Oneida announced a new Benchtop Mini personal dust collector, which is intended to remove dust from rotary tools and other dust-creators that often lack vacuum ports.
The Oneida Benchtop Mini has a dual-filter design, with a blue pre-filter on the outside and MERV 12 inner filter.
The filter has a variable speed control, and can move up to 450 CFM of airflow. Its noise level is 63 dBA at 10 feet.
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According to Oneida’s marketing video, the Benchtop mini dust collector can capture 90% of dust in the 3 to 10 micron range.
From the video, we get a glimpse at the axial-style fan.
They also show that the inner filter is a standard 14″ x 14″ x 1″ furnace-style filter.
The Benchtop Mini is considerably smaller than the “Classic Benchtop,” which should make it lighter to move and easier to fit onto smaller tables or workbenches.
The Mini comes with side vanes to help improve its capture.
- Weighs 11.62 lbs
- 10-1/2″ width x 21-1/2″ depth x 15″ height
Price: $339 + shipping ($29 to my zip code)
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Discussion
From the video, it looks like the new Oneida Mini personal dust collector accepts a standard 14″ x 14″ x 1″ furnace filter, which are readily available at home centers. You’ll still need to source a pre-filter, in case the supplied filter cannot be easily reused.
(I’m very sensitive to replacement filter availability, having been stuck with an air cleaner with proprietary filter size before.)
Oneida’s “classic” Benchtop dust collector was priced at $580 when it launched in January 2021, and is currently priced at $699. The mini is $339.
When the Benchtop launched, Oneida said it delivered 535 CFM (actual) and 830 CFM (free fan rating) airflow. Their website now lists it as delivering 481 CFM. I asked Oneida to confirm the lower specs, but they never responded.
The Benchtop has “multiple low voltage fan motors” with 3A typical power draw, and delivers 481 CFM max airflow. The Mini has a “low voltage fan motor” with 1A typical power draw, and delivers 450 CFM max airflow.
The Mini isn’t as powerful as the “Classic” model, but it is smaller, lighter, and considerably less expensive.
Oneida’s “captures 90% of dust in the 3 to 10 micron range” efficiency claim seems a bit disappointing, but we can at least trust that it’s honest and sets reasonable expectations.
There are few options when it comes to benchtop dust collection, such as when using hobby or precision grinding, sanding, or cutting tools. It’s good to have more options.
Compare
Oneida’s marketing video says theirs is “the only collector for tools without dust ports,” but there are other options.
Grizzly and PSI offer benchtop dust collectors and air filters for woodworking applications. Other brands, such as Foredom, also make benchtop hoods, filters, and dust collector vacs.
At the time of this posting, the Grizzly is $266 with free shipping, and the PSI is $250 plus $20 shipping.
Jared
I realize there’s probably more to it than it first appears, but it sure looks like something DIY-able for a lot less. $339 just seems steep for a box with fans.
Bonnie
Yeah, they certainly look to just be high-flow small DC fans, which are readily available. Aside from that it’s a few pieces of sheet metal (easily replicated in acrylic or wood) and off-the-shelf filters.
I appreciate ready-made solutions for simplicity’s sake and for commercial/industrial use, but overall this thing just isn’t particularly noteworthy.
Especially since it serves little safety purpose if it can only catch 3micron and larger particles. This is purely to reduce visible dust.
KokoTheTalkingApe
Yeah, it does seem expensive for what it is.
One thing though: just because the marketing claim is that it “captures 90% of dust in the 3 to 10 micron range” (in how much time?) doesn’t mean it can’t also catch smaller particles, especially since you could choose filters with whatever MERV rating you want. This article says that “filters in the MERV 8 to 13 range… are good to excellent at removing fine particulates (as small as 0.3 to 3.0 microns in diameter, including smoke and exhaust particles and bacteria), plus anything larger.”
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/furnace-and-air-conditioner-filters-we-would-buy/#how-to-choose-a-filter-by-its-merv-rating
I can’t tell what the exact filter is in the photos, but it’s a 3M Filtrete, which generally has a good reputation. Anyway, you can just replace it if you want.
So it seems like this thing COULD catch those smaller particles, depending on the filter used. MY question is whether it can catch those particles faster than they’re created!
KokoTheTalkingApe
Oops, Stuart says it comes with a MERV 12 filter, which is pretty good. That article I mentioned says “The higher end of the range, MERV 11 to 13, removes 20-plus to 50-plus percent of the very smallest, 0.3-to-1.0-micron particulates…” That’s something, anyway.
(If people are curious about why that particular size of particle matters so much, they’re the ones that can penetrate most deeply into the lungs. Bigger ones tend to get caught in the nose or throat, and smaller ones might be exhaled along with the air.)
It strikes me that air is generally not going to go through this thing more than once, so you’re going to get 20-50% reduction in the tiny particles, and that’s it. To really do the job, you’d need this PLUS a room air purifier that continually circulates the air through a filter. Even so, it won’t clean the air immediately, so I’d wear a mask at least for a while.
MM
It’s nice that these use standard HVAC filters but I’m skeptical of how useful they will be as a dust collector given the fairly low CFM, and the price is absolutely outrageous. This is just a box with the correct dimensions to hold a filter and a cheap fan inside it, paying $300+ for one is just plain nuts.
You could duplicate this for a lot less money by taping an HVAC filter on the front of a box fan.
Tim D.
I was thinking the same. I’m assuming it likely has better flow than that, but certainly something that could be diy’d for a fraction of the price.
Wayne R.
A $20 box fan, a matching size $5 filter and a couple pieces of tape, and we’ve got a lot less dog hair floating around in our bedroom.
Carl
Only 63db at 10 feet from the benchtop where you’ll be working right next to it? So it’s gonna be louder in use in other words.
Andrew
I don’t see this beating the best solution: cheap box fan + furnace filter. Generally in the $30-40 range, and tested multiple times by YouTubers to be as good, if not better, than an expensive proprietary solution like this.
KokoTheTalkingApe
Well, one big advantage of these commercial solutions is the filter is easy to replace. The homemade ones have to have the filter sealed tightly to the fan with duct tape or something, so to replace the filter, you basically have to cut the filter off. And this particular product uses standard furnace filters, so there’s no proprietary component.
Also, those box fans aren’t designed to counter the air resistance from the filter. They are high volume/low pressure fans, and you want enough pressure to counter the pressure drop across the filter (like an electrical resistor.) Stuart had a nice piece about that here:
https://toolguyd.com/diy-airbrush-paint-booth-blower-fan-questions/
But it’s true that this guy does seem expensive. If I can source a big, surplus squirrel-cage fan somewhere (because they’re typically better at providing pressure than axial fans), I might try building something. If it’s too noisy, I might try to add a speed control. Oversized fans running slow are quieter than little fans running fast.
But the really imporant part is sealing the filter tightly to the box so no air can get around it. Even a little leak would drop the pressure at the filter to nearly zero, so basically no air would go through it. Something like rubber weatherstripping should do the trick. 🙂
MM
It’s extremely easy to attach filters to a box fan. Masking tape works great and is easily pulled off when you need to change the filter. There are also several companies that sell a plastic frame that fits onto a box fan for holding a filter. Another method of easily DIYing an option that would be a little fancier would be to attach a “return air grille” to the fan, the same thing that fits in your wall and holds your furnace filter.
If you wanted to DIY something and were willing to do a little more work it would be very simple to make a wooden box to fit a fan of your choice with the correct size opening to accept a furnace filter. It could be as basic as 4 sides to make the box, and then attach some thin wood strips to act as a stop for the filter to just fit flush inside it. Of course an axial fan is not very efficient when faced with a flow restriction like a filter, but then again a good size box fan has tons of airflow to spare. Consider the Lasko model that Steven B linked below. It’s 900 cfm. However, if you google up a standard 20″ box fan without a filter the airflow ratings are a great deal higher. I see an Air King rated 2140 cfm, 2500 and 1820 models from Lasko, etc. So yeah, there’s a massive flow drop with the filter installed, but it’s still adequate in the end.
Andrew
I just used a couple of bungie cords. Easy peasy, 10 second install. The box fan might (or might not) be designed for this sort of load, but it’s been tested to work. If it burns up, I guess you have to buy another at $20-30. You can buy 10 for the price of this tool, which would also address any inefficiencies.
This is a good example, but like 20 seconds of searching on YouTube turns up a ton of people testing box fan filter setups.
KokoTheTalkingApe
All good points, though as you know, a CFM rating isn’t sufficient to tell if a fan will do the job. You also need to know the pressure drop it can create. But if a box fan is good enough, then it’s enough. (I shudder at the thought of masking tape, but there are tapes that can be removed easily without leaving residue.)
I didn’t know about those filter frames for box fans. That’s cool! Though it would be super-simple to make with T- or L- stock, maybe aluminum.
Now that I think about it more, perhaps you’d want to know if the fan can operate continously. That doesn’t matter for a little, task-oriented unit like this Oneida, but it might for one you intend to clean the room’s air.
Also noise.
KokoTheTalkingApe
Well as I said elsewhere, if there’s a way for air to avoid going through the filter, it will take it. If the filter isn’t well sealed to the fan, air will simply go around it. Your bungee cord setup could well do that, but it doesn’t sound like it.
Andrew
The results are surprising, but have been repeated over and over again. The box fan works, and is as good, if not better than a dedicated system.
Blocky
I built a box fan filter setup about 14 years ago, put a 1” on it ran it. Nothing happened to the air quality. It stayed full of dust.
I then taped a full seal. Ran it a few hours. No change.
then I started testing for air direction and pressure, air was pulling in the front of the fan at the sides, the path of no resistance. I cut out a plywood face for the fan to the radius of the fan blades.ran it for a few hours. No change.
I happened to have a 20” ID sonotube, so I cut a section the depth of the fan and secured it within the fan housing around the blades. Tolerances we’re about 1/8” clearance. Ran it again. No change.
Since I had purchased a 3 pack of filters, I experimented with cutting them apart and mending 2 sets of folds into one housing to reduce resistance. They were glued in in a way that was very difficult to work with non-destructively. The wire was sharp and springy. I patched it back up and reassembled, disparaged, and it still did less than anything in the room. I left it running for a couple days on the reasoning that it would be doing something, however little.
It did not.
Ultimately, bc I had almost no budget, the filter I had chosen by dimensions was by chance too high of resistance and the fan I had on hand was too low on strength to pull anything through the media.
I was in the weeds. I’d lost a day thinking. I knew I could make something if I went back to the drawing board but that any $ spent on materials would undercut something in the $100-200 range that was assured to work.
I pulled the filter off, put the fan in a bathroom window and left the bathroom door open 20’ away, which did eventually but reliably clear the air.
When people say the box fan works and better than something that was purpose built, I’m very skeptical. I’m sure some setups have worked for some, either by luck or by research and design.
I’m sure this desktop unit does more or less what’s claimed. It’s not very compelling for the price, and as others have noted, it does more for the visible particulates than the really tiny ones that linger suspended in the air and are a health concern.
IME, it’s hard to beat the price point on a small Wen shop fan on sale. It comes with filters.
KokoTheTalkingApe
@Andrew, I haven’t seen the videos, but I wouldn’t put much faith in them. Testing air purifiers requires a high quality air monitor, which costs at least a few hundred dollars. It also requires a large sealed chamber. It also requires a standardized, repeatable way of contaminating the air. Etc. Etc.
And determining whether it’s “better” than a dedicated system requires looking at operating costs. Furnace filters are cheap, but the better ones are more expensive. And how long do they work before they need to be replaced? Especially, when the newer electret filters are saturated, they start letting stuff through, which is a little counterintuitive.
I suspect stories like Blocky’s are much more common than we’d think, just because failure stories don’t get as many clicks as success stories.
Steven+B
I bought https://www.amazon.com/Lasko-FF305-20-inch-Purifier-Purifying/dp/B089P1Z38J for $50. It’s suprisingly flimsy, but otherwise a great purchase. I wish someone would make these with more options regarding durability and size. I can imagine a filter being one of those add-ons everyone wants to buy (even if they never use it it).
Jared
Wow. That does look like a surprisingly good alternative. The CFMs are higher too according to the manufacturer (900 on high with the filter).
A different “grade” of product perhaps, being all plastic instead of a metal box, but I wonder how different these would actually be in-use.
Rog
I like this. Might be worth taking the $70 gamble over the much more expensive Oneida one.
Nathan
interesting timing but I think I’d DIY it too
Ben
This is a 10 dollar computer fan and some sheet metal + a filter. The pricing is nuts and I can imagine 160mm fans are drawing enough airflow to be useful on PM2.5.
Andrew
It’s Oneida. They seem to do decent stuff, but their prices are very high.
KokoTheTalkingApe
Well, no computer fan will make 450 CFM through a filter (or draw 1 amp.) Maybe six of them could. So I guess we’re seeing just one of several fans.
MM
“computer fan” is rather vague. I’ve used various fans for cooling electronics & machinery over the years ranging from tiny ones 15mm square or thereabouts up to some pretty good size one. For larger airflow requirements I liked the Comair Rotron Caravel and Caravel XL, those are 10″ diameter and move about 550 and 1000cfm respectively. Quiet too. The 1000cfm model or something similar ought to make 450 once the filters get involved and drop the CFM. I doubt you’ll find a fan like that for $10 but there are muffin-style “computer fans” which could put up those kind of numbers.
KokoTheTalkingApe
@MM, before I posted, I actually looked at McMaster-Carr for 12 V muffin fans of up to 6″ in diameter (which is what I think the term “computer fan” means), and out of the ones they carried, none could get over 100 cfm. But maybe you know something I don’t.
There are larger ventilation fans for server racks and rooms, of course, but they aren’t “computer fans,” at least not as I understand the term (I ran the IT department for a medium-sized university for a while.)
Stuart
They’re out there.
e.g. the EBM-PAPST 4112NH4 is a 4-11/16″ fan with 1-1/2″ depth. It consumes 32W and moves up to 209 CFM at 6800 RPM.
MM
McMaster-Carr is great for mechanical parts but is a terrible resource for electronics. Look at dedicated electronics suppliers like Digi-Key, Mouser, Newark, Allied Electronics, etc, or computer-specific vendors like Newegg. You will find fans that put McMaster’s selection to shame.
dandLyons
Great article @Stuart!
Like @Steven+B, I too purchased the Lasko Air Flex™ Air Purifier and Room Fan Model FF305. I bought it from QVC of all places. They had a deal where I got a $15 discount off the $50 price (S/H $7.50 + tax).
Previously I had tried bungie cords to a standard box fan. But I am arthritic and it proved a bit too much hassle for me. I haven’t tested the Lasko Air Flex yet on any sort of tool generated dust per se. I don’t rely on it for dust collection but use it to just turn over air in my maker space. There is a lot of diesel truck traffic nearby and it doesn’t make for the best air quality.
For benchtop work, I would be more inclined to use a dust hood like the $40 one from Rockler and just connect that to my Dewalt Dust Extractor.
The sale pitch for this Oneida Benchtop item seems to be for use with tools that don’t have ports to connect hoses to an existing dust collection system. If I have a dust collection system, especially a mobile one like the Dewalt Dust Extractor, why would I not just buy or make a hood? I don’t have to sit on top of the fan sound. Not that a shop vac or rolling dust collector is quiet but I can keep it a hose length away.
Most of my tools have hose ports. For an activity like carving I would likely make a down draft table or a custom hood. In my case, I just can’t justify the cost of a special purpose benchtop dust collector. I sunk the money into the Dewalt DWV012. I would rather just leverage my existing system.
I recently bought the Ryobi Rotary Tool Hobby Station and am curious to see how the base works in dust collection mode for small rotary tool and wood carving work.
On the painting topic, Dan Gelbart has a great video in his series on “Building Prototypes” about powder coating metal.
https://youtu.be/x7onZGqrYyY
A painting spray booth is potentially a different application. I look forward to further discussion on both of these topics. Thanks everyone for all of the interesting insights.
Fyrfytr998
Plenty of videos on how to make something similar using a box fan and some filters for way less money.