As I am getting closer to the actual purchase of my laser, what is best for the exhaust? I know it has to be vented to the outside, but what is quietest and most economical?
I think most fans with enough power will be very annoying or even very noisy if they are right by the laser. We had ours mounted above the false ceiling and insulation and can barely hear it. It will cost more unless you can do it yourself but it is well worth it in the long run.
If there is a nearby closet that might also work or maybe even build some kind of insulated inclosure.
I use a 500 cfm dust collector, its setup in the crawl space with the long part of the tube running from the laser to the blower. I can barely hear it it when it run. Since i have a large air compressor, I run the exhaust fan on the switched outlet on the laser intended to run a small compressor for the air assist.
The biggest issue with the exhaust fan is it sucks the air from the room the laser is in and pumps it to the outside, so at my last location i had a problem with getting enough air conditioning and the building didn’t have windows that opened. It would be ideal to have the laser be isolated in its own room with a window that opens outside.
Odor is a separate issue. Depending on what you do and who your neighbors are, you might need to deal with it. My chimney has an unused partition and I’m wanting to connect my blower to the chimney so i don’t have to smell the laser as much. Acrylic smells, leather stinks.
Thanks, but I forgot to mention that I live in an apartment so I can’t dig into a wall or ceiling.
Take a look at http://pacificnorthwestlaser.com/PurexLaserex.htm. I have seen a couple of different brands in operation and they are very quiet and some of them do an excellent job. I stress ‘some of them’ because I have also seen some real duds. Amount other things these are used in shopping malls in the area. As such they have to be very efficient and very quite.
That is the good news. The other side of the coin is that they sure ain’t cheap!
If you’re going to do anything more than stone and glass, you’re going to need some sort of odor control system. Acrylic, rubber, leather and wood, all have a substantial odor problem.
If you buy an odor control system, it should act as an exhaust system.
If you plan to make you own odor control system you’re going to need a big air pump and part of the system need to quite the air pump.
They make things to put in apartment windows to vent cloths driers which connect to a 4″ hose.
By any chance does the apartment have a drier hookup?
Hmm, maybe I can find a fan that will fit in the 4″ hosing that will pull enough air and just vent it through a window opening? Anyone in LA area that has a setup?
Lowes, Home Depot or anyplace like that sells In-Line Exhausts. Look in the sections where they sell Dryer Vents. I am getting ready to redo my exhaust, I plan on putting my blower in the attic and vent thru the roof, problem is my current blower cannot handle the extra lenght of 4″ hoses and as someone else said, these things are not cheap. So to overcome this I am putting in an In-Line exhaust along with my current blower. I am also goin to explore the use of this item in bringing in outside air to my cabinet, so that I will save on my utility costs for heating/AC. Just an idea.
Thanks, I will check there. I am hoping to find a really quiet (and of course cheap or now) exhaust. If the in line can supply the needed pull then that’s great I don’t worry about the air or heat, here in L.A. (and being originally from the frozen north) cool isn’t the issue as I live near the beach and heat rarely would be as even in January I have a couple windows open.
No dryer hookup. I do have a couple options for which window to vent through, one of which would aim totally away from the entire complex (I live upper most and at one end of the building). But it seems when I look for a venting set up either I am presented with a dust collection unit (massive and no need for dust collection) or I get a blank look when I try to explain what I need. There are a couple I have seen the are almost as much as the laser unit in price and I just can’t accept that option. They weren’t any more quiet than a shop vac either. I may just have to try and jury rig something. The specs don’t say just how much air movement the laser needs so I will have to guess. Also, how do you find a “quiet” vacuum? Just stick it in a box of foam? :) If I lived in a house and had some options I wouldn’t mind as much noise, but I don’t want to become the nuisance of the building. Any help will be appreciated folks.
Hi,
“Box with foam” solution may be the only “affordable” option… but be very , vary carefully that you leave enough room for airspace in the box with the blower… you don’t want to over heat the blower.
Some blowers will cool themselves as they pump air…. but not all of them do.
You may want to try a “box, inside a box, inside a box”… (baffles system), before you use the foam…
Let us all know how you make out!!
If your creative you could use activated charcoal inside the baffles and pull all the air thought the charcoal while using the mass of the charcoal to quiet the blower.
I was sort of joking about the foam idea — then again…… what is the quietest blower around? Is there a “home depot” version? or are they just glorified vacuum cleaners?
We got our blower from Penn State Industries. http://www.pennstateind.com/ The thing is, I have been trying to convince my brother (who runs the laser for our company) to start doing acrylics and he tells me the fumes are too noxious. So tell me– if our blower/exhaust system is working properly should he have so much to complain about or is the odor just going to be there no matter what. I am wondering why he thinks it is not do-able.
We bought one of the more expensive air filtration system when we bought the laser. With acrylic and using the expensive filtration system there is still a stink. I found a squirrel cage fan with motor from a junked out furnace and enclosed it in a wooden box with a 6 inch round inlet on which I hook flexible metal AC/heating duct and then hook it to the 4 inch fitting on the laser. The 6 inch allows for more volume at lower velocity. Besides it was FREE. Only had to buy the 6 inch duct, the 4 to 6 adaptor and the 6 inch adaptor to attach it to my wooded box. Box is 20 by 24 by 24 made of 1/4 inch plywood on a 2 by 2 inch frame screwed together. Use a 1/8 piece of masonite on the side where the 6 inch metal adaptor is so the bending ears have a little more overlap. The times I have used this I simply set the blower out side a sliding glass door and lay the duct on the floor. If I am going to laser nasty media this works better than the expensive air system.
There is no smell what so ever with the squirrel cage fan even with the sliding door left 6 inches open. Plans are to cut some cardboards to insert in the door jam to fill the void with the door open. If you have a window near which you could open, place the blower on a table and build duct to fill up the window. This is no louder than your furnace or air conditioner so it will not bother the neighbors. There will be numbers on the fan somewhere and you can go to the internet and find rated capacity for your fan. May have to even slow it down a little which will make it even quieter yet.
If I did not explain my fan well enough, I can take a few digital pictures to share.
I use a single stage woodworking dust collector for my exhaust. I removed the dust collector bag and hooked up 4″ vent pipe to the outside, then hooked up the intake to my laser. This works pretty good. Depending on how much air you want to move (600 to 1600cfm) the collectors cost from $100 to $300 plus you pipe/tubing. Check out harborfreight.com for some decent prices. Good Luck…
I am wondering if a good ole fashion box fan that has the intake side stepped down to 4″ (build a little pyramid hood thingy) would pull enough air or if it would over tax the fan? I could just set that in a window, and attach the duct to the laser unit…
Are you going to be cutting out acrylic or just lasering wording and logos on premade pieces. The latter will not cause hardly any fumes. It is also much more lucrative just lasering wording and not spend valuable time fabricating pieces. We are in the awards business so if you are in some other business it may be different.
Nobody has discussed vent tubing diameter and length so I’ll throw in some food for thought.
Resistance to air flow is proportionate to the length of the tube and inversely proportionate to the 4th power of the diameter of the tube.
So you want to keep tubing as short as possible and the inside diameter as large as possible.
Suppose that you are getting satisfactory flow through some tube and then find that a longer tube does not flow as well. Rather than get a larger fan try increasing the tube diameter. If you double the tube diameter you can 16 times the tube length and get the same air flow.
If you double the tube length you need only to increase the diameter by the 4th root of two. i.e. multiply the diameter by 1.189 .
If you use four identical hoses in parallel you get 1/4 the flow resistance as a single hose. This seems pretty intuitive since the cross section is 4 times that of each of the tubes. If you use a single hose with double the diameter then you have the same cross section as the 4 hose solution but you have 1/16 the resistance to airflow. So larger diameter is much more effective than multiple hoses.
If you need high velocity at the inlet then use a small inlet but don’t use a small hose for the entire length to the outside world.
Lightning storms have just arrived. Gottaa shut down now.
Please don’t use plastic dryer tubing!!!! Keep in mind that lots of stuff you laser will coat the lining of your exhaust. Most of it could start a fire with sparks from the laser engraving with some material. I used 5″ galvanized tubing from a heating and air conditioning company. Just a thought… Pick your own experts!