the side panel.

A side note on pieces like this. I always want to see a continuous piece on the top, so the top sits on top of any side pieces. I also like a continuous piece down to the side, so I set the bottom piece between the sides, not the sides on top of the bottom.

The heart of this contraption is the blower, and it needs somewhere to exhaust, so I mark out the right size hole and then drill and jigsaw it out. Of course I realize that jigsawing down is really hard, so I add some more holes so I can cut up.

And if you’re paying attention, you’ll realize that I did all of this with the box upside down.. so I take off the side piece, fix the pocket holes off camera, and then reinstall it the right way. But, if I was an even smarter man I would’ve cut the hole out before I assembled everything in the first place, so yeah… but once I get it flipped around, I add a little cover piece at the bottom.

Then it’s time to add the blower motor. It has holes all around the exhaust port, so I whip together a frame that I can secure to the main box and then screw the blower motor to it, so it’ll be nice and snug and not go anywhere.

Next up I traced where my switch box would go, traced out the hole and cut it out with my jigsaw again.

And for the filter stops, this is just scrap 3/4” plywood. That I glue and brad nail into place.

I’m a firm believer that stuff like this should be mobile, which means casters. Now casters can get pricey, so one of the things I do is pick up the cheap dollies from Harbor Freight when they’re on sale and then take the casters off of them. It’s actually cheaper than buying four casters.

The last construction is adding stops and tabs to hold the filters in place. The tabs are actually some cut up paint sticks that I sanded down to a curve.

I give everything a coat of poly to make it look a bit nicer and give it some protection. I really like the veneer on this top piece.

This will probably annoy some people, but I’m not covering the details of how I wired this. I just followed the wiring diagram on the motor to set it to slow speed and the instructions with my switch/outlet combination so that the outlet is always live for the planer to be plugged into, and the switch just controls the blower. That’s not so he can run both at the same time, that’d probably be too much load, it just saves on how many cords get pulled around.

I added a cover to the exhaust to keep debris and what not out of the motor and also to deflect the air up so it doesn’t stir dust on the ground.

Last, I installed the filters, and was finally able to give it a try, it was a lot quieter than I expected! Then it was time to take it to Andrew’s shop.

I made a planer cart that's also an air cleaner using an old blower and some filters! All it took was some scrap plywood. It's amazing how much cleaner the air is, and it's great to have a cart for the planer.