Neat.

I’m lost on how one might get his hands into the unit, though. Is the user supposed to lift the curtain while the clean room is being used?

why is there a soldreing iron in the clean room?

Kind of neat, though, if I were going to do the stupid hard drive hack, I’d do it on one I wasn’t actually using (ex: an old 10 gb, and just plug in the power so it spins but does nothing else).

Wouldn’t it be better to use a shop-vac with a hose connected to the exhaust as the air induction system? Sure it’s louder but you’ll get a lot more airflow and just as much filtration.

The inlet fan is 120VAC and 22 Watts and produces 65 CFM of airflow. The airfilter I am using right now is not a HEPA filter, but there is a HEPA filter that has the same ends except it is longer. To improve airflow I would probably upgrade to HEPA filters, and add another fan and filter assembly, then build a glovebox inside the workbench to recirculate airflow.

The seams where the MDF meet are sealed with blue painters tape so I can disassemble things if I have to move.

To use the cleanroom you just reach right under like shown in this picture, the airflow over my arm seems pretty good but obviously that is a qualitative measurement.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_F0i917zfySk/S4oUyvdlk2I/AAAAAAAABdk/gPBTanPA73E/s1600-h/cleanroom-22.jpg

Also, I am using the cleanroom for disassembling laser scanners and applying LCD screen protectors, so I don’t need it to be that clean.
http://www.iheartrobotics.com/2010/03/under-hood-secrets-of-hokuyo-urg-04lx.html

I’m looking to borrow/buy a particle counter and test the clean room in the next week or so.

In the future I’m thinking about building microfluidic and MEMs devices which will require a higher class cleanroom.

Perhaps we ought to do our homework first..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanroom
(look at the ‘classes’ section giving particle count / cubic foot)

I seriously doubt that the vacuum filter catches particles smaller than 1 micron and the airflow is most likely insufficient to keep enough positive pressure in the enclosure (especially with plastic over the front held on with tape)

This ought to be called something other than ‘clean’.. tidy maybe, but definitely not clean.

Here is a quick video that should give a better idea as to how it all works.

This won’t match the particle count of a high class clean room, but it should be a heck of a lot cleaner than a regular work area.

For even better performance gloves and lint free arm coverings could be employed, along with higher airflow, especially while working inside of it. It could even be possible to make your own glove box with some extra shower curtain material and a pair of gloves.

Probably be better to pick up one of those cheap plastic sandblast cabinets from harbor freight and modify it with an internal hepa filter. Put stuff in, close the door and run the filter for about 20 minutes. Should keep the dust down.

By the way, I’ve done the drive window hack in my bathroom. Drive ran just fine afterwards. Only reason I don’t still use it is because it was an older 20Gb drive and I replaced it with a bigger drive. Ran with the window for a couple years.

Hmmm…. Would certainly be cleaner than my kitchen. Of course instead of a soldering iron I’d have a flask on a stir plate and test tubes for yeast propagation (homebrewing) but cleanliness is still necessary. Add a real hepa filter and correspondingly better blower. If the only place it is open is the bottom and there is positive pressure should be clean enough for yeast work.

Use grow tents/rooms for clean rooms….

Optical Dust Sensor:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9689

I also happen to work in a cleanroom environment manufacturing Pharmaceuticals and use Laminar Flow Hoods on a daily basis.
Theres a few design features that true Laminar Flow Hoods use that yours doesn’t that could be incorporated into your design. The location of the air intake should be moved to directly in front and below the opening on the hood. This is so that if any air would attempt to go in the hood (Surpass the positive pressure) the region of negative pressure in front of the entrance to the clean area would be likely to suction the air.

Our hoods also employ a much larger air transfer rate. Their motors use an extremely high flow rate to replenish the air within the hood almost constantly and maintain a 0.2+ Psi differential to atmosphere (The Clean room Surrounding).

A little gowning information. You do not want to be working with bare hands in this kind of environment, the amount of shedding that your skin does will tarnish your work extremely fast. We use double gloves, the first pair is put on outside of the hood, where the second is removed from the wrapper and applied after the hands have been inserted into the hood.

A fluorescent UV lamp is also a good addition if there is any concern about biologicals in the cabinet. I’d also clean it regularly with isopropyl alcohol (Which will evaporate faster than water and leave no residue).

Sorry for my rambling post and the best of luck