No matter how good your dust collection may be, there are always "the ones that got away," those stray dust particles determined to float around the air and end up in your lungs (or in a can of varnish!). That's where an air scrubber comes in. Like the name says, it scrubs dust particles from the air in your shop. Jet's AFS-1000 scrubber offers a lot of features: a 5-micron outer filter and 1-micron inner filter; a three-speed motor that provides 450, 550, or 650 cubic feet per minute (cfm); a timer that can shut the scrubber off after two, four, or eight hours; and a remote to control the whole deal, turn it on and off, set the speed, and set the timer. Because most scrubbers are hung from the ceiling, making them hard to get to, the remote makes sense. If all this sounds good but you need a bigger unit, look for Jet's new AFS-2000. It'll have all the features of the AFS-1000, but moves air at 800, 1,000, or 1,300 cfm. In addition, the AFS-2000 will take charcoal or electrostatic filters, providing even better air cleaning.
How do you know what size scrubber you need? Buy one that recirculates the air in your shop 6 to 12 times per hour. Here's how to run the numbers: First calculate the volume of your shop in cubic feet, then divide this number by the cfm of the scrubber you're considering. The answer is how many minutes it'll take for one air exchange. Five minutes means 12 exchanges per hour.
