DIY Portable Air Filter

Welcome!

In this installment, I will be helping you survive in the world at large with your very own ruggidized air filter!

While I procured nearly everything from a pile of scrap metal, you can use whatever materials are readily available, more importantly workable, in your neck of the wastelands.

Let's get to it!

If you want your personal air filter to really be personal, you'll make sure it's an ergonomic fit! Don't make it too heavy with metal plates to block those shots from behind, but don't make it so light it'll dent when you're resting against a wall. The body of mine is roughly a foot long and 6.5" in diameter, with a few extra inches hanging off for the house attachment. It's attached around my waist with a thick (nylon?) utility belt.

Assuming you're using metal like I have, you'll need to weld everything together to get a nice air flow to do what you want! Obviously you need to bend, roll, hammer, and otherwise smash the metal into the proper shape first. While the steel I used wasn't terribly thick, 16 gauge, it still required a healthy application of elbow grease and leverage. A chunk of 1/4" steel shaped vaguely into a hammer also didn't hurt things.

That being said, plastic thermo-joined could also work well and significantly easier to manipulate, but don't forget my comment about durability.

PSA Don't forget to include whatever air filtration materials you can find inside of the tube before you weld / seal it shut. You can try fine mesh with charcoal, old filters if still seemingly usable, a system of water - though inherently more complicated.

The plastic tube and mouth piece for this are really whatever you can find. Everything beautifully came together for this project, even though all of it was scrap, and a limited supply of it too at that.

That said however, I noticed a significant reduction in airflow through the plastic hose / connection pipe on the tank side. Your overall ID should be no thinner than a hearty finger's width, or an inch.

Good luck!