Question: laser fumes extraction and filter technology indoors 'how too/diy'

Back to fumes.......
3D printing smells pretty bad, the admiral began to grumble, but I also got a tickle in my throat and a slight headache if I was in the same room for a long time.
Putting my air purifier, with a carbon filter mat in it, next to the printer solved the problem. I am going to make an Ikea Lack enclosure around it anyway with a small filter in it.
But so it's a good idea for a laser printer to do the same.
Back to autocad to design a few parts for my printer.
 
The resin printers are terrible for this.
The filament printer that I have doesn't seem to emit any fumes.
 
Alan Smith said:
You are quite right. The filter removes particulates, but not the smelly volatile organic compounds like formaldehyde, acrolein, propionaldehyde, butyraldehyde, acetaldehyde, and furfural, guaiacol, phenol, syringol and catechol. plus many more, some toxic, some toxic and carcinogenic, and some merely carcinogenic.
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sounds like you would need an activated carbon filter too.
 
I noticed getting a little cough after an hour's worth in my work shed. I often have the resin printer up and running, with that little purifier it has onboard. And although I have dust extraction for the airbrush, I get this taste in my mouth ... So I bought a Winix Zero air purifier for about € 150,- and have been running that on 'auto' for the last days. Nice little unit for in a corner, nice little blue light telling me all is OK.

Until I opened the hood from the resin printer: amber! Which is not bad, but 'fair' at best.

And then I airbrushed for about ten minutes and had to do that away from the regular extractor ...: RED alert right away. But: 15 minutes later and it turned blue again.

And the funny taste and cough are gone.

tempImagejdpR1C.jpg
 
To add to that purifier ... it is rather scary to see how quickly the light turns to amber or even red when I use my airbrush. And a rattle can is like a switch from blue to red in a second. Which means that a) the thing is working and b) I now do my brushing or painting and walk out until it turns to blue again. By the way: switching on the bigger extractor to run together with the purifier helps quite a lot. Takes about one cup of coffee to have the atmosphere back to normal.
 
Steef66 said:
I want to buy a sculpfun S9 with air asist.
But reading me in this part of our hobby I discover that laser cutting is not something to do indoors. I want to use this printer in my workshop and that giving problems. I live in an appartement, my hobby room doesn't have a window to the open air so all fumes will be in the house.
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I don't think you mentioned what you intend to cut, or make using it.

I ask because laser cutting and laser decoration are different. If you were wanting to cut out wooden components, a laser is a good way to go, especially if the charring is immaterial, but an alternative technology might be a small CNC router type device. 'Hobby' scale machines may be all you need, running a 2 or 3mm bit to cut out frames, say, would produce dust but not fumes (unless you use a blunt bit!). and then you only need a vacuum to keep the dust under control.

I realise this doesn't answer your question, and may be something not appropriate for your use case, but there are sometimes alternatives. If a side axe won't do the job, perhaps an adze will.

J
 
Jim Fortnam said:
I don't think you mentioned what you intend to cut, or make using it.

I ask because laser cutting and laser decoration are different. If you were wanting to cut out wooden components, a laser is a good way to go, especially if the charring is immaterial, but an alternative technology might be a small CNC router type device. 'Hobby' scale machines may be all you need, running a 2 or 3mm bit to cut out frames, say, would produce dust but not fumes (unless you use a blunt bit!). and then you only need a vacuum to keep the dust under control.

I realise this doesn't answer your question, and may be something not appropriate for your use case, but there are sometimes alternatives. If a side axe won't do the job, perhaps an adze will.

J
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I'm already working with a 3D printer. That does the job to. I want to upgrade my tools and make tools and this does the job as well. Maybe in the future a CNC machine and laser. I discovered that a good filter will suck the fumes up.
 
Marquinius said:
To add to that purifier ... it is rather scary to see how quickly the light turns to amber or even red when I use my airbrush. And a rattle can is like a switch from blue to red in a second. Which means that a) the thing is working and b) I now do my brushing or painting and walk out until it turns to blue again. By the way: switching on the bigger extractor to run together with the purifier helps quite a lot. Takes about one cup of coffee to have the atmosphere back to normal.
Click to expand...
Gulp. That's a bit of a shocker. I've always left the room after using a rattle can as the air is unbreathable and can stay that way for an hour unless I vent, but it's never occurred to me that airbrushing would also be evil. And as mentioned earlier, I did get terribly ill a couple of years ago and am wondering whether the airbrushing might have been the culprit. Either way, perhaps it's time to also invest in a proper purifier or extend the extractor ducting from the laser. I use much the same setup as you, by the way, which works very well.
 
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