8" Carbon Scrubber with Lasco exhaust

DutchDude

Well-Known Member
Hi diy'ers,

There are plenty of DIY threads out there describing this process, I know because I read a lot of them :) So, first of all, a big thank you to the previous posters for allowing me to steal your great ideas! I am not going to acknowledge each one individually, but you know who you are.

I thought that there was still room to add mine because you can never have enough pictures, and I tried to give a bit of my own flair to this. It is up to you to decide if this was helpful or not - not forcing you to read it ;)

I will split this in a four posts. The first two posts will deal with the creation of the carbon filter, and the last two will deal with the blower and my integration into my grow space.

Materials for filter:

From Home Depot:
- Hardware cloth (chicken wire 1/4" x 24" x 5') = $9.77
- Reduction collar (8" - 6") = $7.92
- 8" cap = $5.58
- 6" cap = $4.98
- 6" collar = $4.28
- some 3/8" pointy screws (will look on box later, but also see third pic)
- pipe insulation (smallest, 4x1 yard pieces per package, pic further down) = $1.98

From Target:
- Xhilaration footless leggings (tougher than panty hose) = $5

Even though I am happy how the leggings turned out, and they are very easy to work with as long as you roll them up properly, I would consider next time using the aluminum window screening material instead.

From Ebay:
- 10 lbs of carbon (1/2" x 1/4" spaghetti looking pellets, 7 lbs used) = $29.95


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I found the middle of the two caps, temporarily screwed them together to create holes.

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Now unroll some of the chicken wire, attach it with one screw to the 6" cap, roll it around the cap with about two inches to spare, and cut it to length. Then fold over your newly created cut so the there are no pointy things sticking up and attach it to the cap with about 5 more screws.

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Next assemble the collar by sticking the tabs into the holes on the other end, and create a ring. Now fold down that rim that sticks up from the the middle as flat as possible and attach the chicken wire in the same way as you did the cap.

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Now insert the end with the tabs into the widest part of the reduction collar and tab it down gently. If you do it too forcefully, then the chicken wire will bend, but it needs to be seated nicely.

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Cut off the legs of the leggings, and roll them up (much like a condom :laughtwo:). Stretch it over the closed end (cap) and roll it down towards the reduction collar. Make sure it doesn't get snagged on any pointy chicken wire pieces.

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Put the 8" cap back onto the 6" cap, using the hole that you created earlier so that you know it is in the middle. Temporarily attach the one side of the chicken wire to the 8" cap in order to measure the amount you should cut off. Then cut off the excess chicken wire.

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As you can see, you will need to fold over the pointy things again after you also measure and cut the chicken wire while you have it wrapped around. Only attach the chicken wire on the reduction collar side with screws.

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Now it is time to roll up the second leg of the leggings, place it over the reduction collar, and roll it down to the cap. Leave the cap in place for now since it is giving shape to the chicken wire.

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You can wash the carbon in a kitchen strainer, as pictured, and I use a cut-off 2 liter bottle as a funnel to fill the approximately 7 pounds of carbon into the scrubber. Do a little at a time, and switch places all around to get it even. Tab it down with a stick in order to make sure it is packed down. Fill until about an inch and a half from the top.

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Fold the leggings over the top of the chicken wire, and hold it there by inserting the pipe insulation material on top of the carbon.

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Screw the 8" cap back on. This time the chicken wire will be on the inside of the cap. You might want to add a few screws if it ends up standing on this cap in order to keep it from rocking.

(insert pic of finished product)
 
Walmart:
- Lasco blower (3 speed, outlets, grounded, circuit breaker) = $48

Home Depot used to have this one as well, in yellow - but now they only had the $70 slightly bigger version. In my opinion, this thing moves so much air already in the very first setting, I doubt that I will have a need to even turn it up to 2 or 3.

Home depot:
- 6" collar = $4.28
- stack boot, 10"x3" rectangle going into 6" round = $8.28
- aluminum tape (had some already)
- same 3/8" screws as before

Loosen the screen with a screwdriver, and take it off. Find out where your exhaust needs to point to since you can rotate this 270 degree. When you insert some of the screws later on, you will end up locking it in place.

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Take the collar and snip the ribbed bottom of it all around, up to the crimp. Place the collar over the hole where you took the screen off.

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Screw it down through some of the tabs, through two layers of plastic - push down, and make sure the plastic pieces do not separate. Then cover with aluminum tape to make a pretty good seal. As you can see, I also did the inside, but that might be overkill.

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The exhaust of the Lasco fan is about 7" x 3" so I marked on the boot where the width becomes about 7". Then I cut off the excess with some tin snips, it does not have to be precise.

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You can now cut into the corners of the boot so that it folds in when you put the boot on the fan. Then attach the boot to the fan with some screws.

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You can now finish it off with some aluminum tape.

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The power of this little fan really impressed me. Not even comparable to even several bathroom fans! Very quiet as well, you mostly hear the air rushing.
 
The last bit is to attach the blower to the filter, and mount the entire contraption in it's place under the stairs. I should probably first cleanup.

Materials from Home Depot:
- 5" (not 6!!) roof top flashing = $8.97
- 6" x 25' flexible ducting = $21.37 (should have gone with the 8' section for $10)
- 6" adjustable elbow = $4.94
- aluminum tape
- 3/8" screws

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You can see here at the end that there is a little hole that leads to another area where the water heaters and the furnace is at.

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I cut the ribbed part of the flexible elbow in for about 1 inch all around, then sat it on top of the rooftop flashing, and attached it with screws.

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Some aluminum tape finished it off, attach the 6" duct, and this is what it ended up looking like mounted in its place

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Picture of the finished product, ready to scrub

(insert pic)
 
Good Job!! Clean work...Hope it works along time for you. Thanks for the post :thumb::peacetwo:
 
Awesome thread man..great diy. ..Any idea how much cfm that bad boy pumps? .. I just put a 37 pound filter can fan filter and a max fan three speed300 cfm in my five by five. .Its amazing. No smell whatsoever, i was very sceptical setting it up cuz i figured nothing would remove the smell completely. ..But it did.
 
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